Before providing a custom proposal I’m typically looking for enough information and clarity about your website project to be able to provide you with what you need: the website’s Scope, Timeline, and Budget.

But some business owners don’t request a free consultation because they feel like they’re lacking the information they’re expected to provide to web designers and developers during these quick calls.

With over 16 years of experience freelancing as a professional web designer, developer, and website manager, I’ve put together frequently asked questions about how to prepare for a website consultation so you can feel self-assured in your upcoming meeting!

What information should I gather before a web design meeting?

Regardless of creating a new website vs rebuilding an existing one, the first two things you’ll want to do if you haven’t already are what I refer to as: Choosing your player type, and Selecting your story.

When you are “choosing your player type” you are setting both your interest and participation levels which can help determine which party is in charge of select deliverables: you or your web designer.

By “selecting your story” you are declaring the goal of your consultation, similar to a meeting agenda or order of business. 

Providing both of these pieces of information ahead of time helps both you and your web designer manage meeting expectations.

Here are three (made-up) business owners who are preparing for their first website consultation, using BE3Designs’ Choose Your Player/Select Your Story method:

By breaking down where you’re coming from and what your goal is, you start to gain a sense of what you can prepare yourself versus what you need support with.

Done-with-you website services

In the example above, the business owner is considered “DWY” because they’re launching a new business (website) and don’t sound confident that they have or know everything they need to before starting a website project. 

Because of this, I would have different questions in an initial website consultation than I would for the DIY and DFY business owners. Knowing this information about my client in advance helps me prepare targeted questions to ask, and provide more applicable resources during our time together.

The reality though is that most professional web designers have an existing “discovery” questionnaire to start from, which usually supports enough of an overall idea to supply a ballpark estimate.

Some website service providers will run through discovery questions in real-time on the call, while others might supply you with a link for you to fill in information at your own convenience.

💡 Tip: You may want to work in tandem with a professional web designer, developer, or consultant if you have: little to no experience building a website, a smaller budget, or some experience and interest in doing one or more phases of the website project yourself. 

Do-it-yourself website services

In the example above, the business owner is considered “DIY” because they’ve expressed that they had a hand in building their current site and interest in continuing to do so. While they already know enough to build a website, they likely need more training, or guidance. So I might refer to a consultation service instead of quoting for a project-based service.

💡 Tip: If you want to build your website yourself you’re looking for support with “DIY” website services. Reach out to your selected web designer, developer, or consultant with a request of 1:1 training or consulting for their time and expertise. Having an existing list of the priorities you want to cover will help them estimate the time needed, and enables you to approach tasks in phases as your budget or timeline allows.

Done-for-you website services

Lastly, the business owner is considered “DFY” because they aren’t interested in doing any of the work themselves; They want to hire a professional who will manage and execute the project fully. 

As you might suspect I would have more detail-oriented questions for the business owner who is looking to have me design and develop a custom website vs one who is managing it themselves.

💡 Tip: When you’re looking for a professional web designer and developer to complete a full scope website project for you, you should be able to depend on them to lead and carry from the start of the project (Discovery) to the very end (Post-Launch). This is the way for those who don’t have time, energy, or interest in completing the work themselves, or have learned that it’s best to have an expert handle the technical and strategic side of the wonderful world of websites.

What tools can I use to create a website brief before consulting a web design agency?

Your web consultant should have an existing form or similar questionnaire that they’ll have you fill out, leaving you only needing to make notes for yourself to relay back to them. Or, they’ll ask you to answer these questions directly during your phone or virtual call, through conversation.

When reaching out to request your consultation you can be proactive by supplying your player/story types to help direct the initial call and make the most of your time.

How to prepare for a consultation on a new website?

When you’re ready to build a new website there are a lot of factors to consider. Your current experience and knowledge level will play a role in how much preparation you may have already made, or are preparing to make before your consultation.

For example you may have already done a branding process with a graphic designer and have your logo, fonts, and colours selected. Or, you may be wondering what a branding package is…

My first piece of advice is to review what to have in place before starting a website. In fact, here are my top 5 articles worth reading if you are planning your first website, or a new rebuild:

1. What you should know before starting your website,
2. 5 roles that go into creating a successful website,
3. How to create a sitemap for your website,
4. When it’s time to upgrade your website, and
5. What a branding strategy is and why it’s important for your website.

How to prepare for a consultation on an existing website?

If you are looking for support on an existing website you should already have at least one known priority, if not more. Reflect back on any general questions you’ve accumulated while working on or updating your website. Some common examples are:

• Back-end, technical processes like working with your theme or plugins,
• Custom CSS styling,
• Search engine optimization steps when blogging, or
• Accessibility best practices.

By giving your web developer an example of the tasks that you want to review they can determine how much time is needed to quote and set aside for your training consultation.

Making a priority list also allows you to focus, should timelines or budget cause you to plan out short to long-term steps.

💡 Tip: If you’re requesting help with an existing website it’s best to open your admin/login to your website in a new tab before your meeting starts so that your screen is ready to be shared.

Website Audit Reports

Now, if your finished website is online and you’re just not sure if it’s optimized for search engines, accessible to users, or could be improved, you’re better off requesting a Website Audit before a consultation.

A website audit will include a full review of your website including:

• SEO,
• Accessibility,
• User Experience,
• Design inconsistencies,
• Responsive issues, and
• Best practices and other recommendations.

You’ll get a PDF document that breaks down each page of your website, along with a general summary about the site in full, and list of priority recommendations. From there, you can review to determine what tasks you’re comfortable taking care of yourself, and what you need assistance with.

This information is then exactly what you’d give during your consultation to let your web consultant know what services you’re looking to outsource. Helpful, huh?!

How to choose the right website consultation service in Canada?

Before choosing a website consultation service you’ll want to consider how important it is that your service provider is located near you. Whether it factors into trust, or you want to support local business, you can start your search with location keywords.

You may not want to lock yourself into local options depending on where you live or what your choices are. All phases of a website project can be done virtually, and successfully, which means you can select any agency or freelancer who works remotely.

Do I choose a consultancy agency or freelancer?

Generally, agencies will run a more expensive budget than a freelancer, but with that added cost you likely have more than one individual working on your project. This can occasionally mean a faster turnaround, but this isn’t always the case as agencies typically have a higher number of clients too.

Freelancers shouldn’t be discounted just because they’re sole-proprietors. They have experience running a business of their own, working with a variety of clients, and often sub-contracting to those agencies on extra projects earning themselves similar experience in various industries and markets.

There are pros and cons to both but at the same time it really comes down to 2 things: who you work best with, and who is best suited to your goals + constraints. 

In reality an agency or a freelancer can achieve what you need, it’s a matter of finding the right fit for you and your website.

How do I evaluate portfolio examples from website design companies before my consultation?

Earlier I discussed choosing your player and selecting your story before booking a consultation; The details you gain from this exercise will help you make considerations when viewing website portfolios.

If you intend on using a template or building your website yourself you likely don’t need to consider the web design portfolio of the consultant you’re reaching out to. Instead you’ll want to focus on:

• their ability to coach or train (educate), 
• how they share or deliver information, 
• the extent of their experience, and 
• if they already have similar services in place to what you’re looking for.

If you want to work with a professional website service provider you’ll need to pay particular attention to the phases of the website project that you want them to manage vs what you plan to manage yourself.

If you are working with a web designer, you’ll review their design portfolio:

• Do they have industry-related examples already?,
• Do they work with similar layouts that you like?,
• Do these designs consider user-experience and accessibility? (Examples of common mistakes),
• Are mobile and desktop layouts considered?

If you are working with a web developer, you’ll review their website portfolio:

• Compare similar sites to what you’re looking for,
• Do these sites have functionality that you’ll similarly use?,
• Are the live sites responsive on mobile?,
• How well do the live sites load and perform?,
• Is text easy to read on all devices?,
• What is user-experience and accessibility like?,
• Have they continued managing the site or has someone else taken over?

If you are choosing a web designer and developer to design and develop a custom or full scope website project, essentially employing them to take care of every step along the way, you’ll want to evaluate all facets of their portfolio paying attention to other client reviews and testimonials in what to expect working with this individual or agency.

Which questions should I ask during a website consultation to get the best results?

Other considerations you may want to make outside of evaluating web design portfolios are:

1. What communication and availability does your web consultant have and does this work for your schedule?
2. Will they supply you with an estimated timeline and routine check-ins to keep you apprised along the way?
3. Do they use AI in their processes or finished products and does this answer have an effect on your willingness to work with them?
4. Outside of design and development do they offer solutions to any other website services you require?
5. Is web accessibility and WCAG guidelines part of their design and development standards and does this matter to you?
6. Do they engage with clients after websites are launched or only provide one-and-done products?
7. Do they use open-source or proprietary and developer-licensed software, plugins, and assets?, and
8. What can I provide that would help make this website successful?

What are common pricing models for website consultations offered by digital agencies?

Some digital agencies will provide consulting packages with varied services included at different price points. These are great opportunities for larger organizations that need to cover a wider scope, often selective of consultancies who focus their expertise on common industries. 

Individuals who want a full, high-level overview or pre-formulated process that walks them through all considerations available to them, or pinpoints a recommended solution, would also find a solution in a website consulting package that fits their budget.

But most website consultations are provided at an hourly rate due to the nature of the service: an authentic conversation to discover and prioritize personal focuses or pain points, and evolve with the changing needs of your project and preferences.

That’s the catch of the free 15-minute consultation. You’ll need to have answers of your own if you’re expecting results or next steps from that initial call. Consider requesting more time to talk if you want to learn what you don’t know yet, where to go next, and how to get there.

Book a virtual website consultation with BE3Designs

I started offering 1-2 hour 1:1 website consulting sessions to discuss higher-level topics. It’s like sitting down for tea with someone (me) and picking their (my) brain to gain the certainty you need to make confident decisions about your website!

Find out the next steps for your website

Table of Contents

What a website sitemap is and its purpose

A website sitemap is exactly what it sounds like: a map of your website, outlining each published page, post, and archive type. You can think of it like having a tour guide pointing out each area of a website, and how these pages are interconnected.

There are (3) main types of website sitemaps: Content Strategy, Webpage, and XML.

1. Content Strategy Sitemaps

During the Discovery and Strategy Phases of your project you have to determine the “rooms” of your website. This refers to the overall site navigation: how many pages, their naming convention, what type of content to expect on each page, etc.

A simple navigational sitemap can look like this:

2. Webpage Sitemaps

Once your website has been designed and developed you can opt to include a webpage for a sitemap. This is where you would manually or dynamically include a list of the pages and/or posts published on your website, all in one place.

A webpage sitemap may look something like this:

See an example of a webpage sitemap on my website.

3. XML Sitemaps

A XML sitemap is a generated file that can be reached via URL wherein search engines get directions to the various pages of your website. It will look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/example.html</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-19</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

By submitting an XML sitemap to Google you are essentially inviting them to scan and index the URLs contained within.

This isn’t a necessary step; Google will typically still index your website without submitting a sitemap, but doing so allows you to monitor accordingly.

How to create your website sitemaps

How to create a content sitemap

As the easiest sitemap to create, outlining your plans for navigation and content can be done in a variety of ways:

1. Paper and pen
2. Spreadsheet or document
3. Apps or software

In reality a content sitemap is only meant for you or your content specialist, web designer, and web developer. Content sitemaps aren’t public-facing, but an internal planning tool.

Main Navigation

Each website has a main navigation area in its header, the section that displays at the top of every page, usually including a logo and menu links.

Here, you want to think about the most important top-level pages of your site, the areas that visitors will look for the most.

Depending on the amount of content your site has you may also need to plan out child pages that are nested below the main parent pages that are featured in the menu. These are what make up drop-down menus, or secondary menu links.

For example, on be3designs.ca my main navigation menu links are: Meet Bree, Resources, Website Services, and Contact.

As I have more than 1 service offering, secondary child pages are in a drop-down menu.

Secondary Navigation

In addition to the main navigation, some websites also have secondary menus. These additional page links may appear in a top bar above the header, below the header, in an on-page sidebar menu, or in the footer.

When planning your website content you’ll need to figure out what pages you need, what content is featured on each of these pages, and how these pages relate to one another.

1. Think about what you want your website to say,
2. Organize your content into topics or categories,
3. Start building out the concept of each page by naming them and mapping them out in terms of primary, secondary, and tertiary navigation, and
4. You now have your content sitemap!

If you need to work more visually than you can with pen and paper or a spreadsheet, you can try using a visual workspace like Miro, or a Kanban Board-like tool through something like Notion, Trello, or Planner if you already use Microsoft 365.

How to create a webpage sitemap

You may still have more pages or posts beyond what is linked to in the main and secondary menus. If you have a larger site, a webpage sitemap can come in handy.

This type of sitemap IS public-facing as its purpose is to help visitors find content that may not be readily available in the main or secondary navigation menus.

To do this you’ll need to create a new page on your website, not unlike existing static pages.

1. Name your page Sitemap, with a permalink of /sitemap/.
2. Include your page title and a brief description.
3. If you’re on WordPress you may have a built-in element or tool to automatically pull each existing page on-site into a hyperlinked list, or you can type out a manual list of your site pages. Make sure your text links out to each corresponding page.
4. If you don’t have too many blog posts, you can list these out too but if you have too many to list on the page try including a category and/or tag list that links out to blog post topics instead.
5. Consider adding a search bar to this page too so that visitors can search by term if they still can’t find what they’re looking for.

Here is an example of my sitemap webpage on be3designs.ca to give you an idea of what this all looks like in practice.

When you’ve created your Sitemap webpage, you can link to it from your footer as a secondary or tertiary link, (often seen added to the same line as copyright or privacy policy text).

How to create a XML sitemap

You ask: How do I create a sitemap for my website using popular website builders? I answer: You probably already have one! Find out if you do, depending on the website platform you’re using:

If your website is built on WordPress

If you are using WordPress you likely already have a sitemap URL up and running! XML Sitemap functionality was added to WordPress core in version 5.5 in 2020.

Try this: Go to your domain and append this to the end of your URL: /sitemap_index.xml

If a page shows up that looks something like the screenshot included above, or a page of code similar to what I showed you earlier, you’ve got yourself a sitemap!

You may even have more than one sitemap, with the index version showing a list of all the other existing sitemaps:

• Post Sitemap
• Page Sitemap
• Category Sitemap
• Tag Sitemap
• Local Sitemap
• Image Sitemap

If you don’t see anything come up when you search for your WordPress XML URL, try reaching out to your website host to see if the SimpleXML PHP extension is turned on within the server settings.

If your website is built on Squarespace

Squarespace also automatically generates a Sitemap page for your website. Try going to your domain and append this to the end of your URL: /sitemap.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/example.html</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-19</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

You should see the code-version of your XML file which will list the URLs of all pages on your website, and image metadata. Squarespace automatically updates your sitemap with any pages you add or remove, with changes appearing between 1-24 hours.

You can’t make changes to your Squarespace sitemap or a page’s source code but you can use other settings in your account to add SEO information like HTML heading tags.

Keep in mind that if your website is set to private or password protected, your sitemap won’t load.

If your website is built on Shopify

All Shopify stores automatically generate a XML Sitemap file that contains links to all your products, primary product image, pages, collections, and blog posts.

Try going to your domain and append this at the end of your URL: /sitemap.xml

If your store is on the Basic plan or higher, then you have sitemaps for every additional domain you’re using for international domains.

If your website is built on Wix

Wix sites automatically come with a sitemap index that contains separate sitemaps for each of your page types. Go to your domain and append this at the end of your URL: /sitemap.xml to see your sitemap index.

If you’re using additional tools like Wix Events, Bookings, Stores, etc. these will all be featured in their own sitemap archives.

If your website is static (non-CMS)

If you’re running a static HTML website you’ll need to create your own XML file for your sitemap. You can do this using a sitemap generator tool or even by manually creating the file.

How to use a generator to create an XML sitemap file

Online tools or software can crawl your site and generate an XML sitemap based on the data it retrieves. After downloading this file, renaming it sitemap.xml if it isn’t already, you can then upload it to your website’s root directory via FTP or your hosting server’s file manager, and confirm it’s working by visiting yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml .

You can expect free tools to give you up to 500 pages total before you would need to upgrade to a premium service.

1. XML-Sitemaps.com: Enter your domain and it will start a scan of your website, giving you the option to download your XML sitemap file once completed.
   OR
2. Screaming Frog SEO: Download the SEO spider (free or paid), once the software is open type your website address and hit enter/start. After your site is fully crawled select XML Sitemap from the drop-down menu that appears under the top level menu item for Sitemaps, select your configuration options, and download your XML sitemap file.

💡 Tip: Using an online generator is the faster and easier way to get your XML sitemap, but SEO software may include other functionality that you’ll find helpful such as finding site structure issues, broken links, or accessibility recommendations. If you’re using a similar service check to see if it already has a sitemap option!

How to manually create an XML sitemap file

If you have a very small site, and some experience with using FTP and editing your robots.txt file, you can create a simple sitemap XML file using a text editor like Notepad.

You’ll start the XML file by setting the protocol standard, which can be copied and pasted below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
</urlset>

Then, you’ll need to create a <url> block with at least the mandatory <loc> tag for each page that you want to be indexed by search engines, like so:

<url>
  <loc>https://yourdomain.com</loc>
</url>

Each page’s <url> block will need to be contained within the <urlset> container, once completed a 3 page sitemap looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
  <loc>https://yourdomain.com</loc>
</url>
<url>
  <loc>https://yourdomain.com/about.html</loc>
</url>
<url>
  <loc>https://yourdomain.com/services.html</loc>
</url>
</urlset>

Save this file as sitemap.xml (with UTF-8 encoding) and upload it to the root directory of your website (where you find your index.html, not within any subfolders).

As a last step you also need to edit your robots.txt file by adding a line to include your sitemap URL. Open this file (also located in your root directory) and add the following line:

Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

Once saved, visit this link in a browser to confirm that it is working. Then, you’ll replace this file as you have more page URLs to update.

How to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console

If you want to know how Google interprets your website from a technical POV, you can connect it to a Search Console profile and get insights related to indexing.

Once your XML sitemap(s) have been created, Search Console has an area where you can submit them directly to Google. This isn’t a mandatory step and as long as your website is set to index you don’t necessarily need to submit a sitemap as the search engine bots will eventually crawl your site.

Submitting a sitemap though, like a party invitation, may result in faster indexing. This can be helpful to brand new websites that have few to no external links to it.

Here is my previous tutorial for How to create a Search Console Account. Once your profile is set-up and verified, you’ll find the Sitemaps area here: https://search.google.com/search-console/sitemaps. If you have more than one website profile set-up you can select from the drop-down in the top left menu, below the Google Search Console logo.

That’s it for this tutorial on how to create a sitemap for your website!

What companies provide sitemap creation and SEO services?

BE3Designs’ website management packages include uploading sitemaps to Google Search Console and remediating any reported indexing issues as they arise.

Let’s start mapping your site

“I didn’t understand the importance of maintaining my website and what was involved in it. I have resisted as I thought it was a waste of money and [my website] will manage itself because it is “technology”.”

You can’t blame yourself when you don’t know what you don’t know. Luckily, Karen found a website manager, and shares how this has made her more confident in her website:

“My website manager has taken the time, and patience, to help me understand what website management is and I can see the results… I understand that my website is NOT going to look after itself and needs some attention by an expert to keep it at the forefront…” – Karen Marner, HR Consultant

You don’t have to become a professional expert to make your website successful, but you should invest in having the support of one.

I reached out to Canadian business owners and asked them to share a little more about why they work with a website manager. Find out how website management contributes to their business’ growth through real-life examples!

What is a website manager?

A website manager is someone who maintains and monitors the health, security, technology, or content of a website, including the integrated third-party accounts and necessary configurations.

“I was looking to give myself more time to focus on running my *actual* business. I rely on my website to be my best point of contact for my clients and customers, and while I was curious, and believe in life-long learning, I just didn’t have the time to learn how to do all the things [that a website manager does].” – Lis Dam Lo, Science education facilitator

What is the role of a website manager in a small business?

A website manager helps small business owners by:

1. Monitoring the website for applicable security or functionality revisions,
2. Making sure the web server, website theme, and plugins are tested and updated,
3. Troubleshooting and finding a solution to any website issues as they arise,
4. Uploading content, media, and files, ensuring they are optimized and properly formatted, and
5. Acting as a technical contact for third-party service providers like domain registrars and hosting companies.

“I learned that having experts handle the parts of my business that are not in my wheelhouse is the best decision ever.” – Trina MacPhee, CEO, Principal Interior Design Consultant

What is a website content manager?

A website content manager is responsible for the graphics and copy that is populated and maintained on a website.

Website managers and website content managers can be two entirely different roles. In some of my client’s cases they are their own content managers.

While these individuals conceptualize, write, edit, and manage their own website content and blog posts, Website Managers then offer population and on-site optimization of this supplied content.

“I’d been fine updating content on my own, but had been extremely leery of messing with any of the features. One, I didn’t have the aptitude to work with the backend infrastructure tools; and two, I’d already “broken” at least one feature that I couldn’t seem to fix. Having a website manager means way more flexibility for my site, which in turn lets me explore more intuitive ways to express what I need, and an overall better fit for me in regards to website features.” – Sandra SG Wong, Author and Podcast Host

In some cases though, a website manager can be experienced and skilled in professional content management services. This often occurs because over the course of our careers we have to gain a great understanding of other areas of running a business, and work closely with:

• Copywriters and Copyeditors
• Marketers and Advertisers
• Web and Brand Designers and Creatives
• Developers and Programmers
• IT, Communications, and Project Managers

Those of us who are freelancers running our own businesses share the experience of needing these services ourselves; We learn a LOT along the way.

By increasing your monthly budget to account for things like content strategy, copywriting, or other creative proficiencies, you can leverage your website manager as a consultant too.

“I have the luxury of having someone on my team to whom I can say “I don’t know what went wrong, but I know it isn’t working right, so can you please make it work again?” – Lis Dam Lo

What is a website project manager?

A website project manager usually steps in before any phase of the website process begins. Unlike website managers a project manager may not have technical website experience, rather they are skilled in the organization, communication, record keeping, administration, and other non-technical aspects of managing any product or team.

I believe that a great website manager should also be a good project manager.

Managing the website is more than clicking an update button and reporting or fixing any nuances that happen to occur. Most of the soft-skills needed to be a resourceful and effective project manager transfer to website management.

“If we need a website as part of our professional careers or business, we need that website to run smoothly, to remain current and viable as needs change, and to stay secure. We each have knowledge and experience in our own areas of work, but if that work’s not in websites, then we need a website manager.” – Sandra SG Wong

Why business owners invest in website management

When I asked business owners why they invested in a website manager, these were the top 5 reasons they gave me:

1. Lightens the load, eases stress
2. Builds confidence
3. Saves time, and money overall
4. Keeps things running smoothly
5. Provides expertise

“Running a film festival is a huge task. With all the minute details that abound, having the support and expertise of a qualified website manager, makes all the difference. It lightens the load, lightens the stress, and builds confidence that our website is well-maintained and secure.” – Geraldine Carr, President & Festival Producer

A website manager lightens the load, and eases stress

When you are already being pulled in too many directions your website becomes a last-minute thought. Having someone you trust assigned to your website, keeping it a priority, and simply nudging you as needed can alleviate stress, and let you focus on what you do best.

“Having a skilled website manager gives me a level of confidence I hadn’t realized I’d been lacking with respect to my old site. Whenever I have questions about how, and whether or not, to add or delete a feature, or if I’m uncertain about best practices or broader web strategy, it’s a huge relief to be able to ask someone with expertise, whom I trust. That’s been the biggest, and most welcome, surprise.” – Sandra SG Wong

A website manager builds your confidence

There is a lot of advice out there, not all of it is going to apply to your website or your specific needs, but some of it will. A website manager can help you make the right decisions for your unique goals and purposes.

“My website has never had a major crash and any minor problems were fixed within a day (as opposed to weeks if I tried to do it myself). The time saved alone makes it all worthwhile.” – Marty Chan, Author and Presenter

A website manager saves you time, and money overall

You may have already learned this the hard way, but abandoning your website for extended periods of time without updates to the technical back-end or front-end content isn’t recommended.

Quite simply, it can leave your website in a vulnerable position in which you’re better off rebuilding it. And if search engines don’t crawl any recent updates they’ll likely stop ranking your site in their search results.

“Website management is like yearly furnace maintenance. When everything is running smoothly, you don’t think you need it. But your website manager is the reason why everything is running smoothly.” – Marty Chan

A website manager keeps things running smoothly, and provides expertise

WordPress releases core updates approximately 3-4 times a year, and minor security and maintenance updates as-needed, monthly at the very least.

“I looked for a website manager because I knew that building and maintaining my own website the way I wanted it to be was beyond my capabilities.” – Alicia Chantal, Editor, Proofreader, and Consultant

Open-source platforms like WordPress offer a lot of custom features by nature, allowing developers to release themes and plugins to the public directory or sell extended, licensed versions to consumers to install and implement on their own websites.

While integrating multiple tools provides an ideal, custom website experience, each instance of a WordPress application should be tested for compatibility issues that may occur after installation and activation.

“I looked for a website manager because I needed a website created and managed, and I did not have the skills, knowledge, or time to make one myself.” – Trina MacPhee

Would you recommend a website manager to someone you know?

When I asked Lis Dam Lo if she would recommend having a website manager to someone she knows, she answered,

“I would, and in fact, I have [recommended a website manager]. 

• If you need things to work, if you need someone who sees the bigger picture, and can give your website the flexibility it needs to grow and upgrade, you need a website manager. 
• If you need someone who knows what questions to ask when you say “I need a website”, you need a website manager. 
• If you want to learn a little about how the Web works, and how it can work for you, at a pace of your choosing, you need a website manager.”

Which companies offer website manager services in Canada?

If you’re looking for a Canadian company that offers website management services, BE3Designs has monthly WordPress Maintenance, Website Management, and Blog Management packages available for individuals, and small to medium businesses and organizations.

When you’re looking for a website manager consider these three things:

1. Time zones and availability,
2. Included services vs add-ons or extras, and
3. Account management options.

Here are some final tips to keep in mind when making your decision to work with a website manager:

Be honest with yourself about your website expectations and goals.

💡 Tip: Depending on your own schedule and priorities, working with a website manager in a different timezone could be beneficial. Communication can be maintained when it works for both parties, and updates could be reflected in off-hours or while you sleep.

However, if you are relying more on the consulting or training services that your website manager provides you may want to work with someone in the same area or timezone to better reflect your schedules.

💡 Tip: If you anticipate a lot of last-minute requests, short deadlines, or additional work completed in conjunction with your website requests, you may be better suited to work with an agency versus a freelancer. 

While it will be a higher expense to work with an agency, more than one individual will be responsible for services rendered, giving you more hands-on-deck to complete the work, faster.

There are many influences to a website and you should be clear on what is included in your management contract.

💡 Tip: If you are comfortable updating your own website content, you could choose to work with a developer who will only manage the technical, back-end updates for you. However, your website manager’s expertise likely includes processes that make it worthwhile to have them manage your content too.

A lot of people invest in a website manager to alleviate account management of the technical services or products they don’t particularly understand. You should both have sufficient records of any and all website-related accounts, credentials, expiration dates, and billing information. 

💡 Tip: A lot of service providers will allow you to assign team members or technical contacts to accounts that would enable your website manager to manage your account with their own credentials. If you part ways in the future, this will ensure you maintain control and ownership of your domain, hosting, and any affiliated accounts without having to track down who has the usernames and passwords.

“I honestly didn’t expect the process of hiring a web manager to be so… personal. Over the years, [my website manager] has gotten to know me and my business and has been truly responsive to what I’ve needed. She just gets it. It’s wonderful to have someone who isn’t afraid to show personality, while still being professional, work on highly technical elements and make it look easy.” – Alicia Chantal

Where to find a professional website manager?

I am an Edmonton-based freelancer specializing in website consulting and management services for independent and small business owners.

Get professional management for your website

This time I’ll hone in more on what a branding strategy is, what is typically included in a branding package when working with a professional brand designer, and how having one makes your web design process more efficient.

What is a branding strategy package?

A branding strategy gives you an entire plan that instructs you on when and what brand collateral to use, how to use it, and what it all means when it comes together.

A branding designer will deliver digital files, and/or physical brand collateral such as your:

• Logo 
• Fonts and Typography
• Colour Palette
• Brand voice
• Design assets

Having more than one type of logo

If you’ve been working with only one logo option for your brand you may have already discovered the drawback to:

• Not having a print-ready, greyscale logo
• Not having a logo with a transparent background 
• Not having a logo you can resize without losing quality
• Having only a vertical logo to use in horizontal spaces, like your website
• Your logo can’t be cropped to fit icons, profiles, avatars, and other third-party platforms

There are several styles or “layout options” for logos that all serve different purposes. Having your logo optimized for different usages not only saves you time when you need to supply your logo in a certain format, but you can be more creative with your material by having a selection of options to choose from.

Icon Logo or Brandmark

An icon version of your logo is great to have for use in places like your website favicon or site icon, and social media profiles. These are areas where the required image dimensions are square.

If you’re using only a long horizontal logo or a wordmark you may find it difficult to crop your logo to make it fit in a square space.

Brand designers will often include a brandmark in their logo branding package, where an icon or smaller graphical version of your logo is supplied in addition to your primary logo.

Wordmark Logo

A wordmark is a style of logo that solely uses typography and the name of the business, without graphics or accompanying elements. (My original logo for BE3Designs was a wordmark.)

Vertical Logo or Stacked

A vertical or stacked logo is a combination of a brandmark and wordmark, where the wordmark often sits below the graphical component of the logo. These logos are often used in print and letterhead where contact information is displayed to the side.

When used on websites however, stacked logos can often cause unnecessary whitespace in headers by increasing their height vs accompanying content.

Horizontal Logo

A horizontal logo could be wordmark, or a combination of a brandmark and wordmark side-by-side. We see these logos most often on websites where the graphical logo is on the left and the wordmark (name of the business) sits to the right of it.

B&W or Greyscale Logo

Depending on the level of detail in your primary logo, you may also want a variant that is better suited to documents and non-marketing print material. Other logos may be saved out in greyscale mode, as all black, or all white from their source files.

These types of logos are good to have on-hand when you need to work with partners or third-parties. For example, if you sponsor an event and your company logo is to be included on event branding, they’ll need it on a transparent background so they can add it to their existing material.

Depending on their background, your logo may need to be converted to a dark version or light version for best display.

Selecting your font families and typography

Using too many fonts or font pairings that don’t compliment each other can make your design or page look busy, confusing, or unprofessional.

Some fonts are also more difficult to read over others, especially when used at smaller font sizes or in larger paragraphs of text.

One of the requests that I gave my brand designer during our discovery meeting was to have an accessible font suite for use in my print and digital media. While my wordmark and logo font is custom, the fonts I use for headlines and text were selected for accessibility.

A branding strategy should include not only your font families but the typography settings around implementing headings, paragraphs, line-height, and other configurations to ensure your brand is displayed as intended.

Using an accessible color palette

Like fonts, using too many different colours or incompatible pairings can be a sign of hasty design. Colours also have to comply with online standards to ensure that your web content is accessible.

You should be aware if any of your brand colours are difficult to use in combination with other colours when it comes to legibility. You may have settled on a particular colour palette that you use in your physical storefront, but these same colours may not pass contrast compliance on your website.

You may want a complimentary colour palette to adhere to when used in certain applications, and fallback to your primary palette in less important contexts.

When I started learning more about accessibility I discovered firsthand how poor my original brand colour palette was; Oranges and yellows are some of the hardest colours to make accessible.

In my rebrand, we softened to Nectarine and Wheat, specifically outlining when and where they could be used, making Onyx and Oceanic primary colours for my text and links.

Knowing what to say and how to say it

Your brand voice says everything about you, and having something prepared surrounding the intent and context of your business gives you a solid foundation to build on when preparing content, marketing material, and messaging.

A repository of template text doesn’t mean you are regurgitating information like a robot every time you communicate about your business.

Mission statements, visions, and elevator pitches can help us understand and actualize our marketing or communication efforts.

Have you ever gone to write a social post, newsletter issue, or blog article and simply have no idea how to get started?

The process of going through a branding strategy forces you to think about why you’re in business, who your ideal clients or customers are, what they need, and how you support them with it.

Design and visual assets

The graphic design portion of your branding strategy can also start a repository of aligned media like stock photography, backgrounds, and custom graphics to bolster your brand.

For example, when I select stock photos to use as the featured images in my blog posts I filter my searches for graphics that contain orange or yellow. I do this because while these brand colours of mine are widely inaccessible for text-based content, I can use them in accompanying graphics.

Icons

Small graphical representations of content are a great way to break up text on a page. When these icons can be stylized to match your brand, it really brings everything together.

There are also other graphical assets to be found if you get a little creative. For example, I pulled an element out of my logo to create a custom, unordered list-style-type for my website.

Backgrounds

One of the requests I made during my branding design process was the creation of custom pattern backgrounds, because while my graphic designer was working on my logo, I was working on a redesign of my website to match where we were headed.

Depending on your brand’s overall design style you will either choose to use (or not):

• flat design, color blocking
• gradients
• shadows, box-shadows
• borders or strokes
• patterns
• parallax fullscreen images
• rounded vs straight corners

You want to avoid using everything, everywhere, all at one. A designer will help you hone in on the look and style you’re hoping to achieve.

Before my rebrand, BE3Designs simply used a flat design technique, using color blocking at most. I never used gradients, shadows, or background images – all I ever needed were my HEX codes. However, my 2026 rebrand pointed in an entirely different direction…

When it’s okay to start a website without a branding strategy

It’s not, don’t do it. Just kidding. It is okay to launch a website without a branding strategy in place, but in doing so you should know that you’ll face some additional struggles along the way.

If you find yourself thinking, ‘I need to get something online for my business sooner rather than later’, consider publishing a temporary landing page first. This way you can focus on what is important to you right now:

1. Brand recognition (online business card)
2. Contact information (you can be reached by your customers)
3. Top priority call-to-action (CTA)

This landing page indexed by search engines, along with a Google Business Profile, is a great organic start.

But before you consider budgeting for wider expenses like advertising or other optimization techniques: Complete your business’ brand strategy.

Why you should have a branding strategy before building your website

Other occupations use tools in their trade to help them execute their plans efficiently and expertly. Think of your branding strategy as having a full toolbox at your disposal whenever you have to produce material for your business.

A lot of people claim that your website is the most important part of your business, heck I’ve said it, but now I believe that the most important part of your business is how well you understand how to implement the message you want to deliver to your audience.

Your website is merely one of the ways you get that message across, but it’s nothing without its look/feel, content, optimization, user experience, accessibility,… you get the idea.

Top 5 reasons to complete a branding strategy before starting your website:

1. Sets the typography and colour palettes used
2. Supplies your proper logo files
3. Informs the style of web design
4. Assesses the problems your customers are trying to solve
5. Determines the voice and messaging to your audience

Another way to look at it is to consider thinking of your website as if it were a house, this analogy can help you observe all of the working components of a successful website.

Doing the appropriate steps in order have the same effects on your website. You’ll have less confusion and questions while you’re already deep in the process when you’ve answered them before you got started.

Your branding strategy gives you the confidence to build on and manage your business, knowing you’re going in the right direction.

Learn how to support your website efforts before you get started

Requesting a meeting with a professional website consultant is an invaluable way to ensure that your website is successful. Simply write a list of questions or curiosities, grab your favourite beverage, and sit down virtually for a casual but insightful chat:

Book a 1:1 consultation with BE3Designs

You may have hired a brand designer, or came up with your logo on your own. When I started BE3Designs in 2010 I did the latter and very quickly threw together a text-based logo. This wordmark served me well for a time, until it didn’t.

I finally decided to rebrand my business leading into my 16-year anniversary of sole-proprietorship, freelancing, and running BE3Designs. Here’s how my rebrand played out:

My DIY logo origin story

If The Conqueror app counted the kilometres I ran inside my own head, turning ideas over and over, I would have earned my distance medal already.

In the early days of starting my business I experienced the well-known struggle of the web designer who could never be happy with their own design. 

When it came to a logo I was at a loss; Being a web designer didn’t automatically make me an illustrator, graphic, or brand designer. I remember making some doodles and playing around with graphical ideas, but in the end I selected a bold font, wrote out my business name, made the ‘3’ transparent and dropped my favourite colour behind it.

17+ web design revisions later, I reluctantly launched the first iteration of my website with the help of a template. Beyond using the colour that those who knew me attributed to me, there wasn’t a greater story… which meant a lack of supporting me with direction and clarity in the future.

What happens when your brand stops working for you?

What I didn’t know then that I have learned over the years is just how important it is to have your brand, voice, and messaging in place before anything else.

The truth is, I never would’ve found myself running in circles doing 17 versions of my web design if I had completed a brand strategy before ever starting.

What was the real reason I was having such a hard time with my logo? It was because I myself was confused about my own solopreneur status. I didn’t know if I wanted to present myself as a business rather than an individual, or how to find a theme or story as an independent freelancer.

I eventually found myself hitting a wall and something didn’t feel right anymore.

People change and evolve over time. Well, we should, it’s healthy… and what I realized is that as a sole-proprietor I am my business, BE3Designs is me. So really, after doing this for 15 years it made sense that I/BE3Designs was ready for a change; I discovered my purpose.

Being stuck in your own head

Regardless of your industry or whatever it is that you do for a living it’s likely that you experience the same truth; Without a plan in place our work can be more difficult, take longer to complete, experience errors, or require backstepping to edit, rinse, and repeat.

A professional branding strategy stops all this from happening because the process itself requires research and problem solving that allows you to answer the type of overarching questions you’ll face during the lifetime of running your business, such as:

• Creating or selecting your website copy, imagery, and other content
• Building customer avatars for marketing and advertising efforts
• Designing print collateral and other brand assets
• Web design and development phases (Note to self)
• B2B or B2C voice, messaging, goals, and communications
• SEO and keyword planning

I don’t know about you dear reader, but I got lost in my own mind for a long while trying to piece together odds and ends to form a cohesive enough approach that would grant me the confidence to take the next step.

“I came to Jenny Henderson Studio with a concept that I had been ruminating on for some time, but inevitably needed professional help with bringing it to life… I found the discovery and review questions that Jenny asked were very helpful in navigating through my own notes, thoughts, and scribbles. We determined what direction wouldn’t work for me before we solidified what would, and it was a very educational and resourceful experience. I took more away than just a new brand identity, I have confidence, direction, and excitement in my business going into 2026!”

BREE EMMERSON, BE3Designs

Getting lost along the way

When you’re mulling over ideas alone in your mind it is so easy to get turned around and lost amongst the flow of your thoughts.

You may have started with a single concept in mind but different images or reflections passed through and now you have several conceptions and have to choose one. But how? You don’t really know what questions to ask yourself to determine the best solution.

If this back and forth goes on for too long it can start pulling your passionate energy right out of your own project. (I know because there was a time that I genuinely wasn’t sure if I was still doing what I loved anymore. Luckily, that changed!) 

So last year when I got the spark of an idea for my rebrand that I really loved, I knew that if I was serious I would need to find someone to support me with it. I simply couldn’t trust myself to take it all on alone, afterall, I had 15 years of experience to show me so!

What the rebranding process did for me

The professional rebranding process was a gamechanger for me personally. Getting my ideas out of my own head and communicating them to someone else was a helpful exercise unto itself. 

Renewed passion for my business

Through the research and conceptualization processes in a rebrand I was forced to realize and actualize instead of living with my would-be ideas and theoretical concepts.

It’s easy to forget or procrastinate when you’re on your own, but to have someone who a) knows what they’re doing because they already have a plan, b) wants nothing more than to help you realize your goals, and c) are literally just waiting for you to give them the deets – you have a little bit of pressure to actually show up and do the darn thing.

And there is beauty in that conversation that cleared up my previous confusion. Sharing my ideas and seeing my designer’s eyes light up gave me an encouraging feeling that I was on the right track. That breathing life back into my soon to be 16-year-old business wasn’t impossible.

Finding direction and clarity

What’s funny is how closely my branding designer’s project process mirrored my own with websites, and how I never thought to treat myself like a client during my past branding (or lack thereof) exercises.

I was asked about the services that I offer vs what I want to do more of, details about my average client vs ideal client, how I have been getting leads up until now, where I plan to distribute my brand, along with many more questions pertaining to voice, design-like preferences, and learning more about my previous brand and what I wanted to see changed.

Writing it all out like that sounds like common sense now, but when you’re stuck in your head the simple can seem quite complicated.

Answering all these questions for someone else actually helped me answer questions I had for myself that I was completely unaware of. It gave me a working blueprint rather than a big ole brain of what ifs.

The welcomed snowball effect

If you’ve been caught up in a hefty period of time where you haven’t produced a finished product, or your creativity has been hibernating, you’ve likely felt stuck and somewhat desperate to feel any form of forward motion or progress.

What I noticed the most for myself when working through my rebrand is the snowball effect that happened with renewed passion and reinvigoration.

This forward motion brought on more ideas to support the story behind my rebrand, which led to the pieces I needed: finding a niche and uniqueness to stand apart and showcase myself and what it’s like to work with me.

What it really means to find a ‘niche’

I heard the advice of finding your niche long before I ever officially started my business. Once upon a time I used to tell myself that this advice couldn’t possibly extend to service providing freelancers like me.

Ironic when I have an entire spiel to my website clients who also have a difficult time narrowing down their audience. Hint: the answer is never ‘everyone and anyone who would pay me’. Ask me how I know (you’re reading it!)

You may assume that by narrowing your focus on a niche audience that you’ll lose money but it really isn’t the case, nor is it about turning away work. By focusing on your ideal customers and creating a tailored journey or process that speaks to them and solves their problems, you’re doing yourself a lot of favours, like:

• Honing in on your brand messaging
• Better articulating your products and services
• Creating more influential marketing campaigns
• Gaining confidence in publishing your content
• Learning how to tell a story
• Making your audience the main character vs yourself

What is a branding strategy and package?

I’ve talked a lot about how rebranding and having a strategy has helped me in my business, but what IS a branding package? Most are known to include collateral such as:

• Logos
• Fonts and Typography
• Colour Palettes
• Bios, headlines, and templatic text
• Photography
• Design assets
• Social media or other marketing strategies
• Customer profile(s)

A branding strategy gives you an entire plan and documentation that instructs you on when and what branding collateral to use, how to use it, and what it all means when it comes together.

Well… that sure sounds like the perfect content to feature in my next blog post.

Why I rebranded my business after 16 years

I rebranded my business after 16 years because I didn’t feel that my brand was representative of me, my work, or how I interact with my clients. I have grown and evolved while running my business, it’s only natural that my brand would too.

Now, my brand helps me better prepare for new product or service offerings, where a lot of my messaging and marketing can be put together easily as my strategy is already in place.

I have all the different types of logo files that I need when integrating them with various needs, have fonts and an accessible colour palette on hand that I can implement in all my third-party tools and applications.

But most of all, I have excitement to build on my business ideas and more confidence to achieve them.

Ready to incorporate your rebrand into your existing website?

Take the custom approach to unlock a treasure chest of professional advice and expert processes!

Custom website packages for small businesses

Table of Contents

What is a website consultant?

Consultants in any industry are established and experienced within their trade, and hired to provide professional advice, or offer objective feedback on a case-by-case basis.

As a website consultant with over 30 years of website-making experience, I can step in at any point of your project to support you with the before, during, or after:

Before
I consult on the steps needed to properly strategize and plan out your website:

• Branding Guidelines
• Content Strategy
• User Experience

During
I consult on the typical design and development phases of a website project:

• Web Design
• WordPress Development
• Accessibility and Responsiveness

After
I consult for ongoing management and optimization of existing websites:

• SEO
• Blogging
• Maintenance

Knowing what consultancy is may be enough to understand why you should hire a website consultant in the first place, but if you’re not yet convinced I’ll outline some real-life scenarios where you can see how having a website consultant on your side can make all of the difference.

Why DIY-ers should hire a website consultant

If you are not a trained designer or developer but have the responsibility of creating or maintaining a website, you should absolutely hire a website consultant.

Website consulting before you start your website

Consulting at the beginning of your project will help you form a process and become aware of what steps to take.

A lot more goes into creating a website than you might think. Sure, you can select a template, swap out the images and text, and press go, but if you do you might find yourself wondering why your website isn’t performing as well as you would have liked.

For example, as someone who builds websites professionally, I have a 6-phase process where each stage is accounted for: 

1. Discovery, 
2. Strategy, 
3. Design, 
4. Development, 
5. Launch, and 
6. Post-Launch.

Within each of these phases are multiple deliverables that must be completed before the website is ready to launch. It may sound like a lot but going through each step, in order, will almost always reflect a more efficient and cohesive project.

“A developer or agency can make sure your site looks great, is customized to your needs and is easy to navigate for web visitors. They can optimize it for search engines so it ranks higher in search results. They can save you the time and effort you’d have to devote to creating a DIY site. And they can build in back-end functionality to integrate the site with your other business systems.” – BDC

If you have DIYed your website and haven’t been thrilled by your results, ask yourself these questions: 

• Did you design and layout your website without having your logo, brand colours, or typography guidelines in place?
• Did you test all your pages on desktop, tablet, and mobile to ensure your content displays properly across all devices?
• Did you follow best practices for both SEO and Accessibility when building your website?
• Did you do any keyword research, editing, or optimization of your website copy before populating?

Essentially, the steps you take during Discovery and Strategy phases provide you with answers to questions that will inevitably arise during website Design and Development phases.

Hiring a website consultant during these early brainstorming stages can set you up with a proper roadmap so you’re not left trying to figure out what you need to learn to be a one-time professional designer or developer. 

Website consulting during your website project

Consulting during your project will give you a third-party perspective, professional feedback, and insights before you launch to the public.

You may have already poured the blood, sweat, and tears into your website. You could launch it as is, but wouldn’t it be better to make sure you haven’t missed anything important?

Whether it’s broken links, no site icon, poor responsive design when viewing the site on mobile, or just about anything else that can go wrong – it can’t hurt to have someone else audit your work…

…especially if they already know what to look for!

Why copywriters should hire a website consultant

Copywriters know their stuff. They do endless amounts of research, are skilled and trained with grammar and editing, and have a gift for creating words.

Writing for the web is different.

There are keywords that you need to optimize for, heading tags that need to be used in a certain order for accessibility, CTAs for lead generation, and integrated internal or external links.

Website copywriters that have a good understanding of how their words are integrated into a site will write better content. It’s science, or something!

💡 Tip: Start by learning how WordPress SEO plugins work and what focus keywords are. 

Why agencies and graphic designers should hire a website consultant

Agencies manage to give their clients specialized services by employing multiple experts in their respective fields, or subcontracting one-off contracts to freelance web developers.

If an agency already has an in-house graphic designer, website work is often put on their plate. However, being trained in print, brand, or marketing design doesn’t immediately translate to web best practices or standards.

This is where a website consultant can help!

“During the preparation stage for my client’s website redesign project, it became clear to me that I would need support from a website developer. I was looking for someone who would not take over the project but instead, who could guide me and who could coach me through the process.” – Katia K., Graphic Designer

As a graphic designer, pairing with a website consultant, you will:

• learn best practices to continue implementing in the future,
• be able to ask hands-on troubleshooting questions via shared screens, and
• offset missing skills or expertise needed to develop a successful website.

The initial cost of having two individuals work together will pay for itself as you build upon your skills, bringing more experience to your future projects.

This can be especially beneficial to my fellow freelancers out there, as knowledge is our power, gaining the confidence to take on new website projects and build our portfolio is heck’n rewarding!

💡 Tip: Learn how to prepare for a professional website consultation.

Why you should hire a website consultant

Want a professional consultant with over 16 years of freelancing experience to review your website before you reveal it to the world? 

Yeah you do!

Book a website audit, starting at $250 CAD, and receive a detailed document outlining feedback and recommendations for:

• your website pages, 
• global elements, 
• desktop and mobile responsiveness, 
• SEO, 
• accessibility standards, and
• overall user experience.

Haven’t started your website yet? Now is the perfect time to reserve a 1 hour consultation session.

Be proud of the websites you launch knowing you put your best effort into publishing them.

Reserve a 1-hour web consultation