Ah, the holy grail – the perfect website brief. Does it even exist? The truthful answer is – not often. But we know that’s not the client’s fault. It’s all about education, especially if this is your first time needing or managing a website project. So sit down, grab a cuppa, and prepare to be educated!
Below are the points you should be including or, at the very least, considering when creating a website brief. Not all may seem valid or pertinent to you at this stage, but the more information that is included, the more accurately we can share our experience, give suggestions, advise you of your options, and quote the project.
Let’s begin with the point that gets avoided the most –
1. What is your budget? And when do you need the site launched?
Your budget does make a difference. Bespoke websites are not as simple as ‘6 pages for £xxx’. Having some idea of where your budget lies is important to ensure you get what you need at the right price.
Your budget will never determine the quality of the design of your website, it’s the same high-quality for all clients. You can’t get a “5/10 website design, please” to save a few pennies. The cost of your website boils down to the size, functionality, and complexity of creating a simple way to edit your content.
Understanding your budget lets us advise you on what can be achieved and to what level. If your budget falls short of what’s needed, we can advise you on ways to maximise that budget.
If you’re looking for a rough guide to see what budget you may need, check out our Pricing page.
2. Do you have an existing website we are redesigning/rebuilding? What is the URL?
“Hi, I have a website I’d like to rebuild. Can you contact me, please?”
While the above enquiry is a great ice breaker, please provide us with the URL of your website. This allows us to look around the website and get ahead of the conversation. We will be able to immediately see any issues and begin making suggestions from the very beginning. If your website uses WordPress, consider sharing a login so we can see what’s ‘behind the scenes’ and ensure we’re not missing anything obvious on the front end.
3. Do you have a logo, brand guidelines, or other marketing materials?
Your website design will start with your logo/branding. Sharing this with us allows us to get a good feel for the style of website that you may need. We also offer logo design alongside our website projects, so we can provide a quote for this if required.
4. Do you have examples of sites you like, design-wise and functionality-wise?
This one is the most fun. Do you have other website examples you like, such as the look and feel of sites in the same industry or websites that do exactly what you need? Even links to websites you like that have nothing to do with your company or industry are helpful. On the flip side, links to websites you don’t like and why are also great information.
We’d never copy another website, of course, but getting an idea of the style and scale of the website you need can help us at this early stage.
5. Who is your website for? What is the end goal of your website? Do you have a list of competitors?
Whether you’re a startup or an established company, understanding what you are trying to achieve by having a website is crucial.
Maybe it’s just a bit of ‘social proof’ to point prospective customers to. Maybe it’s a sales tool that needs strong calls to action. Or perhaps it’s an organic effort to get high Google rankings for specific keywords and phrases. Either way, we need to understand the level of work required to allow you to achieve your goals.
Providing a list of competitor websites lets us see what you are competing with in search engines and allows us to formulate a plan to allow you to compete and better them.
6. Sitemap
If you can only provide one point from this article, this is the most important one.
A sitemap is a list of all the pages you need on your website, an outline of the content for those pages and the relationships between them. It can be as straightforward or as complicated as you like.
In its simplest form, a list of the pages and any ‘sub/child’ pages is a great starting point. We can see this to get a firm grip on what the project will need/take.
In its fullest form, each listed page can have a small synopsis explaining what it may contain or its purpose and even have more detailed information, such as specific layouts/functionalities you know you require.
Either way, having some form of sitemap is crucial. If you already have an existing website and this is a redesign/rebuild, we can use that as a great starting point, but we still need to understand what is staying, what is going on, and what additions may be made.
7. Do you have text content for the website? Where is that coming from? Do you have graphics and images for the website?
Although content is not essential to the quote, it lets us start talking to you about the process and how you’d like us to handle the project. Some clients want to produce all their content in one go, some drip feed, and some like to have us guide them with dummy layouts and placeholder content for them to replace.
For media, we provide professional stock imagery included in every project and have very talented companies we can recommend for services we don’t offer. So understanding what you have currently and may potentially need, helps us to help you.
8. How do you intend to market your website? Organic searches or direct traffic? Do you have/plan to use marketing tracking tools such as Google Analytics
This one often gets overlooked in the early stages but can determine what’s needed in a website project and potentially alter the cost.
For example, you may need dedicated landing page templates for online campaigns you are planning or bespoke thank you pages for forms. It’s good to understand how we can provide functionality now to service your needs moving forward, possibly saving you time and costs in the future.
9. Who will be editing the website after launch?
The front end of your website will, of course, look great, and everyone will be able to see it and give feedback. At Eldo, we understand that the backend editing is just as important to a company. Making sure team members have the correct access and easy ways to it their content quickly and when they need to.
Understanding who will need to edit the site and when is important for us to get this area perfect for you and your business.
10. Where will you host the website? Do you have a domain already?
Although this point doesn’t technically need addressing until launch, getting it sorted and locked in initially is excellent – one less piece of red tape to deal with. Let us know where you are at and what you have already, and we can help guide you. We do have our Eldo Hosting we can quote for if needed, too.
Phew. If, after reading all that, you’re thinking, “Nah, my mind is blown. I have no clue where to start”… that’s ok too! Just get in touch and let us know, and we will guide you in a more conversation-based format. It won’t feel like an episode of Mastermind!
