A practical guide for client projects
Start with a clear agreement about the website, then turn it into a brief you can build from. This guide takes you through preparation, the first build, client feedback, and the checks before you share it widely.
Prepare and build
Write down the audience, the pages, and the action the site should encourage. Agree who approves the work and how they will send feedback.
Collect the services, prices, contact details, hours, and coverage the client wants published. Ask for their approved photos, logo, and any existing website address.
Describe the project in a new website chat, or start with the client's existing site. Answer the follow-up questions and review the proposed brief before confirming the build.
From a brief to a website
The Alder & Valve brief asks for a site that helps homeowners request a plumbing visit. Each page supports that decision: an introduction to the business, service details and the diagnostic fee, the coverage area, and a visit-request form.
Use the same test on your client project: what decision does each page help the visitor make, and where can they go next?
Read the worked brief
Explore how the service information, prices, and contact routes fit together.
Explore the example websiteThe first review
Start with whether the website is accurate and useful. Then ask the client to review the presentation with those basics already checked.
Read names, services, prices, hours, and coverage against the agreed brief.
Open every page on a phone and a desktop. Check navigation, image crops, and contact links.
Send a clearly labeled test inquiry. Confirm it arrives in the project dashboard and the intended account inbox.
Ask the client for one list of changes, grouped by page, with replacement wording or files where possible.
Turn feedback into clear requests
These sample revision requests use the Alder & Valve example. Adapt the wording to your client's approved changes, then inspect the result before publishing.
Example request
Change the diagnostic visit fee from CAD $95 to CAD $110 everywhere it appears, including the footer. Keep the plus HST wording and the explanation that the fee is credited against an accepted repair.
What to check
Check every page and the footer for the new amount. Confirm the tax wording and repair-credit explanation remain consistent before publishing.
Example request
On Request a visit, add an optional field labeled ‘Best time to reach you’ below the phone field. Keep the existing fields and explain that this is a callback preference, not an appointment time.
What to check
Check the new label and explanation, and confirm the field is optional. After approval and publication, send a test inquiry and check that the callback preference arrives with it.
The final address and the next update
Your first build already has a Designhouse address. Before the client promotes the site, finish the review, connect the intended domain, and agree how it will be maintained.
Confirm the final pages, business facts, images, and contact routes. Keep a record of their approval and of any work agreed for later.
On Pro or an agency plan, add the client's domain and follow Designhouse's DNS instructions. Coordinate with the person who manages it, preserve email records, and check the website at the final address.
Decide how the account owner will get submissions to the person responding to them. Test that process with the client before promoting the site.
Decide who supplies new prices and photos, how feedback reaches you, and who checks and publishes updates. If you maintain the site, return to its Designhouse chat for the next change.
Updated October 2026
Start the conversation with the client's business, pages, and approved content.
See example sites