Start with the people who will use it
Before thinking about colours or layouts, list the people your website needs to help. For a school, that may include current parents, prospective families and staff. For a business, it may include first-time customers and people comparing services.
Decide what success looks like
Choose the things visitors need to do. They might need to find term dates, understand a service, see examples of your work or contact you. These tasks should shape your page structure and navigation.
Get your content ready
Gather the pages, documents and approved photographs you want to keep. Check dates, remove duplication and identify who will approve each part. Good content preparation makes design and migration much smoother.
Review the design together
A useful design should reflect your identity and help visitors understand the page. Discuss the words, hierarchy, contrast and how the layout will behave on a phone, as well as its visual style.
Check, train and launch
Review the links, forms, page titles and contact information. Make sure the people updating the site know how to do it. Agree a launch plan, including redirects for any changed addresses and a way to deal with issues afterwards.