Website Research: Why Great Websites Start Before Design

Part 1 of the August Ash 7-Step Process Series

Most people think a website project begins with design.

New colors. New layouts. New features.

After more than 27 years of helping organizations connect strategy, sales, marketing, and technology, we've learned something different.

The best website projects begin with research.

Research is the first phase of our proven 7-Step Process because every decision that follows depends on understanding your business, your customers, and your goals. Before anyone opens Figma or writes a line of code, we focus on gathering the information needed to make smarter decisions throughout the rest of the project.

Why Research Comes First

A website should never begin with assumptions, it should begin with understanding.

Research gives your team the clarity to make better decisions before time and budget are spent on design or development. Instead of reacting to opinions, you're making decisions based on business goals, user behavior, and real data. That foundation influences every phase of the project, from planning and design to launch, support, and long-term growth.

What Happens During the Research Phase?

Every project is different, so the depth of our research is tailored to the organization's goals, challenges, and complexity.

Depending on the engagement, the research phase may include:

• Project kickoff & stakeholder alignment to establish goals, priorities, and success metrics.
• Buyer persona development to understand who the website needs to serve.
• Content inventory & analytics review to identify what's performing well, what's underperforming, and where opportunities exist.
• AEO, SEO & keyword analysis to preserve valuable search visibility while uncovering new opportunities.
• Competitive research to better understand the market and identify opportunities for differentiation.
• Brand workshops to ensure the website reflects how the organization wants to be perceived.
• Customer surveys or interviews to validate assumptions with real user feedback.

Each activity has a purpose: reducing uncertainty before planning begins. Rather than relying on opinions alone, we combine business knowledge with user behavior and data to build a strategy that supports long-term success.

Better Decisions Start with Alignment

One of the biggest challenges in a website project usually isn't technology, it's alignment.

Marketing, sales, leadership, and customer service often have different perspectives on priorities and success. Research brings those perspectives together early, creating a shared understanding before planning begins.

That philosophy extends beyond client work. At August Ash, we use the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) to keep our own team aligned around priorities, accountability, and continuous improvement. We bring that same disciplined approach into every client engagement because clear processes consistently lead to better outcomes.

Research in Action

The value of research isn't measured by the number of workshops we hold or reports we create. It's measured by the confidence our clients have in the decisions that follow.

One client shared:

"We chose August Ash because we felt you all had the best sense for what we needed, and felt confident, based on the conversations that we had, but, more importantly, the questions that you asked, that we could trust you all to lead us through a process, to build a thing that did what we wanted it to do, but also wouldn't require us to be in the driver's seat to dictate every piece."

Another client put it this way:

"August Ash is the first marketing partner we've ever had that took the time to really understand our business and our customers."

To us, those comments reinforce what the research phase is all about: understanding before recommending.

Why Investing Up Front Saves Time Later

Taking the time to understand your business, audience, content, and current website before making decisions reduces revisions, minimizes risk, and gives every phase that follows a stronger foundation. Planning becomes clearer, design becomes more intentional, development becomes more efficient, and launch becomes more predictable.

That's why research is the first step in our process. It's an investment that helps every decision moving forward become a better one.