Website projects often begin with browsing design examples. Yet the quality of the work depends first and foremost on decisions made before the project starts. Writing down answers to the questions below, even short ones, speeds up communication with your contractor and helps you avoid expensive changes later on.
1. What business goal does the website serve?
“We need a modern website” is not a goal. A goal should be measurable: getting more enquiries, giving the sales team something to show prospects, making hiring easier, or cutting down the repeat questions that reach customer support. Pick one main goal, or two at most.
2. Who will visit the website?
Prospective customers, existing customers, partners and job candidates all look for different things. For each group, answer the question: why does this person come to the site, and what do they need to find? Those answers will directly shape the structure of your pages.
3. What do you want visitors to do?
A phone call, a form, a click through to your online shop or a demo request: the action you expect should be clear. Every key page should offer a path to it, and the outcome should be measured.
4. Who will prepare the content?
The most common reason projects run late is copy and images that are not ready. Decide in advance who will write the copy, who will approve it and how many languages you need it in.
5. How many languages will the website be in?
A multilingual website is more than translation. Each language needs its copy checked, its own search engine setup and a process for future updates. If you plan to add a language later, it matters to know that while the structure is being built.
6. Who will manage the website afterwards?
Your team should be able to publish news, a blog post or a price change on their own. Note down who will use the admin panel and what permissions they will need.
7. How will you measure success?
Agree in advance which numbers you will watch after launch: the number of enquiries, the form completion rate, how fast key pages load, or visitors arriving from search engines. Measurement should be set up while the website is being built, not afterwards.
In short
You do not need perfect answers to all of these questions. What matters is that the answers are written down and everyone involved in the project is working towards the same goal. A good brief lets your contractor give you a more accurate proposal, and lets you compare proposals properly.