What to Include in a Website Project Brief
A website project becomes easier to quote when everyone agrees on what it needs to achieve. Before choosing colors or collecting design references, write a short brief that describes the business problem, the customer, and the next action the site should encourage. A useful brief does not need technical language. It needs decisions.
Start with one customer and one action
Describe your primary customer in a sentence. Include the service they need, the area you serve, and what they need to know before contacting you. Then choose one main conversion: a phone call, a consultation request, a booking, or a purchase. A page can support secondary actions, but its main purpose should be obvious.
Example: a local repair company wants homeowners in its service area to request an estimate. That brief calls for service information, genuine project photos, coverage details, and a short inquiry form—not a complicated customer portal.
Make a page and content inventory
List the pages you actually need and the question each page answers. For a small service business, a sensible starting point might be Home, Services, About, Work, and Contact. Separate service pages are useful when customers need substantially different information.
For every page, assign an owner for the copy, photos, testimonials, and approvals. Flag anything missing. If the agency is writing the copy, include that explicitly in the scope rather than assuming it is included.
Name the connections and responsibilities
Document where each inquiry should go and who responds. Identify any booking system, CRM, payment provider, or newsletter tool the site must connect to. Distinguish an external link from a custom integration: they involve different work.
Agree who owns the domain, hosting account, source files, and administrator access. Ask how you will make routine edits and what post-launch support covers. Record recurring costs separately from the project fee.
Define what ready to launch means
Use an acceptance checklist rather than a vague promise that the site will be polished. Include readable mobile layouts, working navigation, labeled forms, tested delivery, approved content, useful page titles, and a recovery plan.
If you are replacing a site, list important existing URLs so redirects can be planned. Google recommends descriptive organization and links that help people and search engines understand content. That is a useful foundation, not a guarantee of rankings.
Your action checklist
- Primary customer and conversion
- Page list and content owners
- Required integrations and account ownership
- Review rounds, exclusions, and dependencies
- Launch checklist and post-launch support
Further reading: Google SEO Starter Guide. The workflow above is our practical planning guidance, not a promise of specific results.
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