How to scope a website project without paying for the wrong things
A good brief saves more money than a good negotiation. Six questions to answer before you ask anyone for a quote.
Two quotes for the same website can differ several times over, and both can be fair. They are usually pricing different projects, because the brief left too much open. Closing those gaps is the fastest way to a quote you can compare.
Answer these first
- What should a visitor do on the site: call, book, buy, or sign up?
- Who will update the content after launch, and how often?
- Which systems must it connect to: payments, CRM, inventory, booking?
- How many distinct page types are there, not how many pages?
- Which languages and regions does it need to serve?
- What does success look like three months after launch?
Spend where it compounds
Speed, search foundations and a CMS your team can actually use pay back every month. Elaborate animation on a page nobody visits does not. A good partner will tell you which is which, and show you where a smaller first version is the smarter buy.
If you are not sure of the answers, that is fine. A short discovery session is designed to find them, and it should leave you with a brief you could take to anyone.