Your content questionnaire shouldn't feel like homework
“Tell us about your business” can produce a company autobiography or “We repair bikes.” A website content questionnaire needs to define what a useful answer contains: one question, a small answer boundary, and a follow-up only when the answer needs it. Copy the questions below, then remove anything your agreed website won’t use.
The problem starts inside the question. A large paragraph box doesn’t tell your client whether you want a sentence, a history, or finished website copy. Adding more required questions gives them more decisions to make before they can submit anything.
What belongs in a website content questionnaire?
Use it to gather the information needed to write the pages you’ve already agreed to build. Discovery establishes goals, audience, scope, and functionality. A content questionnaire comes after those decisions and asks for the names, explanations, evidence, and files that will appear on the site.
Don’t ask the client to choose their website platform halfway through describing a service. If a scope decision is unresolved, settle it separately rather than hiding it among content questions.
You can collect rough inputs when your scope assigns writing to your team. The distinction between business knowledge and finished copy is covered in why clients can’t write website copy. Here, the job is to make those inputs consistent enough to use without another full interview.
Copy this website content questionnaire
This is a question bank for a small business site, not a mandatory form. Keep the relevant modules, prefill facts you’ve already confirmed, and send only the remaining questions. The answer sizes below are instructions, not minimum word counts.
Put this introduction above the first question:
We’re collecting information for your website, not asking you to write the finished pages. Short answers and bullet points work. Follow the answer guide beside each question. Choose “Not decided” when a detail needs a decision, and “Doesn’t apply” when it isn’t relevant. We’ll ask separately about anything that needs more detail.
Add the actual response deadline and the agreed writer’s name. If writing isn’t included in your project, change the introduction to describe who will turn these answers into copy before sending it.
Business and visitor action
Start with information that anchors several pages. Don’t make the client describe the same business again in each module.
| Question to copy | Answer guide | Response format |
|---|---|---|
| What exact business name should appear on the website? | Copy the public spelling and capitalization. | Short text |
| What do you sell or do, and who buys it? | One sentence. Name the offer and customer type. | Short text |
| Which offers should this website feature? | List their public names in priority order. | Short text or confirmed choices |
| What should a new visitor do next? | Choose the main action: book, call, inquire, visit, buy, or other. | Single choice |
| Where does that action happen? | Add the booking or purchase link, or the public contact detail. | URL or short text |
| Which existing material is still accurate? | Link a current brochure, price sheet, or old page. Identify any outdated part. | URL plus short note |
Make “other” reveal a short explanation field. If the visitor should book, ask for the booking destination. If they should visit, ask where and whether an appointment is needed. A client shouldn’t have to answer every possible route.
Each featured service or product
Repeat this module for one offer at a time. Put its confirmed name in the heading so the client can see which offer they’re describing.
| Question to copy | Answer guide | Response format |
|---|---|---|
| When would someone need [offer name]? | Describe one ordinary customer situation in two sentences. | Paragraph |
| What does the customer receive? | Up to four items. Name the work or deliverables. | Paragraph |
| What might someone expect that isn’t included? | One or two exclusions, or “Doesn’t apply.” | Short text |
| What happens between the first inquiry and delivery? | Up to four steps, in order. | Paragraph |
| What should the website say about price? | Choose fixed price, starting price, quote required, or not decided. | Single choice |
| What price or explanation belongs beside that choice? | Give the current amount and unit, or what determines the quote. | Conditional short text |
| What does a customer need to know before booking? | Include an eligibility condition, preparation step, or timing restriction. | Paragraph |
Avoid a single “Describe all your services” box. It lets one detailed offer crowd out the others, and you can’t tell whether a missing service was forgotten or deliberately excluded.
For a product catalogue, replace work and delivery steps with specifications, variants, availability, and purchasing details. Don’t send service questions unchanged to a shop.
Business story and people
Use these when the sitemap includes an About or team section. Keep a long history optional.
| Question to copy | Answer guide | Response format |
|---|---|---|
| What led you to start this business? | Two sentences about the event or need behind it. | Paragraph |
| What should a customer know about how you operate? | One concrete practice that affects their experience. | Paragraph |
| Which people will appear on the website? | Public name and role for each person. | Paragraph |
| What relevant experience should we mention for each person? | Up to two facts per person. | Paragraph |
| Is there a longer story or existing biography we should read? | Link it rather than pasting it into every answer. Optional. | URL |
If individual biographies need input from staff, send the same short module to each person. Don’t require the owner to finish everyone else’s biography before they can return the business answers.
Evidence and images
Ask for supporting material beside the claim or section it belongs to. Keep the client’s answer and its source connected.
| Question to copy | Answer guide | Response format |
|---|---|---|
| Which fact would help a customer trust this offer? | One credential, measurable result, or other specific fact. | Short text |
| Where can we check that fact? | Add the source link or file and the person who can confirm it. | URL or file plus short text |
| Which customer quote can we publish? | Paste the exact approved quote and display name, or select “None available.” | Optional paragraph |
| Which image belongs with this section? | Upload or link the original file and say what it shows. | File or URL plus caption |
| Can we publish this material? | Confirm permission and any limits on names, quotes, or images. | Choice plus conditional note |
An unavailable testimonial shouldn’t block every other answer. Use “None available” to expose the gap, then decide whether the page needs a different kind of evidence. Confirm sources and publication permission before using the material in a draft.
Contact and practical details
Prefill details already confirmed at kickoff. Ask the client to correct them rather than retype them.
| Question to copy | Answer guide | Response format |
|---|---|---|
| Which contact details should visitors see? | Public phone and email, plus address if customers can visit. | Separate short fields |
| When can customers contact or visit you? | Hours and any appointment requirement. | Short text |
| Where do website inquiries go? | Give the receiving inbox and the person responsible for it. | Email plus short text |
| Which locations or areas does this offer cover? | Name the actual locations or boundaries. | Short text |
| Is any answer above still waiting on someone else? | Name the question, the person, and what they need to confirm. | Optional paragraph |
That final question gives the client a way to submit useful work while showing which details remain unresolved. A blank field gives you neither an answer nor a reason.
How do you prevent three-word answers and essays?
Pair each broad question with a boundary and a neutral example. “Two sentences about a typical customer situation” tells the client what to include and where to stop. “Write at least 200 words” measures length without telling them which facts matter.
Consider a fictional bicycle workshop preparing a repair page. “Describe your repairs” might return “All bike repairs.” A more useful question is:
What does your standard commuter service include? List up to four tasks. Example format: task name, then a short explanation if needed.
A sample answer could be: “Adjust gears; adjust brakes; check wheel alignment; lubricate the drivetrain. Replacement parts are quoted separately.” It fits the requested shape and identifies a boundary the writer needs. This is an illustration, not a claim about a real workshop.
When you need a short answer, use a short field. For a sequence, ask for steps. For a decision, offer choices with “other” and “not decided.” Avoid forcing the client to squeeze several unrelated facts into one box.
Keep extra context available as an optional field or source link. You don’t need to reject a useful history; you need to keep it from obscuring the answer to the current question.
Which questions should be required?
Require the answers needed to identify the business and understand the offer you’re collecting. For other essential decisions, require an explicit status such as confirmed, not decided, or needs another person’s input. Don’t make an uncertain client invent a price just to submit the form.
Optional doesn’t mean unimportant. It means the client can return the rest without waiting for that item. You can track a missing photo separately from the service facts already supplied.
Show only relevant follow-ups. A fixed-price answer can reveal an amount field; a quote-required answer can reveal a question about how the quote is calculated. Neither needs the other’s follow-up.
Split a larger request by a recognizable unit, such as one offer or one page. For a bicycle shop with commuter servicing, wheel building, and suspension work, three named modules make omissions visible. One large paragraph about the whole workshop doesn’t.
Should you use Google Forms, Typeform, Dubsado, or PDF?
Choose the delivery format around how the client will answer and send files. The question bank works in any of these formats, but the handoff needs testing. If you collect content on every project, a dedicated content collection tool for web agencies can hold the questions and files for each page instead.
| Format | How to adapt this questionnaire | What to test before sending |
|---|---|---|
| Google Forms | Use short fields for names and destinations, paragraphs for explanations, and sections for offer modules. | Open it as a respondent. Check account requirements and the file submission route. |
| Typeform | Keep one question focused on one answer. Add examples as question descriptions. | Complete every relevant route and try uploading an original photo. |
| Dubsado | Put the selected questions in a client questionnaire within your existing project process. | Check the client view, file uploads, and where returned answers will be reviewed. |
| Use actual fillable fields and give a separate destination for original images. | Fill, save, close, and reopen the returned file on a phone and desktop. |
Google Forms requires respondents to sign in to a Google Account to answer a file upload question. If that would interrupt the client, collect links to accessible files or provide a separate upload route. See Google’s respondent guidance.
Typeform’s File Upload question accepts files up to 10 MB, so an original photograph may need a linked folder instead. Its upload documentation describes that alternative. Dubsado supports a file uploader in questionnaires, but that doesn’t remove the need to label each file with its intended section.
If you choose PDF, send a fillable file rather than asking the client to print and scan it. Set a clear filename for the returned copy so you can distinguish it from the blank original.
Test the request before your client does
Fill out your questionnaire as the bicycle workshop owner. Can you distinguish servicing from wheel building? Can you submit the service answers while a portrait is unavailable? Can you mark suspension pricing as undecided without losing the other work?
If you have to read a question twice, rewrite it. If an answer won’t affect a page, remove the question. If you already know the answer, prefill it and ask for confirmation.
After submission, map the answers to the page-by-page website content template. Request a follow-up only where a specific answer is missing or ambiguous. The questionnaire is ready when your client can see how to finish it and your writer can see exactly what the answers support.