If you are planning a new website or a redesign, the first thing most agencies will ask for is your brief. A clear brief gets you accurate quotes, realistic timelines, and a finished site that does what your business actually needs. A vague one gets you guesswork, scope creep, and surprises later.
This guide walks you through how to write a website brief that earns better proposals, and it points to a free template you can fill in and send to any agency you are considering. Think of the brief as more than a procurement document. It becomes a shared reference you and your chosen partner return to throughout the project, so everyone stays aligned on what success looks like.
What Is a Website Brief?
A website brief is a short document that tells a designer or agency who you are, what your business does, and what you need from the project. Its job is to set expectations early: the goals, the scope, the budget, and the deadline. Done well, it surfaces obstacles before they cost you, clarifies what will be delivered, and helps you judge whether a given agency is the right fit.
It is also the simplest way to communicate your initial ideas. The brief does not need to be polished or complete. It is a starting point, and a good agency will help you build on it.
Who Should Write the Website Brief?
The brief is usually drafted by a business owner, a marketing lead, or a project manager before reaching out for quotes. In most cases you will not have every detail worked out, and that is fine. A template gives you the structure so you can capture what you know and flag what you are still deciding.
It also helps to name a single point of contact on your side. Most agencies will introduce a project manager so you always know where to direct questions, and a clear line of communication keeps the project moving.
How to Write a Website Brief in 10 Steps
A useful brief is concise and clear enough for everyone to follow, from a business owner or board member through to your marketing team and the agency you choose. The ten sections below cover everything a designer needs to quote accurately and start strong. Work through them in order, and write down what you know rather than what you think sounds impressive.
1. Introduce Your Business
Start with the basics. Who are you, what do you do, and who is your product or service for? It helps to include when you were founded, where you operate, and what your company stands for. Is there anything about your brand a designer should understand from the outset? What is the single most important message you want the website to communicate?
A few prompts to draw this out:
- We hold a leading position in the market for [X].
- We offer specialist expertise in [X] and [Y].
- We have a team of [X] across [Y].
- We guide clients through every aspect of [X].
- We plan to grow our [X] over the next six months.
2. Describe Your Industry and Competitors
Every effective website is built around the customer. That means understanding the market you operate in, the competitors you are up against, and what makes someone choose you. How do you want to stand out? If you hold any audience research or insight, share it. It can be about your current customers or the ones you want to reach next.
It helps to sketch out your audience across three areas:
- Challenges: the problems and pain points they face. Where competitors have failed to solve these, you have an opening.
- Demographics: age, location, income, and role, so the design and content speak to the right people.
- Interests: their lifestyle, preferences, and habits.
3. Set Out the Project Overview
Define what the project is and why you are doing it. This keeps the deliverables clear from day one. A few questions to answer:
- Is this a brand new website or a redesign of an existing one?
- Will it follow existing branding, or does the branding need to be created? If so, who is doing that, and by when?
- How involved do you want to be in the design process?
- Is the content ready, or still to be written?
- Are there any obstacles you can foresee?
Even if you are not keeping your current website, share it. Your partner can see what customers already associate with you, carry forward what works, and replace what does not. Looking at your existing site and your competitors, your team can make recommendations and help you picture what the new website could become.
4. Define Your Project Goals
Every website should do a job. Spelling out your goals lets the team build towards what matters most to you rather than guessing. Common goals include:
- Modernise an outdated website.
- Add new functionality or move to a different content management system.
- Generate more leads or enquiries.
- Run a blog you can update easily.
- Get found in search, including the AI answer tools that now sit alongside traditional results.
Some goals need extra setup or ongoing services, such as conversion rate optimisation or a search audit. Flag these early, alongside your budget, so there are no surprises later.
5. Map Your Pages and Site Structure
Tell your agency roughly how many pages you need and how they should connect. A well planned structure gives visitors clear paths to what they want. Researching how competitors organise their sites, noting what works and what does not, is a good way to shape your own.
List the key pages. A typical structure looks like this:
- Home
- About
- Product or service pages
- Blog
- Contact
This helps set the price and timeline. It is also worth listing the sections you want, such as a team page. If you are building an online shop, the structure will differ and usually follows a hierarchy of collections, categories, subcategories, and products, with the homepage at the top.
Plan for legal and policy pages too, so you stay compliant and protect your business. These do not need to be ready upfront, only before launch, and the copy can run long. Ask your agency how these pages are handled and what is included in your scope.
6. Share Your Design Requirements
To understand the look and feel you are after, share links to websites you like, and ones you do not. It can be the overall style or a specific element. Most agencies run discovery sessions to explore this further, but an early steer gives them a head start. For example:
"We would like our website to follow a similar feel to the Influx site, but with a neutral colour palette for a clean, modern look. We like the use of the 50:50 split and want to use something similar. We want to keep the tone corporate to appeal to our audience, and we would like custom animations."
Include your brand guidelines, colour palette, and any rules about how colours should be used. This keeps your branding consistent and saves changes later. If you do not have branding yet, say so. Your agency may have an in-house branding team or trusted partners to recommend.
7. List Your Technical Requirements
Beyond design, think about the systems your site needs to do its job. For example:
- Any systems, databases, or functions that are critical to your business, such as accessibility features, APIs, or payment handling.
- A restaurant that wants customers to book a table online.
- Online payments through options such as PayPal or Apple Pay.
- An estate agent that needs a mortgage calculator.
Some technical needs become clear as you map each page. You might want a map on your contact page, for instance, so visitors can find your premises.
A few things should be non-negotiable. Your site needs to work well on every screen size, from phones and tablets through to laptops and desktops. It also needs an SSL certificate so data passes securely between the server and the visitor's browser. Secure sites use the HTTPS protocol, browsers flag those without it as "Not Secure", and Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014, describing it at the time as a lightweight signal that affected fewer than 1% of global queries. Security is now a baseline expectation rather than an extra.
Accessibility belongs here too. If you sell to consumers in the EU, the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 and sets accessibility requirements for consumer services including e-commerce, with microenterprises that provide services, those employing fewer than 10 people and under the turnover threshold, exempt in some cases. The Act's harmonised technical standard, EN 301 549, incorporates the WCAG 2.1 Level AA success criteria, so building to WCAG 2.1 AA is a practical way to work towards meeting it, and it makes your site easier to use for everyone. Raise any compliance needs with your agency early.
8. Decide on Hosting, Maintenance, and Domain
Your domain name is your website's address, the part shown in the browser bar. You may already own one, or your agency can help you register it.
Every site has to be hosted somewhere, and that choice affects performance, security, and how easily you can grow. Agencies usually handle hosting, and a good one will explain the options and recommend what suits you at the start of the project. Hosting can be scaled up or down later as your needs change. If you have a preferred arrangement, say so.
It helps to ask how hosting and ongoing care are structured, so you know what is included. Arrangements typically range across:
- Basic hosting and SSL, so your site is live and data stays private.
- Hosting and maintenance, where the agency also fixes bugs, resolves issues, and runs updates.
- Hosting, maintenance, and content management, where they look after your content as well, including new copy and images.
- An ongoing support arrangement that combines all of the above with design, development, and marketing. Our supporting services page has the detail.
9. Give a Timeline and Budget
You may not know your exact budget at the start, and that is normal. A range lets the project be shaped around the best outcome for your money. A smaller budget may lean on templates for parts of the design, while a larger one leaves room for custom animation, more complex layouts, and bespoke build work.
Cost varies with many factors, so it is worth being open about what you can spend. A clear figure, or even a rough range, lets your agency scope the project to your budget and recommend the right approach rather than guessing. If a website builder or a simpler build is the sensible starting point for now, a good agency will tell you.
Timelines work the same way. If you have a target date, share it. Perhaps you want to be ready for a new quarter, an event, or a campaign launch. A date also helps your own team plan what you need to prepare, from written content and photography to populating the site and testing it before go live.
10. Note Any Additional Services
Once the site is live, you may want to grow the traffic and enquiries it brings in. Lead generation services are worth asking about, and many agencies can set the groundwork during the design and build stages.
Other services to consider include monthly development changes, graphic design or print work, and marketing such as SEO, PPC, or social media. Most agencies offer monthly packages, so it pays to ask what is available and plan ahead.
Download Our Free Website Brief Template
Now that you have the full picture, you can start writing your own brief. We use the same template when onboarding new clients, and you are welcome to it. Fill it in, then send it to the agencies you are considering. To request a copy, get in touch and we will send it over.
Common Questions About Website Briefs
How Long Should a Website Brief Be?
Long enough to be clear, short enough to read in one sitting. Most briefs run a few pages. Cover the ten sections above, be specific where you can, and flag anything you are still deciding rather than leaving it blank.
Do I Need a Brief to Get a Quote?
It helps a great deal. Without a brief, an agency is quoting on guesswork, which usually means a vague price and revisions later. A clear brief gets you a more accurate proposal and a more useful first conversation.
What If I Do Not Have Branding Yet?
That is fine. Note it in the brief. Many agencies have a branding team or trusted partners and can build your identity alongside the website, so the two stay consistent.
How Detailed Should My Budget Be?
A range is enough to start. Sharing one, rather than withholding it, lets the agency shape the project around the best result for your money and avoids surprises once the work begins.
Can the Brief Change Once the Project Starts?
Yes. Treat it as a living document. Discovery sessions often refine the goals and scope, and a good agency will keep the brief updated so it stays a reliable reference throughout.
Start Your Website Project
A strong brief is the difference between a website that looks fine and one that earns its place in your business. If you would like a steer on yours, or want to talk through a project, our Manchester web design team is happy to help. We have worked on projects of every size and would love to hear about yours, so get in touch.
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