A practical guide for web agencies
You’ve met with the client. You’ve agreed on what the website needs to do. You’ve sent a quote, maybe even received a deposit. You’ve produced a first draft quickly, using whatever tools help you move fast.
Now comes the important part: reviewing that draft with the client.
A draft review is not a design critique. It’s a decision meeting.
If you treat it as a casual show-and-tell, you invite vague opinions, late-stage rework, and scope creep. If you run it as a decision point, you protect your time and your margin.
Your job is to walk the client through what you’ve designed, confirm the goals are met, and get clear approvals so you can build (or iterate) with confidence.
Why draft website reviews matter
Most small agencies skip or underplay draft reviews because they feel awkward or confrontational. That’s a mistake.
Draft website reviews exist to reduce risk.
They help you:
- validate direction before real build cost is incurred
- align expectations between agency and client
- separate goals from personal preference
- surface objections early, when they’re cheap to fix
- create a clear approval point to move forward
Skip this step, or run it poorly, and feedback arrives late, scope creeps quietly, projects slow down, and clients start redesigning the site themselves.
Are you ready to do a draft website review?
Even at the draft stage, reviews can be derailed by obvious errors. A few basic checks dramatically improve first impressions.
Content
- Spellcheck everything.
- Read the copy out loud once.
- Remove forgotten placeholder text.
Function
- All links work.
- Buttons go somewhere sensible.
- Forms exist, even if not yet wired.
Mobile
- Check the site in browser dev tools.
- Always test on a real phone.
- Check every key section on mobile.
- Avoid giant text blocks.
- Ensure the main call-to-action is visible without excessive scrolling.
- Confirm galleries and service grids are usable with a thumb.
SEO basics (light touch)
- Page title roughly correct.
- One clear H1.
- Service area included where it matters.
Second pair of eyes
- Ask a detail-oriented person who hasn’t lived with the site to review it.
When it’s not perfect
Drafts can include incomplete or placeholder sections. Make that explicit to the client before the meeting so expectations are set.
Review format options
Zoom or video call (the default you should use)
If you do only one thing differently, do this.
Pros: fast, clear, fewer misunderstandings.
Cons: requires scheduling.
Recorded walkthrough + written feedback
Pros: replayable, async-friendly, good for multiple stakeholders.
Cons: slower feedback loops.
Link-only feedback
Pros: easy.
Cons: vague feedback, slower approvals, higher risk of misalignment.
How to run the review meeting
Identify the true decision makers early. These are the people whose preferences matter. Everyone else is advisory. Make sure the decision makers are part of the website design draft review.
Aim for 30–45 minutes.
- Re-state the goal of the site.
- Walk the homepage from top to bottom.
- Review key supporting pages.
- Do a quick mobile check.
- Confirm decisions and next steps.
Are we heading in the right direction?
A draft website review has one core objective:
Confirm the site direction is right, and lock decisions that unblock the next phase.
By the end of the meeting, the client should be able to say:
- This matches the goal of the site.
- This feels like us.
- The structure and messaging are right.
- Here are the changes we need.
- Approved. Proceed.
If you don’t get this clarity, the review hasn’t done its job.
What feedback are you seeking?
Goal and conversion
What action should a visitor take? Call, fill out a form, make a booking, or buy?
Check:
- primary and secondary actions
- where and how often CTAs appear
- what might stop a visitor converting
Target audience and service area
If the business is local, the service area must be obvious above the fold.
Check:
- who the site is not for
- jobs the business doesn’t want
- geographic exclusions
- price positioning signals
Message clarity
A visitor should be able to answer these in 10 seconds:
- What do you do?
- Who is it for?
- Where do you do it?
- Why you over others?
- What should I do next?
Check:
- headline clarity vs cleverness
- plain language vs jargon
- benefit-led vs feature-led copy
- consistency of tone
Page structure
A typical service-business homepage includes:
- hero section with primary CTA
- services overview
- proof (reviews, logos, stats)
- process or how-it-works
- gallery or examples
- about teaser
- repeated CTA
Check:
- most important content first
- decision order, not company order
- scannability without reading paragraphs
- whether each section earns its place
Trust indicators
Look for:
- real names and faces
- location and service area
- testimonials or reviews
- licences or associations
- case studies or galleries
- clear contact details
Check:
- proof near CTAs
- realistic imagery
- easy-to-find contact info
- about content that builds trust
Content gaps
Ask the client:
- What questions do customers ask that aren’t answered here?
- What do people misunderstand about your service?
- What objections do you hear before someone buys?
Questions that get useful answers
Overall direction
- Does the first screen clearly say what you do and where?
- Is the main call-to-action correct?
- Are these the right services to lead with?
- Are we approved to build this direction?
Overall feel
- Does this feel like a business you’d trust?
- Does it set the right expectations?
- Does it feel appropriate for what you charge?
First impression
- What’s your first reaction landing here?
- What do you think this business does from the top section alone?
Confidence and trust
- Does anything here make you hesitate?
- Is anything missing that would stop you calling?
Alignment
- Does this represent you accurately?
- Would this feel consistent if a customer met you next?
What not to optimise for (yet)
Avoid turning the draft review into a debate about:
- exact font weights
- spacing and padding
- button radius
- logo size
- colour preferences without context
These details matter later. Too early, they stall progress.
Helpful redirects:
- “Today is about direction and intent, not styling.”
- “We’re validating structure, messaging, and goals first.”
- “We’ll polish visuals after the direction is approved.”
Getting the right feedback
Clients should react, not design.
This is where many solo and small agencies get this wrong. Asking clients to design leads to worse outcomes and weaker authority.
Your role as the designer is to:
- extract intent
- interpret taste
- translate emotion into design decisions
Reassure clients:
- “You don’t need to tell me how to fix things.”
- “High-level reactions are perfect at this stage.”
Use relative questions:
- “Closer to A or B?”
- “More premium or more approachable?”
- “More minimal or more detailed?”
Handling common feedback
“It feels plain or boring”
Meaning: not enough visual rhythm or contrast.
Action:
- add background variation
- introduce section contrast
- use imagery, cards, grids, or icons
“It feels too busy”
Meaning: information overload.
Action:
- reduce copy
- increase whitespace strategically
- break content into chunks
“It doesn’t feel like us”
Meaning: brand or tone mismatch.
Action:
- adjust copy tone
- refine imagery style
- shift colour and typography direction
“I’m not sure what to do here”
Meaning: weak CTA or hierarchy.
Action:
- strengthen CTA language
- move CTAs higher
- reduce competing actions
“Can we add X?”
Meaning: fear of missing something.
Action:
- separate must-have from nice-to-have
- capture ideas without committing
- protect scope
“I don’t like the colours or fonts”
Meaning: mood or contrast issue.
Action:
- adjust palette direction
- adjust typography family or tone
- retain control of implementation
Completing the draft website review
Always follow up with a written summary that confirms:
- what was agreed
- change list by page
- what feedback is still expected, and by when
- next milestone and timeline
About RimuHosting (and why we’re writing this)
RimuHosting has been behind the scenes hosting websites for our clients since 2002.
Many of our clients are design agencies. We focus on the infrastructure side of the work so designers don’t have to: hosting, WordPress platforms, backups, performance, security, DNS, domains, email, certificates, and the operational details that quietly make or break client projects. We build services like Woop! Host (https://woop.host) for exactly this reason: to give agencies a reliable, well-managed WordPress foundation that’s maintained by system administrators who do hosting all day, every day.
Why agencies partner with us
If you’re building websites, your value is in design, UX, messaging, and client relationships—not in worrying about disk space, PHP memory limits, failed backups, expiring SSL certificates, or why email suddenly stopped working. That’s where we come in.
We work as a long-term infrastructure partner for agencies, supporting all of their client sites with a consistent, well-run hosting environment. That means fewer emergencies, fewer awkward conversations with clients about technical failures, and fewer hours lost debugging problems that aren’t really design problems at all. You get a stable platform you can trust, and a technical team behind you when things go wrong.
This post—and others in this series—exists because we’re increasingly designing and documenting our own processes, and because we want to work more closely with designers and developers who care about doing things well. If you want a hosting partner who takes responsibility for the technical side and lets you focus on your craft, we’d be happy to talk.