Content
Decide who supplies service details, proof, photography, legal text and final approvals.
Website planning guide
What to decide before starting a business website project
A strong website brief does not prescribe fonts and frameworks first. It explains who must act, what evidence they need and who owns the system after launch.
- Audience and outcome
- Content ownership
- Measurement and operations
Define the change, not just the deliverable
A request for a new website can mean better lead quality, clearer service positioning, less manual qualification or a more credible sales process. Those outcomes lead to different content and measurement decisions.
- Name the primary audience and their decision
- Choose one primary conversion and the useful context it must capture
- Separate raw enquiries from qualified leads
- Record constraints such as launch dates, approvals and regulated claims
Identify the work that exists outside the code
Brand
Confirm whether existing visual assets are usable or whether identity work is a separate dependency.
Integrations
List forms, calendars, CRM, analytics and email ownership with the source of truth for each.
Operations
Assign responsibility for enquiries, updates, security reports, backups and renewals after launch.
Use metrics that reflect useful business progress
Traffic and form counts are inputs, not outcomes. Track source and campaign without personal data, then connect submissions to qualification and client conversion inside the operational system.
- Search impressions and relevant landing pages
- Completed enquiries by source
- Qualified leads and qualification rate
- Response time and next-action ownership
- Won work without attributing every visit to a single cause