How to plan a website: sitemap → copy → approval → hand-off

Most website projects don't go wrong in the design or the build. They go wrong earlier, in the planning: pages nobody remembered, copy nobody owned, approvals that happened in someone's head, and a designer building from a draft that wasn't final.

A good website plan follows four steps in order: sitemap, copy, approval, hand-off. This guide walks through each one, with the decisions to make and the mistakes to avoid. It works whether you're a small business planning your own site or an agency planning one for a client.

Before you start: purpose and audience

Spend an hour answering two questions before you list any pages. Who is the website for? And what should those people be able to do on it: book a call, buy something, find opening hours, apply for a job? Write the answers down in a few sentences. Every later decision, from which pages exist to what each page says, is easier when you can check it against them.

Step 1: Map the site (the sitemap)

A sitemap is the list of every page on the website and how the pages relate to each other. It's the backbone of the whole plan. Everything else hangs off it.

List every page

Start with the main sections, usually five to eight of them, such as Home, Services, About, Resources and Contact. Then list the pages under each one. Include the unglamorous pages people forget: privacy policy, terms, the thank-you page after a form, the 404 page.

Give each page an address

Decide the address (URL) for each page now, for example /services/commercial-cleaning. Short, readable, lowercase addresses with words separated by hyphens are easiest for people and search engines.

If it's a rebuild, audit the old site

Go through the current site page by page and mark each one: keep, rewrite, merge or drop. Every page you drop or move needs a redirect from its old address to the most relevant new page. Note the redirects in the sitemap now; at launch they're easy to forget, and missing redirects lose visitors and search rankings.

Decide what launches now and what comes later

Not every page has to exist on launch day. Split the sitemap into versions: the pages you need to launch, and the pages that can follow. This keeps a few slow pages from holding up the whole site, and it gives everyone an honest picture of scope.

Step 2: Get the copy written

With the sitemap agreed, every page becomes a writing task.

Assign one writer per page

Each page needs one named person responsible for its copy. That might be a copywriter, someone on your team, or the client. "The team" is not a writer. If a page needs input from an expert, name the expert too.

Write a short brief for each page

A good page brief fits in a few lines:

• Purpose: what the page is for.
• Audience: who will read it.
• Key message: the one thing the reader should take away.
• Action: what you want the reader to do next.
• Search phrase: the words people would type to find this page, if it matters for search.
• Length and due date.

Pick one home for each page's copy

One document per page, in a tool everyone already uses, such as Google Docs, Word online or SharePoint. Link each document to its page in the sitemap, so anyone looking at the plan can open the copy in one click. Avoid copying text between documents, emails and slides; that's how old versions end up on the live site.

Track a status for every page

Not started, in progress, ready for review, sent back, approved. With a status on every page, you can see at a glance which pages are on track and which are blocking launch.

Step 3: Review and approve

Review is where most website projects lose weeks. A little structure fixes most of it.

Separate reviewers from approvers

Reviewers comment and suggest changes: a colleague checking facts, an editor checking tone. The approver makes the final call. Name one approver per page, or per section. When five people can all approve, nobody does.

Keep feedback in the document

Comments in the document, next to the words they're about, are far easier to act on than comments in an email thread. If feedback arrives by email or in a meeting, move it into the document.

Make approval a deliberate step

"Looks fine" in a chat isn't approval. The approver should mark the copy approved, and you should record who approved it and when. If changes are needed, the copy goes back to the writer with a clear note, and its status says so.

Limit the rounds

Agree up front how many rounds of review each page gets, usually two. It focuses feedback and gives the project an end.

Step 4: Hand off to the designer or developer

The hand-off is the moment the plan turns into a website. The designer or developer should receive one clean list with:

• Every page in the launch version, in sitemap order
• Each page's address
• A link to the approved copy for each page
• The list of redirects from old addresses to new ones
• The pages planned for later, clearly marked

Build the hand-off from the same sitemap you've used all along. If the designer has to search email for "the final version", the plan has failed at the last step.

Common mistakes

• Designing before the sitemap is agreed. Layouts change when pages are added or merged.
• Writing copy before the sitemap is agreed. Pages get written that won't exist, and real pages get missed.
• No owner per page. Shared ownership means no ownership.
• Approval by email. No record, and plenty of room for "I never approved that".
• Forgetting redirects. Old links break and search traffic drops after launch.
• Trying to launch everything at once. Split the site into versions and launch what's ready.

A one-page checklist

1. Purpose and audience written down
2. Sitemap with every page and its address
3. Old pages marked keep, rewrite, merge or drop, with redirects
4. Pages split into launch and later versions
5. A writer, a brief and a due date for each page
6. One linked document per page
7. A status for every page
8. Reviewers and one approver named
9. Approvals recorded with who and when
10. A hand-off list with pages, addresses, approved copy links and redirects

Doing this with DraftBay

You can run this whole process with a spreadsheet and shared documents. DraftBay, which we make, puts the four steps in one place. You build the sitemap as a mind-map or a table, link each page to its copy wherever it lives, and assign roles such as writer, reviewer and approver. Website versions keep launch and later pages apart. A per-project Board flags missing pages, pages without copy and copy waiting for approval, and approved copy goes to your designer's “Your work” list in one step, with a one-click spreadsheet too: every page, its address, the approved copy link and redirects.

Whichever tools you use, keep the order: sitemap, then copy, then approval, then hand-off. Each step makes the next one easier.