Your web agency doesn’t need a detailed design critique, they just need to understand what’s working for you and what isn’t. It is just as important to mention the public-facing “front end” as it is the editing interface – the content management system, or CMS. This step often reveals more than you expect and will give a lot of invaluable insights and direction to your web agency.

Outline the pages you think the new site needs based on the current site map. It doesn’t need to be set in stone as these days, any good website build will offer plenty of flexibility. A simple list of pages (Home, About, Mission, Impact, Contact, Donate) is enough to give a sense of structure, scale and priorities. Your web agency should review this and give you further recommendations, which could result in a more streamlined user journey.

What do you want your website to do for you? Whether you’re looking to generate enquiries, share information, support fundraising or promote events, you need to have a clear understanding of what functionality you’re looking for. Your brief should outline any must-have features and flag whether the site needs to integrate with third-party platforms such as your CRM, booking system, careers portal, accounting system etc. You don’t need to know how these will be implemented, just what matters most.

Including examples of websites you like and why you like them can be extremely helpful. You might love a particular site because of how the brand colours are portrayed, how the typographic hierarchy delivers the messaging, or how easy it is to navigate. Even understanding what you don’t like helps guide the design process. Three to five examples is more than enough to give useful context. In addition to inspiration sources, it’s really helpful for your web agency to know who your competitors are. If you don’t know who they are, your agency should be able to tell you by using specific SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush.

Content is one of the most common sticking points in website projects, so it’s worth addressing early in the brief. You may want existing content migrated across for you, you may need things to be rewritten — or you may prefer to manage this yourselves once the new site is built and you have the keys. When we build websites, clients always have full control over their content, and we show them how everything works. The important thing is to be clear about responsibilities and expectations from the outset.

A website brief should include your ideal launch date, even if it’s flexible. Deadlines are often linked to campaigns, funding cycles or organisational milestones. If a timeline feels ambitious, a good web agency should always be open about that and work with you to find a practical solution.

Search Engine Optimisation (and Generative Engine Optimisation) are most effective when considered from the start. Your brief should indicate whether you plan to manage SEO internally or would like external support. This might range from introductory training through to a full SEO strategy with implementation and reporting. You don’t need to decide everything upfront, but as with many parts of this initial conversation, it’s good have an awareness of what you’re after from the get-go. Never assume this will be included, as to be done well, serious effort is required.

One important question that’s frequently missing from a website brief or a web agency’s proposal is how the site will actually be edited. We regularly take over websites where the editing experience is complex and problematic. Often, this is because the site relies on page-builder frameworks (for example Elementor) that were never properly explained, or users weren’t properly trained. These tools can be confusing and difficult to use and we avoid them for this reason; our own builds come with flexible, modular content editing blocks but they are intuitive and quick to learn.

Always ask prospective agencies for a demo of the proposed editing system. If it doesn’t feel intuitive in a walkthrough, it’s unlikely to be intuitive day to day.