What should a website brief include?

A useful brief settles seven things: the one job the site is being hired to do, who arrives on it and what they already know, where an enquiry goes after someone submits it, who writes the words, what the business already owns (domain, hosting, Google Business Profile, analytics, photos, logo files), the launch date and the reason for it along with the one person who approves, and a budget range. Everything else, including page count and design direction, can be proposed by the vendor once those seven are on paper.

How long should a website brief be?

One to two pages for most small businesses. Length is not the goal. A brief that runs to ten pages usually contains a long list of features and design preferences, and very little about the decisions that actually change a build, such as where enquiries go and who writes the content. If your brief is short but answers the seven questions in this guide plainly, it is better than most briefs vendors receive.

Should I put my budget in a website brief?

Yes, as a range. Without one, each vendor designs to its own guess about what you will spend, which is one of the main reasons proposals for the same project come back so far apart. A range lets a vendor tell you what fits inside it and what does not, which is far more useful than three proposals built for three imagined budgets. Stating a range does not oblige you to spend the top of it.

Should I list competitor websites I like in the brief?

Only with a reason attached to each one. A bare list of websites you like tells a designer about taste, and taste is the least important input to a site that has to produce enquiries. If you include an example, say exactly what it does that you want: it shows prices upfront, it lets people book without calling, it explains the process step by step. That turns an example into a requirement a vendor can price.

What is the difference between a website brief and a request for proposal?

A brief describes your business, the job the site must do and the decisions you have already made. A formal request for proposal adds procurement rules on top: a deadline for responses, a required response format, evaluation criteria and sometimes contract terms. Most small businesses only need the brief. If you are a larger organization or required to run a formal process, write the brief first and attach it to the request, because the brief is the part that determines whether the responses are comparable.

Do I need a brief if I am using a website builder myself?

A shorter one, and it is still worth an hour. The same questions decide whether a do-it-yourself site works: what job it does, who it is for, where enquiries land and who writes the words. Writing them down before opening a builder stops the common pattern of choosing a template first and then bending the business to fit it.

Buyer’s GuideWebsite BuildingOctober 25, 2026

How to Write a Website Brief (and What to Leave Out)

By Mike Evan — Founder, Social Media Strategy HQ•Updated October 2026

A website brief is one or two pages recording what you have already decided: the site’s job, who it is for, where enquiries go, who writes the words, what you already own, the deadline and approver, and a budget range. Leave out design adjectives and page counts. Send the same brief to every vendor.

Most Briefs Describe a Feeling, Not a Project

The typical brief we receive is a paragraph and a few links. We are a family-run business, our site is outdated, we want something clean and modern that shows we are professional, here are three sites we like. Every word of that is true and almost none of it can be built from. It describes how the owner wants to feel about the finished site. It says nothing about what the site has to do on a Tuesday night when a stranger lands on it.

Vendors fill the gaps, and each fills them differently. One assumes you will write the copy; another assumes they will. One assumes an enquiry can land in an inbox; another assumes it has to reach your scheduling software. That is the mechanism behind proposals for the same project arriving several times apart, which we took apart in the vendor quote gap. This guide is the other half of that piece: how to write the document so the gaps never open.

It assumes you already know what the site is for. If you do not, start with what a small business website should do, which turns that question into a short job description. The brief is where that job description goes to work.

A Brief Is a Record of Decisions: The Three Columns

The single most useful change you can make is to stop thinking of a brief as a description and start thinking of it as a ledger. Take a sheet of paper and draw three columns.

Decided. Things that are fixed and not open to debate: the business name stays, bookings must land in the software you already pay for, the site must be live before the spring season, you will not publish prices. A vendor who quotes against something in this column without reading it has told you how carefully they will read everything else.

Open. Things you have a view on but would change with a good reason: whether to keep the current domain, whether you need a blog, how many service pages there should be. Say what you are leaning toward and invite the vendor to argue.

Yours to decide. Things you are deliberately handing to the vendor because they know more: structure, technology, layout, how the site is built. Writing this column down is what most owners skip, and it matters, because it tells a vendor where you want their expertise rather than their compliance.

A good brief has more in the first column than the owner expects and more in the third than the owner is comfortable with. The middle column is where the useful conversation happens.

The Seven Things a Brief Must Settle

These are the inputs that change what a site costs and how it performs. If your brief answers all seven in plain sentences, it is better than most of the briefs any agency sees.

1. The job, in one sentence

Not a mission statement. A sentence a stranger could check six months from now: turn local searches for emergency repairs into phone calls; get families to book a visit; let existing clients pay invoices and find documents without phoning the office.

2. Who arrives, and what they already know

A referral who already trusts you needs your phone number and proof you are real. A stranger comparing three providers needs process, price ranges and evidence. Most businesses get both, in a ratio they can estimate. Write the ratio down; it decides how much the site has to persuade.

3. Where an enquiry goes after someone submits it

The question that reshapes more builds than any other. Does a form go to one inbox, three people, a CRM, a booking calendar? Who answers it after hours? What happens today, honestly? If the answer is that enquiries sit until someone checks email, say so — that is where AI lead capture earns its keep, and a vendor cannot price it if you have not described it.

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4. Who writes the words

Be honest, including when the honest answer is that nobody in the business has time. Copy is the most commonly assumed and least commonly scoped part of a website, and it is the part that decides whether the site ranks and converts. The trade-offs are in should I write my own website copy.

5. What you already own

An inventory, not a description. Which company holds the domain and whose login controls it. Where the current site is hosted and who has access. Whether you can get into your Google Business Profile, analytics and Search Console. Logo files in a format a designer can use. Photos you own the rights to. Reviews, testimonials, case notes. Owners are routinely surprised to find a former provider still controls one of these, and finding out during the build costs weeks. If any line is uncertain, do I own my website walks through recovering it.

6. The date, the reason for the date, and one approver

A deadline without a reason gets treated as a preference. “Live before our March trade show” gets treated as a constraint. Name one person who signs off. Projects with three approvers do not take three times as long; they take as long as the slowest disagreement between them.

7. A budget range

Owners leave it out to avoid being charged the maximum. The effect is the opposite: each vendor designs to its own guess, and you get proposals for different projects that cannot be compared. A range lets a vendor say what fits and what does not. If you have no idea what is realistic, the tiers in how much a small business website costs will give you one in ten minutes.

What to Leave Out

Adjectives. Clean, modern, professional, sleek, bold. Every vendor will agree with all of them and none of them will change a single decision. If a word could appear in every brief ever written, delete it.

Bare lists of sites you like. Three links with no explanation tell a designer about your taste and nothing about your requirements. If an example matters, attach the reason: it shows a price range before the form, it lets people book without calling, it explains what happens after you get in touch. Now it is a requirement.

A page count. Asking for “a five-page site” locks in a structure before anyone has looked at how your customers search. Describe your services, your areas and your customer types, and let the vendor propose the structure — then judge it against the reasoning in how many pages a small business website needs.

Feature lists without a job. A chatbot, a blog, a members area, a gallery. Each one is a cost, and none of them is a requirement until it is attached to something in the job sentence. “People ask the same six questions before booking” is a requirement. “Chatbot” is a guess at a solution.

If You Are Replacing a Site, Add One Section

A replacement brief has an extra obligation: protect what the old site already earned. Add a short section listing the pages that bring in the most search traffic and enquiries (Search Console and your analytics will show you), any addresses printed on vehicles, cards or QR codes, and any page your Google Business Profile or ads link to. Then make preserving them a decided item, not an open one. The procedure for doing it is in how to redesign a website without losing Google rankings; the brief’s job is simply to make sure no vendor can quote without it.

Your Brief Is Also a Draft of What AI Will Say About You

The facts in a good brief — what you do, where, for whom, what you do not take on, how the process works — are exactly the facts AI assistants look for when deciding whether to name a business. A vendor working from a precise brief puts them on the site plainly. A vendor working from adjectives produces pages that say you are trusted and dedicated, which no assistant can quote. Google is now even testing a section in its AI answers that highlights official websites, and a site only reads as official if it states its own facts clearly. That is the core of answer engine optimization, and it starts in the brief, not after launch.

It is also why the brief has become the slowest part of a modern build. We build with Claude Code, so the construction of a site can take days; what cannot be compressed is knowing what is true about the business. A clear brief is the difference between a project that starts on day one and one that spends its first two weeks on discovery calls.

A One-Page Outline You Can Send Today

Use these headings, in this order, with a few sentences under each:

The business — what you sell, where, to whom, and what you do not do.
The job — one sentence, plus how you will know it worked.
The visitors — referrals versus strangers, and the questions they ask before buying.
The enquiry route — where a submitted form or call goes today and where it should go.
The words — who writes them and what material already exists.
The inventory — domain, hosting, profiles, analytics, logo files, photos, reviews, and who controls each.
Decided / open / yours to decide — the three columns.
Date, reason and approver.
Budget range.

Send the identical document to every vendor, and then pay attention to the questions that come back. The vendor who asks about item four or item six has read it. The one who replies with a price and a portfolio link has not. The rest of the selection process — ownership terms, portfolio checks, red flags — is in how to choose a web design agency.