How to Create a Website Manual Your Clients Will Actually Use

This post was originally recorded as a podcast episode. Click below if you’d prefer to listen to the audio version of this post:

You’ve built the website. Your client has approved it. It’s live. You’ve handed it over and, finally, you can move on to your next project.

Except you’re getting a lot of emails asking:

“How do I log in?”

“How do I change an image?”

“How do I add some text?”

You might think your client should know how to do some of these things themselves, the reality is that you built the website, not them.

That’s why I started creating website manuals for my clients.

It’s turned out to be one of the biggest successes in my business. Clients consistently give me great feedback because the manual leaves very little room for confusion. They know how their website works, how it’s built and, most importantly, what to do when they need to make changes.

It’s worked so well that I’ve turned mine into a template, so creating one for each new website now takes very little time.

Here’s the framework I use:

There are a lot of different ways you can hand over a website.

Some designers offer a Zoom session where they walk their client through the website and record it. Others use tools that record the clicks as they demonstrate different tasks.

I prefer a combination of written content and video.

I use written content for the information clients really need to have available, and video for anything where it’s useful for them to see exactly what to click.

The result is a manual they can refer back to whenever they need it, rather than having to email every time they forget something.

Once the manual is finished, I export it as a PDF and send it to the client as an attachment.

There are a couple of reasons I prefer this approach:

1. The client has a document they can keep and refer to whenever they need it.
2. I’m not relying on a page on my own website continuing to exist indefinitely.

I’ve built hundreds of websites, so if I hosted every client’s manual on my website, every website rebuild could potentially mean having to manage redirects for all those old manuals. An emailed PDF avoids that problem.

It also means the client receives a document they can’t accidentally go in and edit.

Before getting into the practical tutorials, make sure your client knows what’s actually powering their website.

If you’re a WordPress developer, this should include:

If you operate an agency model where the licences are provided through your agency, that’s fine. But your client should understand what happens if they eventually move their website elsewhere.

For example, if they move their website away from you, they may need their own licences to keep certain parts of the website working.

You don’t necessarily need to list the current price of every licence. The important thing is that your client understands their responsibilities.

The first page of my website manual includes:

The screenshot is more than just a nice branding touch. It creates a record of what the website looked like when it was handed over.

If your client later changes something on the website and accidentally makes a mess of the homepage, you have a clear reference point showing what it looked like when you delivered it.

A table of contents makes the manual much easier to navigate.

I include the main sections and link them through to the relevant pages.

This means that if a client wants to know how to update their website, they don’t have to scroll through the entire document to find the information.

It’s a small thing, but it makes the manual feel much more professional and makes it considerably easier to use.

This is the first video I create for each client.

I call it Welcome to Your Website and it’s a short screen recording of the backend of their website.

The client has already seen the front end because they’ve approved the design. This video shows them the parts they probably haven’t seen before.

For example, I show them:

It doesn’t need to be a huge training session. Mine is a quick tour of the website and normally takes around five minutes to record. That five-minute video can save you a lot of future questions.

I also include a screenshot of the website’s Google PageSpeed Insights results from when the website went live. In the screenshotI include the date and time of the test, along with the relevant website information.

This is particularly useful because it gives the client a record of the website’s performance at handover.

And, in my experience, having that information documented can be useful when other professionals become involved with the website later. For example, an SEO might come along and tell the client that their website isn’t fast enough or isn’t performing as it should.

Having a dated screenshot showing the results from when you handed over the website gives you some useful context. It’s not about proving that your website will always perform exactly the same way. It’s about being transparent about what the results were when you handed it over.

This is one of the most important additions to my manual.

And, somewhat embarrassingly, it’s something I’ve forgotten to provide clients with before.

You can hand someone everything they need to manage their brand-new website and still get the inevitable reply:

“That’s lovely. How do I log in?”

So now there is a dedicated How to Log In to Your Website page in my manual.

It includes:

I also include a How to Keep Your Website Up to Date section.

This is important even if you provide hosting and website maintenance for your clients. I want my clients to know how to do these things themselves if they ever need to.

For this section, I use written instructions rather than a video. That means the client can quickly find the information they need without having to sit through a video or click through a recording.

Not everything needs a lengthy explanation.

I also include a short page with key things the client needs to remember about their website.

Some of this information will already have been covered in the Welcome to Your Website video, but that doesn’t mean your client will remember it.

And when they need the information six months later, they probably won’t want to sit through a five-minute video to find one small detail.

This page might include things such as:

Keep it short and useful.

This is probably the biggest time-saving tip in the entire process. When I first started creating website manuals, I made all of the videos specifically for each individual website. That took a lot of time.

Then I realised something important. Most clients need to know how to do the same basic things.

So instead of recording the same tutorial over and over again, I created a library of standard videos.

My standard tutorials include things such as:

These videos can then be reused across multiple manuals. In fact, once I’d got the hang of this, I created a master template with the links to these videos in it, and now I just use the template each time and the only video I customise for every website is the Welcome to Your Website walkthrough.

If a particular client has something unusual, such as a specific booking plugin or a custom feature using ACF, I create an additional tutorial for them.

This was a later addition to my manual, but it has been incredibly useful.

And if you’re a website designer, you probably already know what most of the troubleshooting is going to involve clearing the cache.

The best way to create this section is to look at the questions your clients most frequently ask you. If you keep getting the same support request, there’s a good chance it belongs in your troubleshooting section.

You don’t need to create every piece of information yourself. If you’re using tools that have good documentation or knowledge centres, link to them. For example, my websites are predominantly built using Avada, so I include links to their support documentation and knowledge centre.

I also use Yoast for SEO, so I link to the Yoast Knowledge Center.

Think about the tools you regularly use and ask yourself:

“If my client has a question about this, is there somewhere reliable I can send them?”

If there is, include the link in the manual. That gives your clients somewhere to go when they need more information, without making you responsible for explaining every possible feature of every tool you use.

Finally, make it crystal clear how clients should get support. You might have a different email address, ticketing system or process for existing website clients compared with new enquiries.

If so, tell them exactly what to use. This is particularly useful if you work with other people who provide website support for you.

The point of a website user manual isn’t to create another deliverable that takes you hours to produce. It’s to create a repeatable system that gives your clients confidence and reduces the number of questions coming back to you after launch.

And once you’ve created your standard videos and built your template, most of the work is already done.

For each new website, you can simply:

I’ve created a template based on the exact process I’ve described in this post. You can download it and use it as the starting point for your own website user manuals.

It includes the structure, sections and information you need to create a professional handover document for your clients.