Website Brief Template: What to Include Before Hiring a Web Designer
A useful website brief gives an agency enough commercial and operational context to recommend the right solution—without trying to design the entire project in advance.
What a website brief should achieve
A website brief should explain why the project exists, who the website must serve and what users need to do. It should also identify operational constraints such as content ownership, integrations, approvals and launch deadlines.
The brief does not need to prescribe every layout, colour or technical decision. That can prevent the agency from solving the underlying problem. Give clear information about the business and required outcome, then ask the agency to recommend the journey, structure and platform.
Copyable website brief template
Use the headings below in a document and answer each section as clearly as you can. If something is unknown, mark it as a question for the agency rather than guessing.
1. Business overview
- What does the business do?
- Which services or products are priorities?
- Where do you operate?
- What makes the offer meaningfully different?
2. Project reason
- Why is the project happening now?
- What is wrong with the current website?
- What opportunity is being missed?
- Is this a new build, redesign or migration?
3. Audiences
- Who are the primary users?
- What problem brings them to the site?
- What evidence do they need to trust you?
- What objections prevent action?
4. Required actions
- Enquiry or telephone call?
- Booking or quotation?
- Online purchase or repeat order?
- Download, registration or application?
5. Scope
- Required pages or templates
- Languages or locations
- Products, categories or resources
- Accounts, portals or gated content
6. Responsibilities
- Who supplies copy and imagery?
- Who approves each stage?
- Who manages the site after launch?
- Which external suppliers are involved?
Describe the audience with real buying context
A list of ages and job titles is rarely enough. Explain what triggers the search, how urgent the need is, who approves the purchase and what concerns must be resolved. A facilities manager comparing suppliers behaves differently from a homeowner with an emergency, even if both eventually submit an enquiry form.
If several audiences use the website, rank them. Trying to give every audience equal prominence can produce a homepage that communicates nothing clearly.
Audit content before design begins
Design cannot solve missing or duplicated content. List what will be retained, rewritten, merged, removed or created. Include service details, team biographies, testimonials, certifications, case studies, product information, policies, downloads, photography and video.
- Identify the subject-matter expert for every important service.
- Confirm who can approve legal, compliance or technical wording.
- Separate verified proof from marketing claims that still need evidence.
- Flag content that already attracts organic traffic before removing or rewriting it.
- Record image ownership and whether new photography is required.
For an established site, export current URLs and performance data before agreeing the new structure. Our guide to redesigning without losing SEO explains why this must happen before pages are deleted or renamed.
Define functional and technical requirements
Describe what the system must do, the information it must exchange and the people who will use it. Avoid listing a tool merely because the current website uses it; explain the underlying requirement so the agency can assess alternatives.
| Area | Questions for the brief |
|---|---|
| CMS | Who edits the website, how often, and what must they be able to change? |
| Forms and CRM | Where should enquiries go, which fields are required and how is consent recorded? |
| Ecommerce | Products, variants, payments, tax, shipping, returns, stock, discounts and account requirements |
| Bookings | Availability, locations, staff, reminders, payments and cancellation rules |
| Integrations | CRM, email, accounting, ERP, POS, fulfilment, analytics and advertising platforms |
| Access | Customer, member, staff or supplier roles and what each role can view or change |
| Compliance | Privacy, cookies, accessibility, sector rules and data-retention requirements |
| Hosting | Current provider, traffic, storage, security, backups and ownership |
State platform preferences without locking the decision
If your team already has WordPress experience, or your retail operation depends on Shopify, include that context. Also state whether the agency may recommend an alternative. Platform choice should follow the customer journey and operational requirements.
For an early comparison, review WordPress vs Shopify vs WooCommerce. One Digital also provides dedicated WordPress, Shopify and WooCommerce services when the brief requires platform-specific delivery.
Include SEO and migration requirements
SEO should not appear as a single line reading “make the website SEO friendly”. Define existing organic priorities, target services, locations, content to preserve, known rankings and reporting requirements. For a redesign, the brief should require a URL map, redirects, metadata migration, canonical checks, structured data review and pre-launch crawl.
Also include analytics ownership and the actions that matter: form submissions, telephone clicks, bookings, purchases, quote requests or downloads. Measurement must be tested before launch rather than added after traffic arrives.
Define success measures and review dates
Separate launch acceptance from business performance. Launch acceptance covers whether pages, functionality, tracking and content work as agreed. Business performance should be reviewed over an appropriate period after launch.
- Qualified enquiry volume and enquiry quality
- Ecommerce conversion, average order value or repeat purchase behaviour
- Completion rates for key journeys
- Organic visibility for priority services and locations
- Website speed and technical error rates
- Editorial efficiency for the internal team
Avoid promising rankings or conversion increases before the baseline, competition and implementation are understood. Agree the measurement method, owner and review cadence instead.
What to send with the brief
- Current website and analytics access where available
- Brand guidelines, logo files and approved fonts
- Examples of websites you find effective, with reasons
- Existing sitemap, content inventory or product catalogue
- Integration documentation and supplier contacts
- Known launch constraints and approval stakeholders
- A realistic budget range or decision framework
Once the brief is ready, use our guide to choosing a London web design agency to compare processes and proposals consistently.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a website brief be?
It should be long enough to explain the business, audiences, goals, scope, functionality, responsibilities and constraints. A clear three-to-five-page brief is often more useful than a long document filled with design instructions.
Do I need to choose a website platform before contacting an agency?
No. Share any existing preferences or constraints, but allow the agency to compare platforms against your content, ecommerce, integration and maintenance requirements.
Should a website brief include a budget?
A budget range helps an agency recommend a realistic scope and prevents both sides investing time in an unsuitable approach. If the budget is not fixed, explain the commercial value and how the investment decision will be made.
Who should approve the website brief?
The person accountable for the project should approve it, with input from marketing, sales, operations, IT, legal or ecommerce stakeholders where their requirements affect the website.
What SEO information belongs in a website brief?
Include priority services and locations, existing organic performance, important URLs, migration requirements, content responsibilities, tracking needs and any known technical issues.
A better brief creates a better decision
Clear business context helps an agency recommend the right scope, platform and customer journey before design begins.