How to brief a website for your Horsham business

A useful website brief is not a list of colours and pages. It explains who the site must persuade, what those people need to believe, and what action the business wants them to take. Get that right and designers can solve the same problem; skip it and every quote quietly describes a different website.

I wrote this for independent businesses in Horsham and the surrounding villages. You can copy the questions into an email, answer them in plain English and send the same brief to every supplier you are considering.

Already ready to commission the work? The commercial page for my web design service in Horsham explains the build, fixed price and free-demo process. This article is the planning document to use before that conversation.

1. Name the business outcome

Start with one sentence: “The website needs to help us…” A plumber might finish that sentence with “win more emergency call-outs around Horsham”. An accountant might want better-qualified consultation enquiries. A restaurant might need more direct bookings rather than another gallery of food photographs.

Choose one primary outcome and, at most, two supporting outcomes. That decision controls the page order, the calls to action and what belongs above the fold. “Look modern” can be a requirement, but it is not a measurable business outcome.

2. Describe the customer and the moment they arrive

Do not stop at an age range. Explain what the visitor is trying to solve, what they are worried about and what they already know. Someone searching for roadside recovery near Gatwick has a different level of urgency from a homeowner comparing builders for work next spring.

• What has just happened before they search?
• Which service do you most want them to find?
• What would make them hesitate to contact you?
• Do they prefer to call, complete a form, book or visit?
• Which questions do you answer on almost every first enquiry?

Real customer language is valuable here. Copy the phrases people use in emails and phone calls; they are usually clearer than industry terminology.

3. Build the page list around decisions

Every page should answer a distinct visitor question. A sensible small-business starting point is a homepage, one page per important service, an about page, evidence or case studies, and contact details. Add location pages only when you can give each place genuinely useful information rather than swapping the town name in the same paragraph.

For each proposed page, write the question it answers. If two pages answer the same question, combine them. If a page has no clear visitor question, it probably does not need to exist.

4. Gather proof before design starts

Trust is usually limited by evidence, not animation. Put the raw material in the brief so it is designed into the site instead of added as an afterthought:

• real project photographs, work in progress and the finished result;
• named testimonials you have permission to publish;
• qualifications, memberships, guarantees and insurance details;
• short case studies explaining the problem, work and outcome;
• a direct phone number, service area and accurate opening hours.

If the proof is not ready, say who will collect it and by when. A polished layout cannot compensate for generic stock images and unsupported claims.

5. Be precise about local discovery

List the places you actually serve and the jobs you want from each. For a Horsham business that might include Southwater, Broadbridge Heath or Billingshurst, but relevance matters more than the length of the list.

The brief should also cover your Google Business Profile, consistent business details, genuine review collection and the connection between each service page and the matching search intent. My local SEO checklist gives you the practical setup tasks.

6. Ask the ownership and maintenance questions

A low build price can hide long-term restrictions. Ask every supplier the same questions and get the answers in writing:

• Who owns the domain, design, copy, images and finished code?
• Can the site move to another host without being rebuilt?
• What are the monthly costs after launch?
• Who handles security updates, backups and form failures?
• What is included when text, prices or opening hours change?
• How will redirects and analytics be handled if an old site is replaced?

PulseCreate’s answers are published on the pricing page: the standard build is a fixed £1,495, you own the finished site, and hosting is optional.

7. Define what a complete launch includes

Your deadline should allow for content, review and testing rather than naming only a launch date. State who supplies copy and photographs, who approves each stage and how quickly feedback will be returned.

A complete launch checklist should cover mobile layouts, forms, analytics, page titles, descriptions, structured data where relevant, a sitemap, redirects from changed URLs, security headers, backups and a final check of every public link. Ask which of those are included in the quote.

A brief you can copy

1. Business: what we do, where we work and the services we most want to sell.
2. Primary outcome: the single action the website should generate.
3. Customer: their situation, questions, worries and preferred contact method.
4. Pages: the visitor question each page must answer.
5. Proof: photographs, reviews, case studies and credentials available.
6. Local search: genuine service areas and Google Business Profile status.
7. Requirements: forms, bookings, integrations, accessibility and legal content.
8. Ownership: domain, code, hosting, updates and ongoing costs.
9. Timing: content owner, approver, feedback window and desired launch.
10. Budget: the range suppliers should design within, including ongoing costs.

Use the same brief for every proposal

Once the brief is written, resist changing it for each designer. Consistent inputs make prices and approaches comparable. You can then judge how clearly each proposal connects the work to your stated outcome.

If you want a concrete starting point, send the brief with your current web address through the PulseCreate contact page. I’ll use it to build a free homepage demo, so you can judge the thinking in real pixels before deciding whether to commission the full site.

Written by Ryan Vessey — founder of PulseCreate. I plan, design and build small-business websites from Horsham, West Sussex. More about me and how I work →