How to write a website brief that gets you accurate quotes

Ask three web agencies to quote on “a new website” and you might get three prices that are thousands of dollars apart. That’s rarely because one is cheap and another is greedy. It’s because each one imagined a different website.

A clear brief fixes that. It doesn’t need to be long or technical. It just needs to answer the questions every designer and developer will ask. Here’s what to include.

1. About your business

Start with the basics in a few sentences:

• What you do and who you do it for.
• Where you operate: one suburb, a city, or all of Australia.
• What makes you different from your competitors.

2. Why you need a new website

This is the most useful part of the brief. Be honest about what’s not working. For example:

• “Our site is slow and looks dated on phones.”
• “We can’t update it ourselves, so it’s always out of date.”
• “We’re launching a new business and don’t have a site yet.”
• “We get traffic but very few enquiries.”

3. Your goals

What should the website do for your business? Pick one or two main goals and make them specific if you can:

• More enquiries or quote requests.
• More online bookings or sales.
• Fewer phone calls asking the same questions.
• A better first impression for people who’ve been referred to you.

4. Your audience

Who will visit the site, and what do they need to find? A one-line description of two or three typical customers is enough. Think about what they’re worried about, what they want to know before contacting you, and whether they’re mostly on phones.

5. The pages you need

List the pages you think you’ll need. A rough list is fine:

• Home
• Services (one page for each, or one combined page?)
• About
• Case studies or portfolio
• Blog
• Contact

If you have an existing site, include its address and mention which pages get the most visits. If you’re moving from another platform, say which one, so the developer can plan the migration and redirects.

6. Features and integrations

This is where quotes vary most, so be as clear as you can. Do you need:

• A contact or quote form?
• Online booking or payments?
• A shop, and roughly how many products?
• A blog or news section you’ll update yourself?
• Connections to tools you already use, such as your CRM, email newsletter or booking system?
• Multiple languages?

7. Content

Who will write the words and supply the photos? Content is the most common reason website projects run late. Be upfront about whether you need help with copywriting, photography or moving content from your current site.

8. Look and feel

Share what you like and don’t like:

• Your logo, brand colours and fonts, if you have them.
• Two or three websites you like, and what you like about each one.
• Any sites you don’t like, and why.

9. Who will update the site

Will someone on your team edit pages, add blog posts or change prices? Say how often and how comfortable they are with technology. This helps the developer choose the right content management setup. Here’s how a headless CMS works, for example.

10. Budget and timeline

It can feel risky to share a budget, but it’s the fastest way to get a useful proposal. A range is fine. It lets the agency suggest what’s realistic for that amount instead of guessing.

For timing, mention any fixed dates, such as a product launch, a busy season or an event, and how much time you can give to reviews and feedback.

A simple template

Copy this and fill in each line:

• Business: what we do, who for, where.
• Problem: what’s not working now, or why we need a site.
• Goals: the one or two things the site must achieve.
• Audience: who visits and what they need to find.
• Pages: the list of pages.
• Features: forms, booking, shop, blog, integrations.
• Content: what we’ll supply and what we need help with.
• Look and feel: brand assets, sites we like and why.
• Editing: who updates the site and how often.
• Budget and timeline: a budget range and any key dates.
• Current site: web address, platform and most important pages.

Not sure about some of the answers?

That’s normal, especially for features and budget. Fill in what you can and leave the rest as questions. A good agency will help you work through them.

If you already have a site, start with our free speed check so you know where you stand. When you’re ready, send us your brief and we’ll come back with a fixed price and timeline.