How to write a website brief that gets you accurate quotes

The short answer

A website brief is a one- or two-page document you write before contacting agencies. It says what the business does, what the website must achieve, who it is for, which pages and features it needs, what you will provide, what you can spend and when it has to be live. With it, every agency quotes the same project. Without it, each one quotes a different guess, and the cheapest quote is often just the one that assumed the least.

Why a brief changes the quotes you get

A request like “we need a new website, how much?” forces an agency to choose between two bad options: quote high to cover everything you might mean, or quote low and recover the difference later through change requests. A brief removes the guesswork. It also tells you which agencies read it: a good proposal answers your brief point by point, while a template proposal ignores it.

What to put in it

Twelve short sections cover everything an agency needs to quote properly. Most of them take a sentence or two.

1. The business in two sentences

What you sell, to whom and where. “We install and service heat pumps for homeowners in the Austin area” is more useful to a designer than a page of company history.

2. The one thing the website must achieve

Name the main action: calls, quote requests, bookings, online sales or sign-ups. Then name how you will judge it, for example “more quote requests from the website than from referrals within a year”. Design, structure and content decisions all follow from this, so it is the most important line in the brief.

3. Who the site is for

Describe your typical customers, what they need to know before they contact you, and the objections they raise on calls. If you sell in more than one language or market, say so here, because a bilingual site is a different project from a single-language one.

4. The pages you expect

A simple list is enough: Home, About, one page per service, Pricing, Contact, a blog if you will actually write for it. Mark which pages exist today and which are new. The number of pages is one of the main drivers of price, so a realistic list now prevents a surprise later.

5. What you will provide and what you need written

Say who writes the text, who supplies photos, and whether you have a logo and brand guidelines. Copywriting and photography are often the parts quotes leave out, and late content is the most common reason launches slip.

6. Features and integrations

List what the site has to do beyond showing pages: contact or quote forms, online booking, payments, a customer area, a store (with the approximate number of products), a newsletter sign-up, connections to your CRM or accounting software. If a feature is a “nice to have”, label it that way so agencies can price it separately.

7. Design direction

Share two or three websites you like and say what you like about each: the layout, the tone, how a page is organised. Add one you dislike and why. “Clean and modern” means something different to everyone; specific examples do not.

8. The current website and the technical basics

Give the current address, who owns the domain and the hosting, and which pages bring in traffic or enquiries today. If the site already ranks on Google, the agency must plan redirects from the old addresses to the new ones; our redesign and SEO migration checklist explains why that matters.

9. Budget range

Give a range rather than hiding it. A range lets agencies propose what is realistic for that money and explain the trade-offs, instead of guessing. If you have no idea what websites cost, our guide to small business website costs and our cost calculator give you a starting point.

10. Deadline, and the reason for it

“Before our trade show on 12 March” is a real deadline; “as soon as possible” is not. A reason helps the agency plan phases, for example launching the core pages first and the blog later.

11. Who decides, and how feedback works

Name the one person who approves designs and content. Projects with several approvers who disagree take longer and cost more, so if more people need to sign off, say so up front.

12. After launch

Say who will update the site and how often, and whether you want ongoing help with updates, security and backups. It affects the choice of platform and the handover. Our guide to website maintenance plans covers what that usually includes.

What to leave out

• Technology choices you do not depend on. Describe what the site must do and let agencies recommend the platform, unless you are tied to one already.
• A design you have already drawn. Examples and preferences help; a finished layout turns designers into decorators.
• A wish list without priorities. Mark what is essential for launch and what can wait.

A template you can copy

• Business: what we sell, to whom, where.
• Main goal: the one action the site must drive, and how we will measure it.
• Audience: who our customers are, what they ask, which languages.
• Pages: list, marked existing or new.
• Content: who writes the text, who provides photos, brand assets we have.
• Features: must-haves and nice-to-haves, including integrations.
• Design examples: two or three sites we like and why; one we do not.
• Current site: address, domain and hosting owner, pages that matter today.
• Budget: range.
• Deadline: date and reason.
• Decision-maker: name.
• After launch: who updates the site, support we want.

How to compare the quotes you get back

Put the proposals side by side and check four things before you look at the price: does each one cover the same pages, features and content, or has something been left out? Who will own the domain, hosting, website files and accounts after launch? How many rounds of revisions are included, and what happens after that? And how realistic is the timeline, given what you have to provide? Our guide on how to choose a web design agency lists the questions worth asking on the call.

Frequently asked questions