27 Questions to Ask a New Web Design Client (Free Questionnaire)

The best web projects start with good questions. When you understand the business, the audience and the goal, design decisions become easier and feedback becomes less subjective. Here are 27 questions to ask a new web design client, grouped by topic. Send them as a written questionnaire before the kickoff, and use the answers to guide the conversation.

About the business

1. What does your business do, in two or three sentences?
2. What makes you different from your competitors?
3. Who are your three closest competitors, and what do they do well?
4. What are you most proud of?

Goals and success

5. Why do you need a new website now? What is not working today?
6. What are the three most important goals for the new site?
7. How will you know the project was a success?
8. What is the main action you want visitors to take?

Audience

9. Who is your ideal customer? What do they care about?
10. What questions do customers ask most often before they buy?
11. Why do some enquiries not turn into customers?
12. Where do your customers spend time online?

Content and features

13. Which pages do you think you need?
14. Who will write and update the content, and when can you supply it?
15. Do you have photography and video, or do you need help?
16. Which features must the site have: forms, booking, online payments, a blog, newsletter sign-up, login?
17. Does the site need to connect to other tools, such as a CRM or booking system?

Look and feel

18. Which three websites do you like, and what do you like about them?
19. Are there styles or colours you definitely do not want?
20. Do you have a logo and brand guidelines?
21. Which three words should describe how your brand feels?

Technical details

22. Do you already have a domain and hosting? Who manages them?
23. What platform is the current site built on?
24. Are there accessibility, legal or regional requirements?

Budget and timing

25. What is your budget range?
26. Is there a fixed deadline, such as a launch or event?
27. Who will approve the work, and who else will give feedback?

How to use the answers

• Look for contradictions. If two people give different goals, resolve that before you design anything.
• Quote the client's words back to them in your proposal. It shows you listened.
• Follow up on vague answers. "Modern and clean" means different things to different people, so ask for examples.

Turn the answers into a proposal using our guide to what to include in a web design proposal, and into a plan using the client onboarding checklist.

Skip the typing

You can copy these questions into your own form, or use a ready-made one. The Blueprint pack is a fillable website project brief and change request form in Word, and Muse is a brand identity and logo design brief with personality scales and a design feedback form. For a full discovery process, see the Discover workshop pack, or browse all project brief templates.