We always recommend you write a detailed brief with as much info as possible when asking an agency to build a new website. That way everyone is clear about what the goals and priorities are.
Here’s our step-by-step guide on what to include:
- About your business
Provide info about what your business does, size, how long you’ve been established and your vision.
Tell them who your competitors are and provide links to their websites.
Ideally tell them your budget although this may have been agreed if you’ve already asked for a quote.
- Look and feel of the website
Provide your branding guidelines, including corporate colours, fonts and logo (if you have them).
Give examples of websites you like with notes, screenshots and links.
- Site plan or structure
What info would you like to include? Put some broad headings in. Some will be fairly generic like ‘contact’, ‘what we do’, etc.
Other sections will be very specific to your business. How would you like the structure of your website to be organised?
This won’t be set in stone, and the agency will guide you if you’re not sure, but it really helps to provide as much information as you can.
- About your audience
Who do you want to visit the site and what would you like them to do when they get there?
Provide info on the demographics of your site visitors and their geographical location. Do you want to encourage them to visit a specific physical location? Or perhaps fill in a contact form?
- Provide info about your existing website
Provide info on any pages or features on your existing site that are working well. Have a look at Google Analytics and see which pages are most often visited – you can find out how to set this up on our Google Analytics blog
- Technical info
Where is your website hosted and who has control of your domain? How reliable is the hosting service you currently use? Most agencies offer a hosting service and it’s often advisable to take advantage of that so you have one point of contact when it comes to your website.
