What your 2026 website brief should include

New year, new budgets, new to-do lists. And somewhere near the top of every decision-maker’s Q1 notes sits the same line: “Review website.”

Some because their site is outdated. Some because conversions have flatlined. Some because AI search is shifting everything. And some simply because their competitors suddenly look… better.

No matter the reason, 2026 is going to be a big year for brands rebuilding their digital presence. So if a website project is heading into your budget plan, here’s what your brief needs to make it a success — for you, your team, and your agency.

These are the things smart brands are thinking about. And the things high-performing agencies need to know upfront.

1. A clear reason for the redesign (beyond “it feels old”)

The strongest briefs don’t start with aesthetics. Are you losing conversions? Struggling to attract talent? Fighting bounce rates?

Need a platform that supports new services, expansion, or repositioning?

Whatever the driver, clarity here gives your agency the North Star they’ll design around.

Strong briefs include:

• The problems the current site causes
• What “better” looks like in measurable terms
• What must change vs. what can evolve

If your goal is fuzzy, your outcome will be too.

2. Your brand in a paragraph — not a novel

Agencies don’t need your entire brand book pasted into a Google Doc. They need the distilled version: who you are, what you stand for, and what impression the site should leave.

Ask yourself:

If someone lands on your homepage for 12 seconds, how should they feel?

Ambitious? Safe? Challenged? Seen? Impressed? Reassured?

Put that emotional outcome in the brief. It’s gold dust.

3. The audience — but also the reality behind the numbers

Most briefs list demographics. Strong briefs explain behaviours.

For example:

• What do visitors misunderstand about you?
• Where do they hesitate?
• What objections slow down sales cycles?
• What pages do prospects ask for that don’t currently exist?
• What questions do you answer in every call because the site doesn’t?

This turns a generic “audience” into something your agency can design for.

4. The role your website needs to play in 2026

Websites don’t exist in isolation anymore. They sit inside ecosystems — brand, marketing, SEO, paid, social, AI-powered search, employer branding, sales enablement.

Your brief should clearly define:

• Is the site your primary conversion engine?
• Your credibility anchor?
• Your investor-facing storefront?
• Your recruitment magnet?
• Your education hub for a complex product?
• Your flagship brand experience?

You can be more than one, but you can’t be all of them equally.

5. AI search & SEO expectations

2026 websites need to be built for LLM discovery.

Your brief should outline:

• How you want LLMs to describe you to searchers
• The keywords/topics you must be known for
• Competitors you want to outpace
• Markets you want to rank in
• Any planned content strategy
• Any need for structured data, explainers, glossaries, or E-E-A-T-led resources
• How important AI search visibility is for your roadmap (ChatGPT citations, Perplexity visibility, Google AI Overviews, etc.)

If your agency knows this early, they can build a site that helps you survive the next algorithm swing.

6. Content expectations — be brutally honest

Most delays in web projects? Content.

Tell your agency upfront:

• Will your team write the content, or do you need them to?
• Do you need a tone of voice refresh?
• Are old pages being migrated or rewritten?
• How many stakeholders will sign off?
• How much internal capacity do you actually have?

If the content is a “we’ll see,” your deadline becomes impossible to meet.

7. What “success” means internally

This is where briefs often fall short.

Your agency needs your internal success metrics, not just your external ones.

For example:

• What does your CEO care about?
• What does your marketing team need?
• What do sales complain about?
• What dashboards will you show your board when the site launches?
• What KPIs will get you that internal high-five?

Success looks different depending on who’s in the room. Make this explicit.

8. The brand experience you want users to feel

This is the emotional spine of your brief.

Think:

• Cinematic?
• Playful?
• Quietly premium?
• Fast, sharp, unapologetically bold?
• Calm, trustworthy, editorial?
• Tech-forward?
• Warm and deeply human?

You don’t need to know the execution — you just need to define the feeling.

Agencies translate feelings into design systems.

But they can’t work magic if you don’t give them the spark.

9. Your must-haves (and nice-to-haves)

The best briefs create boundaries, not restrictions.

Include the non-negotiables:

• CMS preferences
• Integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, booking tools, product feeds, etc.)
• Multi-region or multi-language needs
• SEO/tooling requirements
• Accessibility standards
• Timeline constraints
• Anything brand-legal won’t bend on

This helps agencies design ambitiously inside reality.

10. The truth about your timeline and budget

This is where clarity speeds everything up.

If you’re pitching to multiple agencies, don’t hide your range — good agencies will guide you into the right approach, not exploit the number. Transparency upfront = fewer surprises and a more realistically scoped project.

Three things brands always forget in their briefs (but 2026 needs them)

1. How the site should evolve after launch

Who updates it? How often? What’s the long-term content plan? A website is a living thing — plan its lifespan.

2. How your competitors are shifting

AI-generated sameness is creeping into every sector. Your brief should emphasise how you want to avoid blending in.

3. Your brand’s edge

The thing that makes you different. The thing that makes you memorable. If your brief doesn’t make that obvious, the final product won’t either.

The 2026-ready website brief template (steal this)

1. Why we’re rebuilding the site

2. What’s not working today

3. Our audience (and their behaviours)

4. What the website needs to achieve next year

5. The brand experience we want users to feel

6. Content expectations (and bandwidth)

7. SEO & AI search priorities

8. Success metrics (internal + external)

9. Tech, CMS & integration requirements

10. Timeline, budget, and internal stakeholders

Copy. Paste. Fill. Send.

Final thought

Your website is still the biggest brand asset you own. It’s the place every prospect, partner, and future hire uses to decide who you really are. And the quality of your brief sets the tone for everything that follows. A clear, honest, strategically sharp brief is the difference between a site that simply looks good and one that genuinely shifts your next decade.

If you want a head start, grab our 2026 Website Brief Template below. It’s everything you need to get aligned, get organised, and give your project the best possible beginning.