How to brief a website in one page

The quality of a website is set before anyone builds it, by the description someone writes of the business. Give a vague description and you get a vague site — with AI, with a freelancer, with an agency, identically.

The good news is that a usable brief is about one page, and you can write it in an hour. Here is what goes in it.

Step 1: Write the sentence a stranger would repeat

One sentence: what you do, for whom, where. "I am a hairdresser in Utrecht who specialises in curly hair." Not "we offer a wide range of hair care solutions".

Test it by reading it to someone who does not know your business and asking them to say it back. If they hesitate, the sentence is not finished.

Step 2: Name the visitor and the one thing they should do

Websites fail by asking for four things at once. Pick the single action that matters most — book, call, request a quote, order, sign up — and say who is doing it.

Write it as one line: "Someone who just moved to the area should be able to book a first appointment without phoning." Everything else on the site is support for that line.

Step 3: List what you sell, with prices you are willing to publish

Every service or product, with a price or a range. If you genuinely cannot publish prices, write down why — that reason usually belongs on the site.

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that most affects the result. A site that answers "what does it cost" is a different site from one that does not.

Step 4: Gather what only you can supply

Put these in one folder before you start:

• Photographs, or a note that you need them
• Business name, registration number, address, phone, email
• Opening hours, service area, languages you work in
• Links to your existing profiles and reviews
• Any text you are legally required to show

Step 5: Say what you do not want

This is the most useful paragraph in the brief and the one almost nobody writes. Two or three sentences: a competitor's site you dislike and why, a word you never want used about your business, a section you do not want at all.

Preferences stated as prohibitions travel much better than preferences stated as adjectives. "No stock photos of people in suits" is actionable. "Modern and professional" is not.

Step 6: Read it back as a stranger

Read the whole brief as if you were a customer. Two questions: is anything missing that you would want to know before buying, and is anything here that a customer would not care about?

Cut the second, add the first, and stop. The brief is done.

What a finished brief looks like

One page. A sentence, a visitor, an action, a price list, a folder of assets, and a short list of things to avoid. If yours runs to four pages you have started designing instead of briefing, which is a different job and a later one.

Keep it. You will use it again for the second version, and it makes the difference between changing your website and rewriting it.

Once you have a brief, the timeline is mostly predictable — see how long building a website actually takes. If you are still deciding who should build it, start with the four routes.

Frequently asked

What if I cannot publish my prices?

Write down why, in one sentence, and put that reason on the site. Visitors assume the worst when there is no number at all, and an honest explanation of why pricing depends on the job outperforms silence.

How detailed should a brief be?

One page. Enough that a stranger could build the right thing, not so much that you have started making layout decisions. If your brief keeps growing, the extra material is usually a list of exceptions, and those belong in a conversation.