Check 1 of 8

Why plan a website before you build it

Last reviewed 1 November 2026

The short version

• Planning means deciding what the site is for before you build anything.
• It takes seven small steps. You do each one on paper.
• Plans are cheap to change. Built pages are not.

What "planning" means here

You haven't opened a website builder yet. Good. This is the right moment to stop and think.

The first question is simple: what should your website actually do?^[1] Everything else follows from the answer.

If this is your first site, keep it small. MDN's beginner course says the same thing: for your first try, keep things simple.^[1]

The seven steps

Each step has its own page in this guide. They run in this order.

1. Purpose and audience: why the site exists and who it's for.
2. Sitemap: the list of pages you need.
3. Navigation: the menu that gets people to those pages.
4. Home, about and contact pages: what the key pages hold.
5. Wireframes: a rough sketch of each kind of page.
6. Page copy: words that people can scan.
7. Gathering content: the text, photos and files, ready to go.

Don't skip ahead. A sketch of a page is hard to draw if you don't know which pages exist yet.

Start on paper

MDN suggests you grab a pen and paper and sketch out roughly how you want your site to look.^[1] It says even large web teams usually start with rough paper sketches.^[1]

Here is how MDN words its three starting questions.

Paper has one big advantage. You can screw it up and start again in ten seconds. Nobody feels bad about a crossed-out sketch.

Wireframing, which is the sketching step, is described as the point where thinking becomes tangible.^[2] That's why this guide gets you thinking first.

What you'll have at the end

By the last page, you'll hold a small stack of paper:

• one sentence saying what the site is for
• a sitemap
• a menu list
• a sketch of each kind of page
• draft words for the key pages
• a folder of photos and files

That stack is your plan. Hand it to a designer, or use it yourself in any builder.

What this guide leaves out

This guide is about planning only. It doesn't cover how pages fit a phone screen. It leaves out accessibility rules and search ranking too. Those are separate subjects.