A website project brief doesn't need to be a 20-page document. For most small businesses, a page or two explaining your business, customers, goals and requirements is more than enough to get the conversation started.

If you're thinking about getting a new website built, your web designer is going to need some information.

This is usually called a website brief or website project brief.

That sounds considerably more formal than it needs to be.

For a typical small business website, I'm not expecting a beautifully formatted corporate document containing graphs, market research and a five-year digital strategy.

An email can be a website brief.

A Word document can be a website brief.

You can even call me and talk me through it.

The important thing is giving your website designer enough information to understand your business, your customers and what the website needs to accomplish.

Here's what I'd include.

1. Tell Me About Your Business

Start with the basics.

What does your business do?

You don't need to write polished marketing copy. Explain it the same way you would explain your business to someone you just met.

For example:

We're a family-owned plumbing business in Dubbo. We mainly do residential plumbing, blocked drains, hot water systems and emergency call-outs within about 50km of Dubbo.

That's already incredibly useful.

Include things such as:

  • Business name
  • What you do
  • Where you're located
  • Areas you service
  • How long you've been operating
  • Size of the business
  • Your main products or services
  • Anything unusual or important about the business

Don't worry about making it sound impressive.

Give me the information. I can help turn it into website content.

2. Who Are Your Customers?

Who are we building the website for?

Homeowners?

Other businesses?

Farmers?

Parents?

Tourists?

Tradies?

Government organisations?

Everyone?

If you have several types of customers, that's fine too.

Knowing who we're talking to helps determine the language, design, content and structure of the website.

A website aimed at corporate procurement managers probably shouldn't look or sound exactly like one aimed at homeowners looking for someone to mow their lawn.

3. What Do You Want the Website to Do?

This is probably the most important question in the brief.

What does success look like?

Do you want people to:

  • Call you?
  • Request a quote?
  • Send an enquiry?
  • Visit your shop?
  • Book an appointment?
  • Buy something?
  • Read information?
  • Download something?
  • Join a mailing list?
  • Simply confirm that you're a legitimate business?

A website can have several objectives, but there's usually one that's more important than the others.

For many small service businesses, it's remarkably simple:

Get the right people to contact us.

That's a perfectly good website objective.

4. What Services Do You Offer?

Give your web designer a list.

Don't worry about organising it perfectly.

If you're an electrician, for example, it might look something like:

  • Residential electrical
  • Commercial electrical
  • Switchboard upgrades
  • Ceiling fans
  • Lighting
  • Smoke alarms
  • Electrical repairs
  • Emergency call-outs

This helps determine how the website should be structured.

Sometimes every service can sit on one page.

Sometimes an important service deserves its own page, particularly when people are specifically searching Google for it.

The structure should reflect both what customers need and what they're searching for.

5. Where Do You Work?

This is particularly important for local businesses.

Tell your designer your main location and the areas you service.

Don't simply say "Central West" if there are particular towns that matter.

List them.

For example:

Dubbo, Wellington, Narromine, Trangie and surrounding areas.

Location information helps customers immediately understand whether you can help them and can also be useful when planning local SEO.

6. Who Are Your Competitors?

Send through a few competitor websites.

This doesn't mean we're going to copy them.

Quite the opposite.

Competitor websites help answer useful questions.

What are other businesses saying?

What services are they emphasising?

How are they positioning themselves?

What do their websites do well?

What could we do better?

Your competitors can provide a useful starting point for understanding the online market you're entering.

7. Show Me Websites You Like

These don't have to be competitors.

Send two or three websites you like and tell me what you like about them.

Maybe it's the colours.

Maybe it's the simplicity.

Maybe you like the big photographs.

Maybe you like how easy it is to find everything.

Maybe you don't know why you like it.

That's fine too.

Examples can communicate a visual preference much faster than trying to explain that you want something "modern but traditional, minimal but not too minimal, professional but friendly."

I've heard variations of all of those.

A few links can save a lot of guessing.

8. Show Me Websites You Don't Like

This can be just as useful.

If you hate giant animations, tell me.

If you don't want something overly corporate, tell me.

If you can't stand websites with tiny grey writing everywhere, tell me.

If there's a competitor's website that represents exactly what you don't want, send it through.

Knowing what to avoid is part of understanding what you want.

9. What Makes Your Business Different?

Why do your customers choose you?

This doesn't have to be some revolutionary "unique selling proposition."

Maybe you're:

Local.

Family owned.

Fast.

Experienced.

Affordable.

Specialised.

Available after hours.

Easy to deal with.

Working in an unusual niche.

Maybe you've been doing the job for 30 years.

Maybe you service places your competitors don't.

Maybe customers constantly tell you the same thing they appreciate about your business.

Tell your web designer.

Those details can become some of the most important messaging on the website.

10. What Pages Do You Think You Need?

You don't need to know the final website structure.

That's partly my job.

But if you already know you need certain pages, list them.

A straightforward small business website might include:

Home

About

Services

Individual service pages

Projects or Gallery

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact

You might need three pages.

You might need fifteen.

Don't add pages simply because websites are "supposed" to have them.

Every page should have a reason to exist.

11. Do You Already Have Content?

Tell your designer what you've already got.

That might include:

  • Existing website content
  • Brochures
  • Service descriptions
  • Staff biographies
  • Testimonials
  • FAQs
  • Product information
  • Previous advertising
  • Social media pages
  • Google Business Profile information

You don't necessarily need to start from zero.

Existing material can provide a lot of useful information, even if the final website content is completely rewritten.

12. What Photos and Branding Do You Have?

Send through whatever you've got.

Logo files.

Brand colours.

Business photographs.

Staff photos.

Project photographs.

Vehicles.

Premises.

Products.

Before-and-after photos.

If you have professional photography, fantastic.

If you've got 300 photos sitting on your phone and have no idea which ones are useful, that's okay too.

A designer can help decide.

For many local businesses, real photographs of the actual business are much more convincing than generic stock photography.

13. What Features Does the Website Need?

Think about functionality.

Do you need:

  • Contact forms
  • Quote requests
  • Maps
  • Galleries
  • Online bookings
  • Ecommerce
  • Payments
  • Newsletter signup
  • Social media links
  • Video
  • Downloads
  • Customer logins
  • Third-party integrations

This is particularly important for quoting.

A five-page informational website is very different from a website requiring bookings, payments and custom software.

14. Do You Want to Edit the Website Yourself?

Tell your web designer upfront.

If you expect to log in every week and change things yourself, that affects the technology that should be used.

A platform such as WordPress, Wix or Squarespace may be appropriate.

For many straightforward small business websites, I take a different approach.

I often build using lightweight HTML, CSS and JavaScript and manage the website for the client.

That means there isn't necessarily a content management system for the business owner to log into.

When something needs changing, they contact me.

Neither approach is inherently better.

The important thing is choosing the right one before the website is built.

15. Do You Already Have a Domain and Hosting?

If you already own a domain name, include it.

Also tell your designer:

  • Where it's registered
  • Whether you can access the account
  • Where your current website is hosted
  • Whether your email uses the same domain
  • Who currently manages everything

Don't send passwords in your initial brief.

We can work out access later.

If you don't understand any of this, just say so.

That's completely normal.

Sorting it out is part of the job.

16. What's Your Budget?

You don't have to provide a precise figure, but a rough budget can save everyone time.

There's no point designing a $10,000 solution for someone with $1,000 to spend.

Likewise, you don't want someone proposing a tiny website if you're prepared to invest significantly more in something ambitious.

I specialise in straightforward websites for small businesses and sole traders, with many of the websites I build costing under $1,000.

If your requirements are beyond that, I'll tell you.

17. When Do You Need It?

If there's a deadline, mention it immediately.

Maybe you're:

Launching a business.

Opening new premises.

Running an advertising campaign.

Attending an event.

Replacing an old website before something expires.

Or maybe there's no particular rush.

That's useful information too.

You Don't Need to Have Everything Figured Out

This is probably the most important part.

You don't need to know how your website should be built before contacting a web designer.

That's what you're hiring them for.

You don't need to decide whether your navigation should have five items or seven.

You don't need to understand SEO.

You don't need to know whether something should be HTML, WordPress or JavaScript.

And you definitely don't need to arrive with every sentence already written.

Give your designer the raw material.

A good web designer should help you turn that information into a website.

Simple Website Brief Template

If you'd like to contact me about a website, you can copy the questions below and answer whatever you can.

Business name: [Your business name]

Existing website, if any: [Website address]

What does your business do? [A few sentences is enough]

Where are you based? [Town/city]

What areas do you service? [Towns, regions or Australia-wide]

Who are your main customers? [Who normally buys from you?]

What are your main services or products? [List them]

What do you want people to do on the website? [Call, email, request a quote, book, buy, etc.]

What makes your business different? [Experience, location, service, specialisation, price, etc.]

Competitors: [Names or website addresses]

Websites you like: [Links and what you like about them]

Websites you don't like: [Optional, but useful]

Pages you think you need: [Don't worry if you're unsure]

Features you need: [Forms, bookings, ecommerce, galleries, etc.]

Do you want to edit the website yourself? [Yes / No / Not sure]

Do you already own a domain name? [Yes / No / Not sure]

Do you already have hosting? [Yes / No / Not sure]

Do you have a logo and photos? [Yes / No / Some]

Approximate budget: [Optional]

When would you like the website completed? [Date or no particular deadline]

Anything else I should know? [Whatever you think might be relevant]

Ready to Talk About Your Website?

Don't worry if you can only answer half of those questions.

Send me what you've got.

I specialise in websites for small businesses and sole traders, particularly local and regional businesses.

Many straightforward small business websites I build cost under $1,000, with managed Australian hosting available for $30 per month or $360 per year.

If you already have a website, I can also give you a free website assessment before we decide whether you actually need a new one.

Copy the brief above, fill in what you can and email it to me. We can work out the rest together.