How to write a website brief
What to include, what to leave out, and what makes a brief actually useful to the studio you hire.
A good website brief includes the business in one paragraph, the goal in one sentence, what success looks like in three lines, your timeline and budget range, three sites you like and two you do not (with reasons), and the name of the single person who can make decisions. Skip mood boards without rationale, page-by-page wireframes, and feature lists that should have been outcomes. The best briefs fit on two pages.
A bad website brief is two paragraphs of "we want a modern, clean, fresh website that converts." A good brief gets you better quotes, faster delivery, and a finished site that does what you actually wanted. The difference is mostly about what you choose to leave out.
What a brief is for
A brief is a working document for the studio to price the project and start designing. It is not a contract, not a spec, and not the place to list every page you want. The brief answers three questions the studio will ask anyway: who are you, what is this for, and what does done look like.
What to include
1. Business in one paragraph. Who you are, what you sell, who you sell to, why they buy from you. Not the founder story. The thing a stranger needs to know to design for you.
2. Goal in one sentence. "We want more demo bookings from enterprise buyers" or "We want the site to actually help close deals our sales team is already working." Specific enough that you could measure whether the new site achieved it.
3. Success in three lines. What changes if this works? Higher conversion, faster sales cycle, lower CAC, the firm taken seriously by a different segment. Write down the specific thing.
4. Timeline and budget range. Yes, a range. Studios that say "we do not talk about money before we understand the scope" are wasting your time. Tell them you have £15 to £30K and 8 to 12 weeks. They will tell you what fits.
5. What you like and what you do not. Three sites you admire, with one sentence each about why. Two you actively dislike, with one sentence each about why. The "do not like" half is usually more useful than the "like" half.
6. Who owns the project. Name the single person who can make decisions without checking with anyone. If that person is not on the kickoff call, the project will slip.
What to leave out
Mood boards without rationale. Stock photos you "kind of like." Page-by-page wireframes, that is the studio's job. Feature lists that read like "we want a modern hero, sticky nav, animated stats, and a footer." Long lists of competitors you want to look like. Anyone who is not the decision-maker.
Common mistakes
Briefing the design instead of the goal. "We want a Stripe-style site" is not a brief. What problem is Stripe's site solving that yours needs to solve? Brief the problem, not the solution.
Hiding the budget. Studios price work to budget. If you do not say what you have, you will get quotes from £8K to £80K and learn nothing. Say the range. Get useful answers.
Too many decision-makers. If five people need to sign off, write that down. The studio will price the extra revision rounds in from day one.
No clear end state. "We will know it when we see it" is the worst possible brief. Write down what done means before you start.
A two-page brief beats a twenty-page brief
The best briefs we have ever received fit on two pages. They are not exhaustive. They are specific. The studio will fill the gaps with questions, that is what the kickoff call is for. A long brief usually signals that the team has not yet decided what they actually want.
The order
Save the studio time by following this order:
1. One paragraph on the business 2. One sentence on the goal 3. Three lines on what success looks like 4. Timeline and budget range 5. Three sites you like, two you do not, one sentence each 6. The decision-maker's name
See also: How to choose a web design studio in 2026, Pricing design work in 2026, Agency vs freelancer vs builder.