How to Write a Website Brief That Gets You the Site You Actually Want

The most expensive website mistakes don't happen during development. They happen before a single line of code gets written — during the planning phase that most people skip entirely.

According to a 2024 study by the Project Management Institute, 39% of projects fail due to poorly defined requirements. In web design, that number feels low. After working on hundreds of website builds, we'd put it closer to half. The pattern is always the same: the client had a vision in their head, the designer had a different interpretation, nobody wrote it down, and the project spirals into revisions, scope creep, and frustration.

A website brief fixes that. Not a 40-page document full of corporate jargon — a clear, structured summary of what you need, who it's for, and what success looks like.

Here's how to write one that actually works.

What a website brief is (and what it isn't)

A website brief is a document that tells a designer or agency everything they need to know to build your site correctly the first time. It covers your business, your audience, your goals, your content, and your constraints.

It is not:

• A design spec (you're not picking fonts and colors here)
• A wireframe (that comes later, informed by the brief)
• A contract or statement of work (though the brief feeds into both)

Think of it as the blueprint that everything else gets built from. Skip it, and you're asking a contractor to build a house with no architectural plans. They'll build something, and it probably won't be what you wanted.

Section 1: Company background

Keep this short — two to four paragraphs. You're not writing your autobiography. Cover:

What your business does. One or two sentences. If you can't explain it clearly in writing, your website will have the same clarity problem.

Who your customers are. Be specific. "Small businesses" is too broad. "Restaurant owners in the tri-state area with 1-3 locations and no dedicated marketing person" — that's useful. The more precisely you define your audience, the better your site will speak to them.

What makes you different. Not a list of features. The actual reason a customer would pick you over a competitor. If you're not sure, that's worth figuring out before you brief a web designer.

Your current website situation. Do you have an existing site? What platform is it on? What works and what doesn't? If you're starting from scratch, say so.

Section 2: Project goals

This is where most briefs either get too vague or too prescriptive.

Too vague: "We want a modern, professional website." Every business says that. It tells the designer nothing.

Too prescriptive: "We want a hero section with a gradient background and a rotating carousel of testimonials and a sticky sidebar with a chatbot." You're designing the site before you've defined the goal.

Instead, state your goals in terms of business outcomes:

• "We need to generate 20 qualified leads per month through the website"
• "We need an online store that can handle 500+ SKUs with variant options"
• "We need to reduce phone-based customer support by giving customers answers on the site"
• "We need to establish credibility with enterprise buyers before the sales call"

These are goals a designer can work backwards from. "Make it look modern" is a preference, not a goal.

Section 3: Target audience

Go deeper than demographics. A 35-year-old marketing manager and a 35-year-old restaurant owner visit websites with completely different expectations, patience levels, and decision processes.

For each audience segment, cover:

• What problem brings them to your site? What are they trying to solve right now?
• What would make them leave? What would turn them off — confusing navigation, too much text, lack of pricing, no social proof?
• What would make them take action? A clear price? A case study from their industry? A free consultation offer?
• How tech-savvy are they? This affects everything from navigation complexity to content format.

If you serve multiple distinct audiences (say, homeowners and contractors), map each one separately. Your website may need different paths for different visitors, and the brief is where you surface that requirement.

Section 4: Scope and features

List what the site needs to do. Be specific, but focus on functionality, not design.

Good examples:

• Contact form with name, email, phone, message, and dropdown for service type
• Blog with categories, tags, and search functionality
• Portfolio/case study section with filterable project cards
• Integration with HubSpot CRM for lead capture
• Multi-language support (English and Spanish)
• Client login portal for file sharing

Bad examples:

• "Something like Apple's website" (unhelpful comparison)
• "A very clean design" (subjective, not a feature)
• "Make it pop" (meaningless)

Also list what's explicitly out of scope. If you know you don't need e-commerce, say so. Clear boundaries prevent scope creep — which, according to the Standish Group, affects 52% of projects and is the number one reason web projects go over budget.

Section 5: Content

Content is the most underestimated part of any website project. The design can be perfect, but if the content isn't ready, the project stalls.

In your brief, answer:

• Who's writing the content? You, the agency, a copywriter? This affects timeline and budget significantly.
• What pages do you need? List every planned page: Home, About, Services (break these out individually), Contact, Blog, etc.
• Do you have existing content that can be reused? Or is everything being written from scratch?
• What about images and video? Do you have brand photography, or will you need stock photos or a photoshoot?
• SEO keywords you want to target? If you've done keyword research, include it. If not, flag this as something the agency should handle. Getting SEO right from the start is far cheaper than retrofitting it later.

A good rule of thumb from our experience: content production takes twice as long as clients expect. If the agency estimates four weeks for design and development, budget at least that much time for content preparation.

Section 6: Design preferences

Now you can talk about visuals — but frame it as direction, not decisions.

Brand assets you have: Logo files, brand colors (hex codes), typography rules, brand guidelines, existing marketing materials. If you have a brand guide, attach it.

Sites you like (and why): List 3-5 websites you admire and — this is the important part — explain what specifically you like about each one. "I like Stripe's website" is vague. "I like how Stripe explains complex products with simple, visual diagrams rather than walls of text" — that's actionable.

Sites you don't like (and why): Equally useful. Knowing what to avoid saves revision rounds.

Tone and personality: Is your brand formal or casual? Technical or approachable? Playful or serious? The design language should match.

Section 7: Technical requirements

Even if you're not technical, cover these:

• Preferred platform: Do you have a preference (WordPress, Shopify, custom)? Or are you open to recommendations? If you're not sure, we broke down the options in our platform comparison guide.
• Hosting: Do you have existing hosting, or does the agency need to set it up?
• Third-party integrations: CRM, email marketing, payment processing, booking systems, analytics tools.
• Performance requirements: If you're in e-commerce or run paid ads, site speed matters enormously. We covered why in our guide to page speed and sales.
• Accessibility requirements: ADA compliance, WCAG 2.1 standards — especially important for government, healthcare, education, or any US-based business with potential legal exposure.

Section 8: Budget and timeline

Be honest about both. Agencies waste time writing proposals they can't win, and businesses waste time reviewing proposals they can't afford.

Budget: Give a realistic range, not a fantasy number. A custom website with 15 pages, CRM integration, and a blog isn't a $2,000 project regardless of what some freelancer on Fiverr told you. If you're unsure what's realistic, read our detailed breakdown of website redesign costs.

Timeline: When does the site need to launch? Is there a hard deadline (product launch, event, seasonal rush) or is it flexible? Rushed timelines cost more. That's just how it works.

Decision process: Who approves designs? Who signs off on content? How many people are involved in feedback rounds? The more stakeholders, the longer each phase takes. A project with one decision-maker moves twice as fast as one with a five-person committee — and that's not an exaggeration.

Section 9: Success metrics

How will you know the project succeeded? Define this before the project starts, not after.

• "Organic traffic increases 40% within six months of launch"
• "Contact form submissions double compared to the old site"
• "Bounce rate drops below 50%"
• "Page load time under 2.5 seconds on mobile"
• "We stop losing deals because prospects say our website looks outdated"

These metrics give the agency a target to design toward and give you a clear way to evaluate the finished product. Without them, "success" becomes a feeling — and feelings are hard to align across multiple stakeholders.

Common brief mistakes that cost you money

Being too vague. "We want something clean and modern" describes 90% of websites built in the last decade. Give the agency something specific to work with.

Being too controlling. Telling a designer exactly where to put every element defeats the purpose of hiring a professional. Define the what and why; let them figure out the how.

Forgetting mobile. Over 60% of web traffic is mobile. If your brief doesn't mention mobile-specific considerations, you might get a site that looks great on your desktop monitor and terrible on the phone your customers actually use. Our mobile-first design guide goes deeper on this.

Not including examples. Words mean different things to different people. "Bold" design to you might mean brutalist typography. To the designer, it might mean bright colors. Visual examples eliminate ambiguity.

Treating it as a formality. If you rush through the brief because you just want to "get started," you'll pay for that impatience in revision rounds, missed deadlines, and a site that doesn't quite feel right.

The brief is the cheapest insurance you can buy

A thorough brief takes four to eight hours to write. A single round of unnecessary revisions — because something wasn't communicated clearly — costs days or weeks.

Think of the brief as insurance against the three most expensive website problems: misaligned expectations, scope creep, and the post-launch realization that the site doesn't actually solve the business problem it was supposed to solve.

Get the brief right, and those problems mostly disappear. Skip it, and they're almost guaranteed.

Starting a website project? See our process to understand how we use your brief to build something that actually works. Or send us your brief and we'll tell you what it would take — straightforward pricing, no surprises.