Why briefs change the price
Vague enquiries get padded quotes, because the designer is pricing in the unknown. A clear brief does the opposite: it removes the guesswork, so the price reflects the actual work. It also lets you compare quotes like-for-like instead of comparing a guess against a guess.
The seven things every brief needs
One page is enough. What your business does and who buys from you. What the website must achieve — calls, quote requests, bookings, sales. Your must-have pages. Three sites you like and why. Who supplies the words and photos. Your honest budget range. And your deadline, if it's real. That's it.
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The budget question everyone dodges
Hiding your budget doesn't protect you — it wastes weeks. Designers price against wildly different assumptions without one. A range ('around £X to £Y') is enough to get realistic proposals and immediate honesty about what's achievable inside it.
What to leave out
Don't prescribe solutions ('I need WordPress', 'I want it exactly like this site') — describe problems and let the expert propose the fix. And skip the fifty-feature wishlist; a good web design partner will tell you which features earn their place and which quietly add cost without adding enquiries.
Use it more than once
Send the same brief to two or three designers. Identical input is the only way quotes become comparable — and the quality of the questions each designer asks back tells you as much as the price does. Our guide to choosing a web designer covers the warning signs to watch for.
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