What to prepare before website development: a practical brief
Goals, audience, content, integrations and acceptance criteria: what to prepare before commissioning a website and agreeing on its scope.
A good brief does not require programming knowledge. It helps a team understand the business and agree on an outcome. If some materials are not ready, say so: identifying gaps and who will resolve them is more useful than pretending everything is complete.
Describe the business and the outcome
Explain what you offer, who it is for and where you operate. Replace a general request for a modern website with a concrete problem: customers cannot find a service, the team collects orders manually or the current page does not explain a new product.
Name the main visitor action and how you will verify it. For example, an enquiry should include contact details, a service and a message, and reach the responsible person through an agreed channel.
Collect materials and examples
Prepare your logo, available brand guidance, photographs, service descriptions, contact details and company facts. Portfolio materials should be cleared for publication. If new copy or images are needed, include that work in the scope.
For each reference website, explain what you like: its navigation, project presentation, enquiry form or typography. This is more useful than asking the team to copy someone else's design.
Agree on pages and languages
List the main sections and the information each one needs. Define the website languages, who will handle translation and whether your offers differ between audiences.
Descriptive page titles, clear links and original content that answers people's questions help search engines understand a website. Plan these together with the structure. Google's SEO Starter Guide explains these foundations.
List features and integrations
Clarify whether you need payments, booking, accounts, a CRM, delivery or catalogue imports. Name the service and the intended workflow for each connection. The availability of an API and its documentation can affect the estimate.
Do not put passwords in a public brief. A list of systems and their owners is enough initially; an appropriate way to provide necessary access can be agreed separately.
Define readiness for launch
Decide who approves the design, checks content and authorises publication. Record important workflows and dependencies on materials or third-party services.
- Pages and translations are approved by the responsible person.
- Important actions work on phones and desktop computers.
- A test enquiry reaches the intended recipient.
- The domain, hosting and future website updates have clear owners.
Start with what you already have
An initial enquiry can be as simple as a description of the task, your existing website or references, a preferred timeframe and a budget guide. The team can clarify the rest, separate the first release from later development and propose the next steps.
