How to Write a Website Brief: Guide and Template

A website brief is a document that outlines a project's goals, intended users, content requirements, features and delivery constraints. A clear brief gives business owners and developers a shared starting point before discussing design or costs.

You do not need technical expertise to write one. What matters most is explaining your needs with concrete examples, identifying decisions that are still open, and separating essential requirements from optional extras. The following guide and starter template will help you get started.

Start with business goals and visitor needs

Write down why the website needs to be built or updated. “We want a modern website” is still too broad. Turn it into a need that can be discussed, such as “potential customers need to see our services and examples of our work before requesting a quote.”

Next, describe your main visitors. What do they already know about your business? What questions do they often ask, and what information do they need before making a decision? Use your conversations with customers as a starting point, without assuming everyone has the same needs.

Define the main action you want to support

Choose the action most relevant to your first release: submitting a brief, requesting a consultation, browsing a catalogue or contacting your team. This goal helps determine the order of content and the placement of buttons.

Also explain what happens after that action. If a visitor fills in a form, who receives the message and how does the team follow up? The website should support a business process your team can actually run, rather than simply display a contact button.

List the pages and materials you need

Your page list does not have to be final immediately. Start with the groups of information visitors need, then identify the materials that are ready. For a service business, the initial requirements might include a short company profile, services, work examples, frequently asked questions and contact information.

• Identity: your logo, business name, existing colours or brand guidelines.
• Copy: service descriptions, scope of work and contact details.
• Visuals: photographs, illustrations, videos or work screenshots that you have permission to publish.
• Management: who writes, reviews and approves the content.

Decide whether the first phase needs a single page or several pages. If you are unsure, use our guide to landing pages versus full websites to support the discussion. For presenting your work, see our guide to building a portfolio.

Separate launch requirements from future improvements

Describe requirements as behaviours people can understand. For example, “an administrator can add articles and upload project photographs” is clearer than simply writing “we need a complete CMS.” If you have a specific process, explain its steps and who uses it.

Group requirements into essential at launch, suitable for a later phase, and still to be discussed. This helps define a realistic scope. Do not assume a feature is included until the discussion and proposal have been agreed.

Include references and explain your choices

Choose a few relevant websites and explain what you like about them. Is the navigation easy to understand? Are service descriptions concise? Does the portfolio help visitors assess the work? These observations are more useful than asking for an exact copy of a design.

Also describe what you want to avoid, such as overcrowded pages or videos that interrupt reading. References help establish a shared direction, while the final solution should reflect your own content, identity and business needs.

A website brief template you can copy

• Business name and service overview: …
• Main website objective: …
• Primary visitors and their questions: …
• Main action you want visitors to take: …
• Required pages or information groups: …
• Essential launch features: …
• Features that can follow later: …
• Materials already available and still missing: …
• Reference websites and reasons for choosing them: …
• Target timeline and budget range: …
• People responsible for content and approvals: …
• Questions that still need discussion: …

This template is a starting point, rather than a contract or an automatic list of included features. After your discussion, summarise the scope, deliverables, schedule and responsibilities so everyone understands the same agreement.

Plan checks before launch

Include testing requirements in your brief. For example, navigation should work on mobile, forms should save messages correctly, contact links should lead to the right destinations, and administrators should be able to update the agreed content.

For search readiness, request descriptive page titles, a clear content structure, relevant images and appropriate indexing settings. Use Google's SEO Starter Guide as a basic reference. Technical readiness helps search engines discover pages, but does not guarantee a particular ranking.

Bring your brief to the first conversation

A brief does not need to be perfect before you share it. Highlight assumptions and unanswered questions so the team can help review them. Sharing information openly makes conversations about priorities, content and scope more productive.

If you would like to build a website with barengin.id, send an overview through our project discussion form. Start with your business goals and the materials you already have; the detailed approach can be discussed next.