Creating the best website to promote and grow your business
Do you want a website but have no idea, what pages to have, how to lay it out, how to make it appealing and user-friendly, or even what content to include?
Read on to learn the basics of what a design brief is, why you need one, and how we can help.
What is a Website Design Brief
A website design brief is a clearly defined document that lays out your requirements for your new website design. A design brief should incorporate all functionality requirements, features and software integrations needed as well as a well-structured sitemap.
It is also useful to include business profile details such as brief history of the business, USPs, customer personas and much more. This brief should provide all the information required by a website design agency to be able to provide an accurate quote and if instructed, they should have sufficient information to propose website designs for you.
Your website design brief is your chance to document all your ideas and then streamline them into a logical document for your web designer to interpret and create your wonderful new website from.
Why You Need A Plan for Your New Website
Because a brief is very prescriptive, it leaves little room for misinterpretation or information to be missed or forgotten.
It enables you to think clearly through what your wants and aims are from the site not solely in terms of its visual appeal to visitors or even in its functionality and usability. But, It must also work to generate you traffic.
A website can be beautiful, work amazingly quickly, be easy to navigate and simple to use. But, if it doesn’t bring you new customers and website traffic in 12 months time and you have spent thousands of pounds and hours of your time on it; will you be happy? We guess not… and you shouldn’t be!
While it can be tempting to rush into a new site, ensure it has a few key pages for your services or products and it physically works ok. We would bet you will be missing a lot of opportunities to create a fantastic website that will market your business for years to come.
Get your website brief wrong now ( or worse, don’t create one) and you will likely waste time and money correcting those missed opportunities. Unfortunately, you can’t recoup the missed sales though!
However, spend a little more time initially and you can get it right the first time, often at no additional cost for the website build. And, you will save those extra hundreds, or thousands, of pounds amending the site, optimising it for your marketing so you can invest that money elsewhere, plus, you will have been generating more enquiries from the outset. Think a little extra time on your website brief now is worth it?…
What to consider when you create a website design brief
Website design and planning needs to be focused on your target client. The design needs to consider the user experience, be easy to navigate and provide the information they need, with great call to actions.
Your website is more than just a shop window, you have the ability to provide all the information needed for a person to buy from you without them ever meeting you, or your team. They must trust you, and understand your product and what it will do for them before they buy.
Pre-empt their questions and concerns and cover all information clearly, in an easy-to-understand way.
You also should consider how Google and search engines will view your content and website structure. Get this wrong and you will be penalised and not rank highly in the search engine results. It is easier to consider this when designing your website, rather than re-tracing your steps once it is live. You can then spend your time after your site is in the public domain, improving it, instead of fixing the basics.
Why you shouldn’t rely on the website design agency to create you the best brief
Website Design Companies vary hugely. Many however will create a basic website brief based on your needs as you are aware of them. However, unless website design, software integration or marketing are you area of expertise, would you be aware that you could integrate enquiry forms into your CRM software, automate your calendar bookings and know what pages you will need to rank highly in Google search results, possibly not. The problem comes when many website designers want to make their lives easier and quicker. Most companies will accommodate these things if you ask them, but they won’t be forthcoming with the more in-depth suggestions.
Not only this, but website designers will look to make your site look pretty so you are wowed by how wonderful it looks. Opportunities are often missed to include vital elements and layouts that will encourage website visitors to click and make an enquiry or a sale. These website visitors are wasted opportunities you will likely not see again. Meanwhile they have moved on to your competitor.
By creating your website design brief independently to your developer you can ensure all angles are covered. Your web designer can of course then add their suggestions, design flair and expertise to create your perfect website, while you can be confident it has all the elements you need it to, to promote your business and generate you a return on investment.
Website Design Brief Service
Book our Website design brief service and get a complete site map and website brief of the critical information you must include to get a high-performing website that will make you money.
We take into account your future marketing using Search Engine Optimisation or Paid advertising such as Google Ads (PPC). Both of these options require thought-out sitemaps and page optimisation, which is easier and quicker to create correctly the first time.
You can then take this to your chosen web design company for them to quote and build.