A good website brief doesn't need to be 60 pages long.
It does need to explain the problem.
“Build us a modern website” isn't really a brief.
Modern compared with what? Designed for whom? Intended to achieve what?
Here is what a useful website brief should cover.
Your organisation
Explain what the business does in plain English.
Include important services, markets, locations and anything that makes the organisation unusual.
Why the project is happening
This is arguably the most important section.
Are you:
- replacing an outdated site?
- launching a business?
- repositioning the brand?
- trying to generate more enquiries?
- targeting larger customers?
- improving recruitment?
- introducing ecommerce?
- consolidating several websites?
The answer changes the entire project.
Your audience
“Everybody” isn't a target audience.
Who normally makes the buying decision?
What matters to them?
What questions do they ask?
What might stop them choosing you?
Objectives
Define tangible objectives such as:
- increase qualified enquiries
- improve visibility for specific services
- generate online sales
- showcase projects
- reduce customer support requests
- improve local search visibility.
Required pages
You don't need to design the complete sitemap yourself, but list everything you think visitors need.
A good agency should challenge and refine it.
Functionality
Mention anything beyond normal content pages, including:
- ecommerce
- booking
- customer login
- document uploads
- calculators
- directories
- integrations
- multilingual content
- CRM connections
- custom forms.
Get this onto the table early.
Content
Who is supplying words, photography, video and project information?
Content frequently becomes the biggest project bottleneck.
EasyMediaUK's website process deliberately treats content as a distinct stage alongside analysis, planning, design, development and testing.
Brand
Provide logos, brand guidelines, fonts, colours and examples of existing materials.
If the brand itself needs work, say so now.
Examples
Share websites you like — but explain why.
“I like Apple” isn't particularly helpful.
“I like how this company explains a complicated product visually” is.
Technical requirements
Include known integrations, hosting constraints, analytics platforms, existing systems and data requirements.
Timescale
Mention genuine deadlines and why they matter.
A trade show date is different from “we'd quite like it by September”.
Budget
You don't necessarily need a specification accurate to the penny.
But some indication of available investment helps determine what is realistic.
The brief is the beginning
A professional website company shouldn't simply execute your original document blindly.
The brief starts a conversation.
Research, planning and experience should improve it.
Because the objective isn't to build exactly the website you initially imagined.
It is to build the website your business actually needs.
Strategy. Creativity. Technology.
