What Makes a Good Website Brief? The Checklist for a Smooth Project

A good brief is the single biggest lever for a fast, affordable and stress-free web project. Most delays and cost overruns don't happen during development, but before it: because no one was clear on what should actually be built. The more precisely you describe what you want, the fewer revision rounds you'll need – and revision rounds are exactly what turns a fixed-price project expensive or an hourly project unpredictable.

We've been building websites and tools for SMEs and startups for years, and we run seven of our own brands in production alongside that. From both perspectives – as a service provider and as our own client – we know one thing: a clear brief saves time and money on both sides. Here's the checklist we wish every client would use.

1. Goal and purpose of the website

First things first: what should the site actually achieve? "Look good" isn't a goal. Meaningful goals are, for example:

• Generate enquiries through a contact form
• Let visitors book appointments
• Explain your products or services and build trust
• Collect applications for open positions

Where possible, give a rough priority. A site that's primarily meant to drive enquiries looks different from a pure image showcase. If you state the goal clearly, we can align everything else around it.

2. Target audience and tone of voice

Who lands on the site? A technical buyer, a private individual, a founder? Describe your typical customers in a sentence or two. That also covers tone of voice: formal or casual, factual or relaxed, technical jargon or plain language. This shapes the copy, the design and even the site structure.

3. Site structure and content

List the pages you have in mind – for example home, services, about us, references, contact. Even a rough list is a huge help for estimating effort. And be honest about content:

• Do you already have the copy ready, or does it need to be written?
• Are there a logo, photos and brand colours, or do those need to be created too?
• Which legal pages do you need (imprint, privacy policy)?

Missing content is the most common reason projects stall. If the copy takes three weeks to arrive, the site sits idle for three weeks – no matter how fast the development is.

4. Examples and taste

Words are imprecise when it comes to design. Instead, send us three to five websites you like – competitors or completely different industries are fine too – plus one or two that you deliberately dislike. Add a quick note on what appeals to you in each case: the colour scheme, the clarity, the imagery. That saves more design rounds than any list of adjectives.

5. Features and technology

This is where a simple site separates from a complex one. Do you only need standard pages, or also:

• a CMS so you can maintain content yourself?
• a blog, a booking feature, a login area?
• multiple languages?
• integration with other systems (newsletter, CRM, payment provider)?

Every real feature moves the project into a different order of magnitude. A one-pager runs from EUR 2,000–3,000 with us, a multi-page site with a CMS from EUR 4,500–8,000, and as soon as custom features or a SaaS build come into play, the cost rises accordingly. If you clarify these points up front, you get a realistic fixed price straight away instead of a vague range.

6. Budget and timeline

Many people are reluctant to name a budget – that's a mistake. A rough ballpark helps us propose the right solution rather than planning past your actual needs. Just as important: is there a fixed deadline, such as a trade fair or a product launch? If so, tell us early.

What does NOT belong in the brief

You don't need to write a 20-page specification or learn technical terms. You don't need to know which CMS or which server is best – that's our job. Perfectly polished copy isn't required either; bullet points are often enough, and we can handle the writing. Don't let the checklist intimidate you: an honest, short brief with clear goals beats a bloated document that never answers the real question – what the site is supposed to deliver.

The short version

A good brief answers four questions: What should the site achieve, for whom, with what content and with what features? If you add two or three example sites plus a rough idea of budget and timeline, your prep work is done. That clarity is exactly the difference between a project that drags on for months and one that runs predictably at a fixed price.