In this guide
- Start with business goals and priority services
- Map the pages and assign content ownership
- Describe the functions customers and staff need
- Plan migration and search foundations before design
- Use this checklist to write your brief
- Compare the scope and confirm the handover
- Agree how you will judge the result
A website brief explains what your business needs the new site to achieve and what the project must include. It gives a designer or developer enough context to recommend a useful approach, identify missing information and prepare a proposal you can evaluate.
You do not need a technical specification before starting a conversation. You do need clear priorities, an honest picture of the existing website and someone responsible for decisions.
Start with business goals and priority services
Describe your customers, the services you want to grow and the locations you actually serve. Explain why you need a new website. Perhaps your current pages no longer reflect the business, your team cannot update them or customers regularly misunderstand what you offer.
Choose a primary outcome, such as more suitable estimate requests for a particular service. Include constraints that matter, such as service capacity, qualification requirements or a seasonal business deadline.
For a hypothetical electrical contractor, the priority might be residential panel upgrades across three named service areas. Its brief could prioritize that service, explain which projects it accepts and require a way to request an assessment. This is an illustrative planning example, not a client result.
Map the pages and assign content ownership
Start with a proposed page list: home, individual priority services, service coverage, about, relevant project examples and contact. Give each page a purpose. A location page should help customers understand actual coverage and relevant service details.
For every page, record whether existing copy can be reused, needs revision or must be written. Identify who supplies service facts, photographs, credentials and permission to use customer material. Confirm whether the proposal includes research, copywriting, image selection and uploading content.
Name one person who can consolidate feedback and approve factual accuracy. A page count alone does not reveal how much content work the project requires.
Describe the functions customers and staff need
List essential functions and explain the task behind each one. An appointment request differs from a booking system that confirms available times. A contact form differs from an integration that creates a record in existing business software.
State what information each function collects, where it goes and who responds. Name any existing tools that must connect, plus subscriptions or access the supplier needs to assess. Separate launch requirements from features that can wait.
Include mobile usability, accessibility and performance in the scope. Ask how they will be evaluated and who addresses issues. W3C recommends integrating accessibility throughout production, with assigned responsibilities and evaluation during the work.
Plan migration and search foundations before design
If you already have a site, provide its address and access arrangements. Identify pages that attract relevant visits, generate inquiries or receive links. Ask which URLs can remain and which content must move.
When URLs change, the scope should include a map from old pages to relevant replacements, permanent redirects and launch checks. Sending every old address to the homepage is not a useful substitute. Google’s site migration guidance covers URL mapping, redirects, updated links and monitoring. Assign responsibility for checking these after launch.
Define the SEO deliverables: descriptive page titles, useful service content, internal links, indexing checks and search reporting access. Ask what is included at launch and what requires ongoing work.
For AI search, Google says its established SEO practices remain relevant, with no special AI markup required or guaranteed inclusion. Its AI features guidance explains the requirements. Our guide to SEO and AI search priorities explores those foundations further.
Use this checklist to write your brief
Copy these prompts into a document and complete what you know. Mark unanswered questions clearly so suppliers can explain their assumptions.
- Business and audience: Who do we serve, where do we work and what makes a customer suitable?
- Priority outcome: What should the website help customers do, and which services matter most?
- Pages and content: What pages, copy, photographs and evidence are needed? Who supplies and approves them?
- Functions: What must visitors and staff be able to do? Which existing tools must connect?
- Existing website: What content, URLs, tracking and account access must be retained or transferred?
- Delivery constraints: What budget range, business deadline, dependencies and approval process should the supplier consider?
- Acceptance and ownership: What will be checked before launch, what accounts and files will we receive, and who supports the site afterward?
Compare the scope and confirm the handover
Give suppliers the same brief, then compare their stated inclusions. Check page quantities, content work, design revisions, integrations, migration, testing and training. Ask how additional requests are assessed and approved. A lower initial quote may cover fewer responsibilities.
Confirm who controls the domain, hosting, website administration, analytics and search accounts. Clarify ownership of commissioned content and design, any licensed components, renewal charges and what can be transferred if you change suppliers.
Ask for an account inventory, editing guidance and a clear route for reporting launch defects. Separate that support from future content updates and maintenance. Our guide to keeping your website working after launch can help define the ongoing responsibilities.
Agree how you will judge the result
Separate launch acceptance from later business performance. Before launch, confirm the agreed pages are complete, contact routes reach the right people, redirects work and your team can perform the promised editing tasks.
For business outcomes, record a starting point where data exists and choose measures tied to your goal. These might include valid inquiries for priority services, the proportion that fit your service area and which become suitable opportunities.
Agree who reviews those measures and when. Allow for seasonality and other marketing activity. A completed build can satisfy its specification without immediately establishing an improvement in sales.