At The Square Agency, we’ve created dozens of websites over the years and can confirm that having a solid website requirements document is the number one thing that helps a project go smoothly.
More often than not, clients have come to us with a vague idea of what they want for their new website. No details on content, features, or design — just “build us a website!” While enthusiasm is great, it can then be challenging for them to communicate their needs.
That’s why we always insist that our clients provide a website requirements document before discussing the actual design. This gives us a blueprint to work from to understand their needs, goals, and vision. It also helps avoid confusion, website build mistakes , missed expectations, and having to redesign.
In this guide, we’ll be sharing our ultimate website requirements document template at The Square Agency, which we’ve used over the years to help you get started. This template will ensure you provide your Squarespace web designer with all the necessary details to create your desired website.
A website requirements document is an essential precursor to initiating any website design project for business owners. It serves as a comprehensive outline detailing the precise needs of the new website. Providing a clear roadmap ensures that the website designer or developer constructs a site that aligns with the owner’s objectives.
Having worked with several clients over the years, we believe the website requirements document holds paramount significance in the web design process. It facilitates effective communication of the owner’s vision to the designer, establishing mutual understanding regarding the website’s overall objectives and essential features.
To ensure a comprehensive website requirement document, you must ensure you have these five points checked off:
When planning a new website, the first step is determining its purpose and primary goals.
This is a simple but crucial step, deciding why you need a website and what you want to accomplish.
Why are you building this site?
What do you want visitors to do once they land on the homepage?
These are crucial questions to answer because they’ll drive your design and content decisions.
For a business, your website goals can be any of the following:
With these goals defined, your website designer can determine how best to achieve them when building the site. The team at The Square Agency may add lead capture forms and optimize the content for search engines, introduce client testimonials to build trust, and streamline the shopping experience for easy checkouts. Our decisions around design, plugins, content creation, and promotion will all stem from these initial goals.
Don’t just build a site because you feel you should have one; have a clear vision and purpose. Know your audience, determine how you want to meet their needs and outline concrete goals to work towards. With those in place, you’ll have the foundation for an effective website with real results — you can then hire a Squarespace web designer to discuss your website needs.
As the website owner, you need to know and understand your target audience.
Who are the people that will be visiting and using your website?
Knowing your target audience is one of the crucial requirements for website design because it’ll determine many of the design decisions for your website.
Think about the following questions to help determine your target audience:
Defining a target audience is an iterative process. You may start with some assumptions, refining your understanding over time through analytics, customer surveys, and experience. Review your target audience definition every 6–12 months and tweak your website to serve your ideal customers better.
When determining the technical website development requirements, several vital things must be considered. As the client, you know your business and audience best, so providing as much detail as possible about what you envision for your site will help ensure the result meets your needs.
Here are six technical requirements and specs to consider:
Do you want an e-commerce site where customers can make purchases?
A blog to share updates and articles?
A portfolio to showcase your work?
Defining your site’s primary functions and purpose will guide other technical decisions.
How will users access your site?
Primarily on desktop, mobile, or a mix of both?
Your site should be optimized for the platforms your audience uses the most. If mobile usage is projected to be high, the site must be responsive, adjusting layouts and content to fit smaller screens.
Will your site integrate with any external services?
Solutions like email marketing, customer management systems, payment processing, social media, etc.?
Provide details on any third-party services you currently use or plan to implement so they can be incorporated into your site architecture.
Do you need an internal site search feature ?
Site search helps users find content and can improve the overall experience. Consider if site search would benefit your site and any customizations needed, like searching limited areas of the site or filtering results.
Website analytics provide insights into how people use your site. Analytics should be set up to track key metrics like page views, traffic sources, popular content, conversion rates, and more. Determine what analytics platform you want to use and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you need to monitor.
State any specific color you want on your site and where you want them. If you have a specific typography to use, let us know.
Also, don’t forget to mention the site’s overall aesthetic — is it corporate/business style or conservative/unique creative? Give us an idea to take forwards.
If you have a competitor’s website in mind, you can include the links so the designer can understand how to design your website.
Providing details on these technical requirements and specifications will help ensure your new website is designed and developed to meet your unique needs and the needs of your users. The more information you can give, the better!
When defining the content requirements for website design, several vital things must be considered.
Here’s a 4-point checklist outlining what to look into:
Do you need just a home page and a contact page?
Or will you require product pages, a blog, a resource library, and more?
Think about your target audience and what information or resources they’ll be looking for. List each page you want to include.
Do you want a mission statement, service overview, or company history for the home page?
For product pages, what details and specifications should be included?
What topics would you like to cover in your blog posts?
The more details you can provide about the content for each page, the better.
Do you want professional photos of your team, products, or location?
Will you need data visualizations, graphics, or illustrations?
Be sure to specify the style, quality, and quantity of images needed for your site.
These include contact forms, email signup forms, e-commerce features, and social media integration . Provide the fields and functionality required for each interactive element.
Defining your website’s content requirements upfront helps us (as your website design team) to design and develop a site that meets your needs and expectations. The more details you can provide, the less chance of missing something important.
Of course, the requirements document is meant to be collaborative, so feel free to ask any questions about your new website’s content and features. We’re here to help bring your vision to life — contact us today to get started.
A typical website requirements example may even include wireframes and site maps to give the designer an idea of how you want your web page to look.
Wireframes are simple sketches that outline the layout and content for each site page. They don’t need to be fancy or highly detailed; some boxes and arrows representing content sections and how people will navigate between pages are sufficient.
On the other hand, the site map should show how all the individual pages will connect and the site’s overall structure. A basic site map is typical for a small website with 5–10 pages. For more significant sites with 50–100+ pages, a higher-level site map and detailed site maps for each section may be needed.
Reviewing wireframes and a site map helps us understand how the client envisions people using and interacting with their new website. We can identify potential information architecture or user experience issues and suggest improvements before design and development.
For the client, including wireframes and a site map in the website requirements document helps ensure that what they have in their mind is effectively communicated to us as the website designers.
Here are five tips on key things to consider including in the wireframes and site map:
Overall, the website requirements document sets the foundation for the entire web design project. Including wireframes and a well-thought-out site map helps us build a website that meets your needs and provides an optimal user experience. In our opinion, it’s worth the investment of time to get this right!
The website requirements document ensures that we as your website developer/designer are on the same page as you from the get-go. Taking the time to be thorough and detailed will result in a final product you can feel proud of! Provide examples and be open to suggestions from the designer — they’re the expert, after all.
With some upfront planning, you’ll have a website meeting your needs and expectations. Here are some websites we developed for inspiration.
To write a requirement document for a website, consider the following:
Remember to make the requirement document clear, concise, and easily understandable by all stakeholders involved in the development process. Regularly review and update the document as the project progresses.
Here are some ideas on gathering requirements for your website project:
A solid website requirements document template will save you and your website developer/designer time, money, and frustration. Speaking from experience, we can spend countless hours we’ve clarifying details that can be specified from the get-go to make your life easier.
Take the time to think through exactly what you want out of your new website. Jot it all down, get your team’s input, and ensure you have a single document to provide your chosen web design agency. They’ll appreciate the head start, and you’ll be thrilled with the result.
A little legwork upfront is worth it for a website that exceeds your expectations. And we’re just a few clicks away from bringing your designs to life — contact us now to discuss your website requirements.
Founder of The Square Agency & Official Squarespace Partner
