Though clients ask us all the time. “What size website do I need?” It isn’t a question that needs much consideration. Sound strange? Let me explain.

Most of the companies we discuss websites with at some point in the process ask us what size website they need. While this is a logical question to ask, and it will help you stick to your budget, it could also land you a website that doesn’t accomplish what you want it to.

If you are looking to test the knowledge of a website company you are looking to hire, and get a website that fits your company needs, instead of asking what size website you need, discuss the following four topics and questions.

Your Company Goals

Every company has both short and long-term goals. Discussing what you company wants to achieve in the next 1, 3, or even 5 years and beyond is a crucial step to building a website that helps your company meet it’s goals. We talk in depth about this idea in our article, Building Your Website Is Killing Your Business. If this topic doesn’t come up when discussing your website build, run! While some companies want to increase sales or build brand awareness, others are looking to improve customer experience or streamline business operations. Regardless of your goals, this is a must have discussion for any website build.

Search Engine/User Benefits of Website Structure

In line with hitting your company goals, you need to make sure your website is well received by your customers and search engines alike. Sometimes this means building more pages, and other times it means combining similar topics. This is the closest conversation to what size website you need that you will have. As a result of this discussion, your website designer should be able to produce a website flow chart or other structure diagram. Additionally, they should explain why each of the pages on the diagram are needed along with the benefit of doing so.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Building a website is an investment. After all, you’re spending money with the intention of improving your business. As with most quality investments it is important to understand what you will get in return for your investment. In this discussion you may also talk about “potential returns” or added bonuses. At the end of the day the expected ROI should help you meet your company goals.

Timeline and Important Events

Considered to be one of the most important aspects of any project, it’s also relevant to building a website. Companies often think about building or redesigning a website in line with important events. Many of which are time sensitive. For example, we completed a project for a client looking to improve their online presence before a series of presentations. Had we not discussed important upcoming events and the project timeline in advance, they would have missed out on a great opportunity.

While there are plenty of topics to discuss before getting started with a website build, the size of your website is one you can skip. Do you have any thoughts or ideas of other topics to discuss? We would love to hear about them in a comment below!