1. Goals and audience
- What should the site achieve: enquiries, sales, bookings, recruitment?
- Who are your customers, and which countries and languages do you serve?
- Which competitor or reference sites do you like, and why?
2. Pages and features
- A page list or sitemap, even a rough one.
- Features: online shop, booking, member area, blog, forms, live chat.
- Integrations: CRM, email marketing, payments, accounting.
- Who will write the copy and provide photos?
3. Accessibility, speed and search
Ask for the site to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA, the W3C’s accessibility guidelines. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to many online services, including ecommerce. It’s also good business: accessible sites work better for everyone. Ask how speed and technical SEO basics will be handled, and look at Google’s SEO Starter Guide.
4. Ownership, hosting and aftercare
- The domain registered in your business’s name.
- Admin access to hosting, CMS and analytics.
- Ownership of the design and code passing to you on payment.
- Who handles updates, security and backups after launch, and at what cost?
5. Budget and timeline
Give a budget range and any fixed launch dates. This helps designers suggest the right approach rather than guessing. Our brief builder pulls all of this into one document. Then compare web designers and agencies.
Last updated: 30 September 2026
