The photo and copy checklist: the twenty questions and the shot list that get a Welsh business website written and built in four weeks
What we ask before a build: twenty questions in your own words, a phone shot list with the reason for each shot, and the Welsh spellings to check.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 4 September 2026 · 6 min read
Every site that runs late runs late waiting for the owner's photographs and answers, because they are the only part nobody else can do. This is the checklist we send the day a client says yes: twenty questions to answer in your own words in one sitting, a shot list for a phone with the reason for each shot, the Welsh spellings to check before they go on a heading, and the things not to send. Done in an afternoon, it is the difference between a four-week build and a twelve-week one.
The twenty questions
Answer them in the order they come, in the words you would use on the phone. Spelling and sentences are our job; the knowledge is yours, and imperfect answers on day two beat perfect ones on day twelve.
- What do you do, in one sentence a customer would understand?
- Where do you do it: the towns and villages you genuinely serve, and the ones you would rather not?
- Which service or product do you want more of, and which do you turn down?
- What does a customer usually ask on the first phone call?
- What decides the price, and what pushes it up?
- How long does a typical job, stay or order take from first contact to done?
- What do people get wrong about your trade or your product?
- Who are the people: names, roles, years, and one sentence each?
- How long have you been going, and how did it start?
- Which memberships, certificates, ratings or marks do you hold, with the numbers?
- Which are the last three jobs, projects or products you were proud of, and why?
- What do customers say in reviews, and where are the reviews?
- Which businesses are above you when you search your own services, and what do they do better?
- Do you speak Welsh, does anyone on the staff, and would you answer the phone in Welsh?
- Which of your customers speak Welsh, roughly, and where are they?
- What is your business name in Welsh, if it has one, and how is the place name spelt locally?
- Which days and hours is the phone answered, and what happens outside them?
- What should the site never say or promise?
- What is the one thing you want a customer to do after reading the site?
- Where is the domain registered and who has the login, and is the Google Business Profile in your account?
The shot list
A phone is enough. Daylight, not flash. Landscape for anything that will be wide on the page, upright for people. Stand still, hold the phone level, and take three of everything. Send the originals, not screenshots or WhatsApp-compressed copies; use a file transfer or the link we send.
| The shot | How | Why it is on the list |
|---|---|---|
| The front of the business from the pavement | Morning light, sign readable, no cars in front | The first thing a customer checks against the map |
| The workshop, kitchen, shop floor or field | Wide, from the doorway, tidy but working | Proves the place exists and shows the scale |
| The people, one at a time and together | Outside, eye level, a plain background, not squinting | The about page; "are they real" answered in one photograph |
| The van, the stall, the boat, the kit | With the name visible | Local proof, and the photograph the profile needs |
| Three finished jobs or products | Same spot before and after where you can; product on a plain background and in use | The work page, and one for each service page |
| Something with a Welsh place name or sign in it | The village sign, the bilingual shop sign, the map on the wall | Says where you are without a paragraph |
| The view, the walk, the room, the table | For tourism and food: from the window, the door, the plate | The page a guest sends to their partner |
| A season you are known for | Lambing, harvest, the Christmas counter, the summer terrace | The home page changes with the year |
The Welsh spellings to check
Before a name goes on a heading, check it against the sign outside and the Welsh Language Commissioner's list of standardised place names. Tŷ and Llŷn carry a circumflex, and so do a hundred other words; Wrecsam is spelt with a c; Caerdydd, Abertawe and Casnewydd are the forms a Welsh speaker types; Eryri and Bannau Brycheiniog are the parks' names and Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons are what half the searches still say. A business name with a Welsh form goes in both forms once, at the top, and then in whichever the page's language is. If you are not sure, write the English and flag the Welsh; the translator resolves it.
What not to send
Stock photographs, however good; the site will wait for a real one. Screenshots of photographs. The logo as a tiny image from an email signature; send the original file or the name of whoever made it. A paragraph copied from a competitor's site. A list of every town within thirty miles. Reviews you wrote yourself. A Welsh translation from a free tool, which the translator will have to redo.
What happens next: your answers become the pages, your photographs become the site, and the first draft is on a private link within a week of the checklist coming back. The build is fast; the checklist is the schedule.
Questions on this topic
I cannot write. Does it matter?
No. Answer on the phone and we will type; answer in bullet points and we will write. The sentences are our job. What we cannot invent is what you know about your work.
My photographs are not good enough.
A sharp, level, daylight photograph of the real thing beats a stock photograph every time. Follow the list; the three-of-everything rule gives us a usable one.
Can you take the photographs?
On the photo day, yes, for clients who want us on site, and it is planned into the visit. For most businesses the owner's phone and the list are enough and quicker.
What if I do not know the Welsh spelling?
Send the English and say so. The translator checks names against the standardised list and the sign outside; we would rather ask than guess on a heading.