Web Design Questionnaire: 32 Questions for New Clients
Thirty-two questions in seven groups, why each group matters and which answers you can draft yourself from the client's current site.
Robbert Veer, Founder
9 min read
A web design questionnaire is a list of questions a new client answers before you design or build their website. It tells you what the business sells, what the site has to do and who supplies the content. The one below has 32 questions in 7 groups, and you draft some of the answers yourself from the client's current site.
If you only get ten minutes with the owner, ask these five.
- What is the one thing a visitor should do on your site?
- Who is your best kind of customer, and where are they?
- What frustrates you or your customers about the current site?
- Who writes the text, and who supplies the photos?
- Who gives final approval?
When should you send a web design client questionnaire?
Ask it in two parts. Seventeen questions belong on the first call, before you write a proposal. The other 15 go to the client after they sign, before the kickoff.
Sending all 32 before the first call asks a stranger for homework. Sending none means you price the job blind.
| Part | Group | Questions | What the answers decide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before the proposal | 1. The business | 1 to 5 | The words on the site |
| Before the proposal | 2. The goal | 6 to 10 | What the first screen asks for |
| Before the proposal | 3. Features | 11 to 14 | The scope and the price |
| Before the proposal | 4. The project | 15 to 17 | Who decides, by when, for how much |
| After the signature | 5. The current site | 18 to 23 | What stays and what goes |
| After the signature | 6. Content | 24 to 28 | Who supplies what, and when |
| After the signature | 7. Look and feel | 29 to 32 | The design direction |
Part one fits inside a sales call. Our discovery call questions cover the rest of that conversation.
What questions go in a web design questionnaire?
Thirty-two, in seven groups. These are the questions to ask web design clients before a build, grouped by what each answer decides. Copy the groups your project needs.
Group 1. The business
Why it matters. The site has to speak to the customer in the customer's words. These answers set the headline and the menu.
- What do you sell, in one sentence a customer would use?
- Who is your best kind of customer, and where do they live or work?
- Which 3 services or products bring in the most money?
- Why do customers choose you over the business down the road?
- Which 3 competitors do customers compare you with?
Group 2. The goal
Why it matters. One goal decides what the first screen asks a visitor to do. A site with five goals has none.
- What is the one thing a visitor should do on the site? Call, book, ask for a quote or buy?
- How do new customers reach you today?
- What is a new customer worth to you in a typical year?
- What should be different 6 months after launch?
- Why now? What made you start this project this month?
Group 3. Features
Why it matters. Each feature adds days and dollars. Learning about online payments in week five turns a fixed price into a loss.
- Do visitors need to book, pay, request a quote or log in on the site?
- Which tools must the site connect to, such as a calendar, a CRM or an email list?
- Do you need more than one language, or to meet an accessibility standard?
- Who will update the site after launch, and how often?
Group 4. The project
Why it matters. You cannot price a project until you know who decides, by when and within what budget.
- Who gives final approval, and who else will comment?
- Is there a date the site must be live, and what happens on that date?
- What budget range have you set aside?
Group 5. The current site
Why it matters. The old site shows what to keep, what to fix and what you could break. Draft your own answers first, then ask the owner to correct them.
- What on your current site works and has to stay?
- What frustrates you or your customers about it?
- Which pages do customers mention or use most?
- Who holds the logins for the domain, the hosting and your Google Business Profile?
- What must not change, such as page addresses, a booking tool or a phone number?
- Who built the current site, and are you still under contract with them?
Group 6. Content
Why it matters. Your launch date depends on the client's text and photos. These answers put a name and a date next to each item.
- Who writes the text? You, us, or us from an interview with you?
- Which photos of real work, staff and premises do you have?
- Do you have the logo as a vector file, and a brand guide?
- Which reviews, licenses, awards or memberships can we show?
- Which pages does the new site need? Mark each as keep, rewrite or new.
Group 7. Look and feel
Why it matters. Taste is where rounds of changes go. A reference collected before the design starts costs less than an opinion collected after.
- Which 3 websites do you like, in any industry, and what do you like about each?
- Which website do you dislike, and why?
- Which 3 words should a visitor use to describe your business?
- Which colors, fonts or images must we use or avoid?
Which answers should you fill in yourself?
Every answer the client's current website already gives. A questionnaire should never ask an owner something their own site told you in two minutes.
Open the site on a phone before you send anything, and draft what you can see.
| Question | Where the current site answers it |
|---|---|
| 1. What do you sell? | The home page headline and the menu |
| 2. Where are your customers? | The service area page and the footer address |
| 3. Which services earn the most? | The order of the services menu, as a first guess |
| 19. What frustrates customers? | Your own test of the load time, the call button and the form |
| 22. What must not change? | Page addresses, the booking tool, the phone number |
| 27. Which proof can we show? | Google reviews and the licenses in the footer |
| 28. Which pages are needed? | The current menu |
Send those answers as drafts and ask the owner to correct them. Correcting a draft is less work than filling an empty box, and it shows the owner you looked before you asked.
Test on a phone for question 19. In Google's words, it "uses the mobile version of a site's content, crawled with the smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking" (Google Search Central). Then write down three numbers from PageSpeed Insights. Google's marks for a good page, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads, are on web.dev.
| What you note | Google's mark for good |
|---|---|
| Time until the main content shows (LCP) | 2.5 seconds or less |
| Time the page takes to react to a tap (INP) | 200 milliseconds or less |
| How far the layout jumps while loading (CLS) | 0.1 or less |
Filled in. Four questions from group 5 for a made-up client, Marlow Plumbing & Heating at marlowplumbing.example. The agency wrote each draft from the site. The owner's replies are invented too.
18. What on your current site works and has to stay?
Our draft. The 24-hour emergency page. It is the first result when we search your business name.
Owner. "Yes. Keep the photo of my father's first van too."
19. What frustrates you or your customers about it?
Our draft. On a phone, the home page took 6.1 seconds to show its main content. The phone number cannot be tapped. The request form has 11 fields.
Owner. "Customers also tell me they cannot find our service area."
21. Who holds the logins?
Our draft. Unknown.
Owner. "My nephew registered the domain in 2017. I will ask him."
22. What must not change?
Our draft. The phone number, (937) 555-0142, and the address of the emergency page.
Owner. "Correct. The booking tool can go. Nobody uses it."
Question 21 earned its place. A domain registered by a relative is better found in week one than on launch day.
If the client came from your own outreach, a first draft already exists. Leadodo's AI, Twip, scores every website in a search out of 100 across 10 domains, and its findings become the opening line of your letter. That line is a draft answer to question 19. Leadodo is not a questionnaire tool, so the other 31 questions are still yours to ask. Our website audit checklist covers checking a site by hand.
What should you change before you send it?
Cut it down. Thirty-two questions is the full set, and few projects need every one.
- Remove what you already know. A draft answer the owner confirmed on the call comes off the list.
- Remove groups that do not apply. A five-page site with no booking or payments needs one question from group 3.
- Use the trade's words. Write "patients" for a dentist, "jobs" for a roofer and "matters" for a law firm.
- Pick the format for the owner. A shared document suits drafts they correct. A form suits short answers. For an owner who will not write, ask on a call and type the answers yourself.
- Set a return date. Ask for answers within 5 working days, and put that date in the contract.
By our estimate, the 15 questions in part two take an owner about 20 minutes when a third are drafted for them. Time it with your first client and adjust.
What do you do with the answers?
Move each answer into the document that depends on it. An answer that stays in the form is an answer nobody uses.
| Answers | Where they go |
|---|---|
| The goal, 6 to 10 | The goals section of the proposal |
| Features and the project, 11 to 17 | The scope, the timeline and the price |
| The current site, 18 to 23 | The findings in the proposal and the list of what stays |
| Content, 24 to 28 | The client's duties in the contract, each with a date |
| Final approval, 15 | The contract, as the one named approver |
| Look and feel, 29 to 32 | The design brief |
Our web design proposal template and web design contract template have a place for each. The answer to question 14 also tells you whether to offer a website maintenance plan.
Questions
Is a web design questionnaire the same as a website brief?
They overlap. The questionnaire is the list of questions the client answers. The brief is the short summary you write from those answers and send back for the client to confirm. Some agencies use both names for one form.
How many questions should a web design questionnaire have?
As few as the project allows. A full set for a local business site is about 32 questions. Ask 17 on the first call and send 15 after the signature, minus every answer you could draft from the client's current site.
Should the client fill it in before or after signing?
Both, in two parts. You need the business, the goal, the features and the budget to write a proposal. The questions on the current site, the content and the look can wait until the client has signed.
What if the client does not fill it in?
Ask the questions on a 30-minute call and type the answers yourself. Then send your notes back for the owner to confirm. A return date in the contract gives you a reason to follow up.
Should you ask about budget in a questionnaire?
Yes, and ask for a range. The budget question belongs on the first call, where you can say what each range buys and the owner can react. Without a range you write a proposal for a project the owner never planned to fund.
Next step. Twip scores every website in a search out of 100 across 10 domains. Its findings are your first draft for the questions on the current site. See how Leadodo works.
