A website brief tells a web designer what your business does, what the site needs to do and what you need on it, so they can give you an accurate price and timeline. It doesn’t need to be long. A page that covers the points below is plenty, and you’ll find a template at the end you can copy and fill in.
We’ve read a lot of web design briefs over the years. The ones that lead to the best projects aren’t the longest. They’re the ones that answer the questions a designer needs answering before they can tell you what your website will cost and how long it will take.
1. Why a short brief gets you a better quote
What a designer needs to price the job
To price a website properly, a designer needs to know three things: how many pages you need, whether it has to do anything beyond showing information (take bookings, sell products, let customers log in), and how much of the content you’ll provide. Those three answers drive most of the cost. Get them into your brief and you’ll get quotes you can actually compare.
What can wait until the project starts
Colours, fonts, the exact wording of every page and which photos go where can all wait. A good designer will work through those with you once the project is under way. If you try to decide them all up front, the brief gets long, the quotes get vague and you’ll probably change your mind anyway.
2. Start with your business and what the site is for
What you do, and who for
Two or three sentences is enough: what you sell, who buys it and where they are. “We’re a family-run landscaping business. Most of our work is garden design for homeowners, and the jobs we want more of are bigger patios and outdoor kitchens” tells a designer more than a page of history.
What the site needs to achieve
Be specific about what a good result looks like. More enquiries? More bookings? Online sales? A site that makes you look as established as you are when someone checks you out after a recommendation? Pick the one or two that matter most, because they decide what goes at the top of every page.
3. List the pages and features
The pages you know you need
Write a simple list: home, about, each service, contact, and anything else you know you’ll want. Don’t worry about getting it perfect. A designer will suggest changes, but your list shows them the size of the job.
A shop, bookings or anything else it has to do
This is where the price can move the most, so mention it early. If you want to sell online, roughly how many products? If you take bookings, what system do you use now? Do you need forms that send enquiries to different people? If the site needs to connect to something you already use, name it.
4. Say who’s providing the content
The words: are you writing them, or is the designer?
Writing the words for a website takes longer than most people expect, and it’s one of the biggest reasons projects slow down. Say in your brief whether you’ll write the copy, whether you’d like the designer to write it, or whether you want help with some of it. It changes both the price and the timeline.
Photos, logo and branding
Do you have a logo you’re happy with? Brand colours? Good photos of your work, your team or your premises? If not, say so. Designers can work with stock images, organise a shoot or design a brand from scratch, but they need to know which before they quote.
5. Show what you like, and what you don’t
Sites you like, and why
Include two or three websites you like, and a line on why. It doesn’t matter if they’re in a completely different industry. “I like how calm this feels” or “I like that the prices are easy to find” is more useful than any amount of description. If there’s a style you know you don’t want, say that too.
Your current site: what to keep
If you already have a website, say what’s working and what isn’t. If some pages bring in enquiries from Google, mention them, because a new site needs to keep those pages (or redirect them properly) so you don’t lose that traffic. Our guide to website structure explains why that matters.
6. Be upfront about budget, timing and aftercare
Giving a budget range
Lots of people leave the budget out because they don’t want to show their hand. In practice, a range helps you. It lets a designer suggest what they can do for that money, rather than quoting for something you were never going to buy.
Deadlines that matter
If there’s a date the site has to be live by, like a launch, a trade show or the start of your busy season, put it in. As a rough guide, most business websites take somewhere between four and eight weeks from the first conversation to launch, and online shops and bigger sites sit at the longer end. Quick feedback at each stage makes a big difference.
Who looks after it once it’s live
Ask how updates, hosting and backups will work after launch, and whether you’ll be able to change things yourself. And make sure you’ll own the site once it’s paid for. Our clients always have, and it’s worth getting in writing with anyone you hire.
7. A website brief template you can copy
Copy this, fill in what you can and paste it into your enquiry. Leave anything you’re not sure about blank. That’s what the first conversation is for.
About us: what we do, who our customers are and where they are.
What the website needs to do: the one or two results that matter most (enquiries, bookings, sales, credibility).
Pages: the pages we know we need.
Features: shop (roughly how many products), bookings, forms, anything it needs to connect to.
Content: who’s writing the words; what we have for photos, logo and branding.
Sites we like: two or three links, with a line on why.
Our current site: the address, what’s working and what isn’t.
Budget: a range we’re comfortable with.
Timing: when we’d like it live, and any date it has to be live by.
After launch: who will update it, whether we want hosting and support, and how people will find it on Google.
What happens after you send it
A good designer will come back with questions, not just a number. That’s a good sign: it means they’ve read your brief and want to get the details right. From there you should get a proposal that sets out what’s included, what it costs and how long it will take.
If you’d like us to have a look, send us your brief or start a project, and we’ll take it from there. You can also see what’s included in our web design packages, and if you’re comparing agencies, here are the questions worth asking a web design company.
You can email us at hello@thesocialbay.co.uk, fill in our start a project form, or call or message us on 07441 918230.
Frequently asked questions about website briefs
What should a website brief include?
What your business does, what the site needs to achieve, the pages and features you need, who’s providing the words and photos, sites you like, your budget range and your timing. The template above covers all of it.
How long should a website brief be?
One page is usually enough. A brief’s job is to help a designer understand the project well enough to price it, not to design the site for them.
Do I need my website copy written before I send a brief?
No. Just say whether you’ll write it or want help. Many designers can write the copy for you, and it’s better to decide that up front than halfway through the project.
Should I put my budget in a website brief?
Yes, as a range. It helps a designer suggest the right approach for what you want to spend, and saves everyone time on quotes that don’t fit.
Is a website brief the same as a specification?
Not quite. A brief explains what you need and why. A specification is the detailed, technical plan a designer or developer usually writes once the project is agreed, often using your brief as the starting point.