How to write a website brief for your web designer (with a template)

Step 1: Start your website brief with your business and customers

Start with the basics a stranger would need. Your designer can't make the right calls about layout, wording or photos until they know who the site is talking to.

• What you do: your main services or products, in the words your customers use.
• Where you work: the suburbs, city or region you serve, and whether customers come to you or you go to them.
• Who your customers are: homeowners, other businesses, parents, patients. Note what they usually want to know before they contact you.
• Why they choose you: what you do better or differently, in plain terms.

Step 2: Set the one main goal for the site

A website can do many things, but it should have one main job. For most small businesses that's one of three: phone calls, online bookings, or enquiry forms. Pick the one that brings in the most work, and say so in the brief.

This choice shapes the whole design. A site built for calls puts the phone number at the top of every page on a mobile. A site built for bookings puts the booking button there instead. Nielsen Norman Group makes the same point about design work in general: focus on the outcome you want, not a list of features, and decide what you're building only once the goal is clear.

Step 3: List the pages and must-have features

You don't need a site map. A simple list is enough. Most small business sites need a home page, a page for each main service, an about page and a contact page. Add a page for anything customers often ask about, such as pricing, service areas or FAQs. For what goes on the first page people see, our guide on what to put on a small business homepage goes further.

Then list the features the site must have, and keep it to what you'll actually use:

• Contact: a click-to-call number, an enquiry form, a map.
• Bookings or payments: and the system you already use for them, if any.
• Connections: a CRM, accounting software, email marketing or your Google Business Profile.
• Updates: what you expect to change often, such as prices, specials or opening hours.

Step 4: Gather your content and photos

Content is the part that holds most projects up. The designer can build the pages, but only you know your prices, your service details and your story. Gather what you have before the project starts, even if it's rough.

• Text: service descriptions, your about story, FAQs, and anything on your current site worth keeping.
• Photos: your team, your work, your premises. Real photos of your business usually say more than stock images.
• Brand files: your logo in the best quality you have, plus any colours or fonts you already use.
• Trust details: licences, memberships, insurance and links to your reviews.

Say which content you'll write yourself and which you want help with. That changes the scope, so it belongs in the brief.

Step 5: Share websites you like, and say why

Examples save hours of back and forth. Two or three sites you like, and one or two you don't, tell a designer more than a page of adjectives. They don't have to be in your industry.

The reason matters more than the link. "I like this site" is hard to act on. "I like how the booking button is always visible" or "this one feels cluttered and slow on my phone" is something a designer can use.

Step 6: List your logins and accounts

A designer can't launch a site without access to the accounts around it. A missing login can leave a finished site waiting to go live. List who controls each of these, and where:

• Domain name: which company it's registered with, and whose name is on it. For a .au domain, auDA records the licence holder as the registrant. That should be your business, not a past designer.
• Hosting: where the current site lives, if you have one, and who pays for it.
• Email: who runs your business email, so it keeps working when the site moves.
• Google Business Profile: who the owners and managers are.
• Other tools: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, booking, payment or social accounts linked to the site.

Don't put passwords in the brief or send them by email. Where a service supports it, invite the designer as a user instead. Google Business Profile, for example, lets you add someone as a manager so each person uses their own Google Account and nobody shares a password. If a past designer holds your logins, our guide on getting access to your website back explains what to do.

Step 7: Set your budget, timeline and how you'll measure success

Give a budget range, even a rough one. It lets the designer suggest what fits, rather than quote for everything and leave you to cut. Our Australian website price guide shows typical prices if you're not sure where to start. Include ongoing costs too, such as hosting and edits, not just the build.

Then give a timeline. Note any fixed date, such as a launch, a new location or a busy season, and work back from it so content and logins are ready in time.

Finally, write down what success looks like. Nielsen Norman Group advises defining the goal first, then the behaviour that shows it's been reached, then how to measure it. For a small business site that might be more calls from the website, more online bookings, or fewer emails asking questions the site should answer. Check the same numbers before and after launch so you can compare.

Website brief template

Copy this, fill in what you can, and leave the rest blank. A brief with gaps is still far better than no brief.

WEBSITE BRIEF

Business name:
Website (if any):
What we do:
Where we work:
Our customers:
Why customers choose us:

Main goal of the site (calls, bookings or enquiries):

Pages needed:
Must-have features:
Nice to have later:

Content we have (text, photos, logo):
Content we need help with:

Sites we like, and why:
Sites we don't like, and why:

Domain registered with / in whose name:
Hosting:
Business email run by:
Google Business Profile owners and managers:
Other accounts linked to the site:

Budget range (build and monthly):
Timeline and any fixed dates:
How we'll measure success:
Who approves the design:

Or answer a few questions instead

If writing a brief feels like a chore, Lumeen's discovery questionnaire covers much of it in a few clicks. It asks whether you have a website today, what the new site should do, how many enquiries you get and where they come from, why customers contact you, what the site needs to connect to, who looks after it now, two or three sites you like and one or two you don't, one thing you'd automate, and what would make the site worth it six months after launch. Budget, timeline and logins are worth adding as a note, or we'll ask about them after.

Outside the offer, Lumeen quotes larger websites after the discovery questionnaire, with no deposit. Hosting is required, from $24.99 a month inc. GST.

Key takeaways

1. (01)

   A website brief tells your designer who you serve, what the site is for and what it needs, before work starts.

2. (02)

   Pick one main goal, such as calls, bookings or enquiries, and let it shape every page.

3. (03)

   Gather content, examples and logins early. They hold up more projects than the design does.

4. (04)

   Write down a budget range, a timeline and how you'll measure success, then check the same numbers after launch.

Frequently asked questions

More answers on price, hosting and timing in our FAQ.