How to Write a Website Brief (With a Template)

Why a Website Brief Matters

Planning a new website? Use the template below, then send it to us for a free quote. A clear brief is the fastest way to an accurate price.

If you ask three web designers to quote on "a website for my business", you'll get three very different prices, and none of them will be wrong. Each person is guessing at what you need. Knowing how to write a website brief takes the guesswork out. It gives every designer the same information, so you can compare quotes fairly. It also gives your designer a reference point when decisions come up halfway through the build.

A brief doesn't need to be long or technical. A few pages written in plain English is plenty for most small business sites. This guide walks through each section, explains why it matters, and finishes with a template you can copy.

What a Good Website Brief Includes

A useful brief answers six questions:

1. Who are you, and who are your customers?
2. What should the website achieve?
3. What pages and content does it need?
4. What does it need to do (features)?
5. What should it look and feel like?
6. What is the budget and timeline?

Let's go through each one.

1. Business Overview and Audience

Start with a short description of your business, written as if you were explaining it to a new staff member.

• What you do, and the services or products you're best known for.
• Where you operate: a single suburb, a city, a state, or Australia-wide.
• Who your customers are. For example, homeowners in Brisbane's northern suburbs, property managers, small offices, or other businesses.
• What makes you different from competitors. Be honest. "We answer the phone" counts if your competitors don't.

Include a few competitor or peer websites, with a note on what you like and dislike about each one. This tells your designer far more than "modern and clean".

2. Goals and Success Measures

Every website needs a main job. For most service businesses, it's generating enquiries: phone calls, quote requests or bookings. For others, it's online sales, recruitment, or giving existing clients information.

Write down:

• The primary goal. For example, "Get more quote requests for bathroom renovations."
• Secondary goals. For example, "Show our licence and insurance," or "Reduce phone calls asking about opening hours."
• How you'll measure success. Number of form enquiries, calls from the website, bookings or sales. If you're not tracking anything yet, say so. Setting up analytics can be part of the project.

Clear goals affect design decisions. A site built for phone calls puts a tap-to-call button front and centre on mobile. A site built for online sales prioritises product pages and checkout.

3. Pages and Content

List the pages you think you need. A typical small business site includes:

• Home
• A page for each main service (one service per page usually works better than one long services page)
• About
• Contact
• Location pages, if you genuinely serve distinct areas
• Gallery, projects or case studies
• FAQ
• Privacy policy

Our guide to website design packages explains how page counts usually affect scope and price.

Then answer the most important content question: who is writing the words and supplying the photos? Content is the most common cause of delays in website projects. Be clear about:

• Whether you'll write the text, or need copywriting included.
• Whether you have your own photos of your work, team and premises, or need stock images or a photographer.
• Whether there's existing content from an old site that should be reused.
• Your logo files and any brand colours or fonts.

4. Features and Functionality

List what the website needs to do. Be specific, and separate must-haves from nice-to-haves.

Common features for Australian small businesses include:

• Contact or quote request forms, with details of what information you need to collect
• Click-to-call buttons and a map
• Online booking or appointment scheduling
• Online payments or deposits
• An online shop, with an estimate of how many products
• A blog or news section you can update yourself
• Integration with tools you already use, such as your CRM, email marketing platform, accounting software or job management system
• Reviews or testimonials displayed on the site
• Multiple languages

If you need to update the site yourself, say which parts and how often. That affects which platform makes sense.

5. Look and Feel

Design is subjective, so give examples rather than adjectives.

• Two or three websites you like, and why (layout, colours, photography, simplicity).
• Any websites you don't like, and why.
• Your existing brand guidelines, if you have them.
• Anything that must be avoided, such as particular colours or styles that clash with your signage or vehicles.

Also mention accessibility. Your site should be usable by people with disabilities, including people using screen readers or keyboards. It's worth asking any designer how they handle this.

6. Technical Details

You don't need to be technical, but your designer needs to know:

• Domain name: do you already own one? Who is it registered with, and do you have the login? See our guide to who owns your website for why this matters.
• Current website: what platform is it on, and who hosts it?
• Email: is your business email tied to your current host? Email is easy to break during a website move if no one checks first.
• Existing rankings: if your current site gets enquiries from Google, pages and URLs need to be mapped carefully when the new site goes live. Our website migration SEO checklist covers this.
• Hosting and maintenance: do you want the designer to host and maintain the site, or will you manage it?

7. Budget and Timeline

Many business owners leave the budget out, worried they'll be quoted up to it. In practice, a budget range helps a designer recommend the right approach rather than quoting something you can't afford, or something too basic for what you need.

Include:

• A budget range, and whether ongoing costs (hosting, maintenance, updates) fit within it.
• Your ideal launch date, and whether it's fixed. For example, a trade show or the end of a lease on your old hosting.
• Who makes decisions, and how quickly you can give feedback.

Website Brief Template

Copy this into a document and fill it in:

• Business name and website (if any):
• What we do (2–3 sentences):
• Where we operate:
• Our ideal customers:
• What makes us different:
• Competitor or example sites (with likes and dislikes):
• Main goal of the website:
• Secondary goals:
• How we'll measure success:
• Pages we need:
• Who supplies text and photos:
• Features (must-have):
• Features (nice-to-have):
• Tools to integrate with:
• Look and feel examples:
• Domain, hosting and email details:
• Budget range (build and ongoing):
• Target launch date:
• Decision-maker and contact:

Common Brief Mistakes

• Too vague. "A professional website" doesn't tell anyone anything.
• A feature wish list without priorities. Mark what's essential for launch and what can come later.
• Ignoring content. If no one is responsible for the text and photos, the project stalls.
• Forgetting the old site. Removing pages that currently bring in enquiries can cost you leads.
• No decision-maker. Feedback from five people with different opinions slows everything down.

Once you have a brief, our article on what to look for in professional web design services will help you compare the proposals you receive.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a website brief be?

For most small business websites, a few pages is enough. Being clear matters more than length. Short bullet answers to each section in the template are fine.

Do I need a brief if I'm using a website package?

Yes. Even with a fixed package, a brief makes sure the pages, content and features match what you actually need, and it helps your designer get the first draft right.

Should I include my budget in the brief?

It's usually helpful. A range lets the designer suggest an approach that fits, rather than guessing. You can still compare quotes.

What if I don't know what features I need?

Describe the problem instead. For example, "Customers keep calling to ask if we're available on weekends." A good designer will suggest a solution.

Ready to Brief Us?

Fill in the template and get in touch. We'll review it, ask any follow-up questions and give you a fixed quote. You can also browse our services to see what's included in each build.

Related guide: How to Write an About Us Page That Builds Trust