10 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Web Designer

A website is one of the few things a service business pays for once and then lives with for years. The designer you pick decides how fast it loads, who can change it, what it costs every month and whether you can take it with you. Most of that gets decided in the first conversation, usually before the owner knows what to ask.

These are the ten questions we would ask if we were hiring someone to build our own site. Under each one is what a straight answer sounds like, followed by ours.

1. Who owns the website, the domain and the content?

Start here, because everything else depends on it. Your domain is the address customers type and the name every review and listing points to. It should be registered in your name, on an account you can log into. The words, photos and logo on the site belong to you too.

Ask what happens to the site's files if you part ways. Some builders keep your site on a platform only they control, and leaving means starting over from nothing. If a designer wants your domain registered in their own name, keep looking.

Our answer: your domain stays yours. If you leave, we send you a copy of the site's files and help you move it to a new host. On our 12-payment plan, the files are handed over once the last payment is in.

2. What will it cost in total, including the monthly fees?

The build price is only part of the bill. Hosting, security updates, plugin and platform subscriptions and paid changes after launch can add up to more than the build within a year or two. Ask for every line in writing, and ask exactly what each monthly fee includes.

Most small business websites land between $1,000 and $4,000 to build. Larger companies and businesses with several locations usually run $6,000 to $10,000 and up. A quote far below that range often means a template, with the real cost showing up later in subscriptions and fixes.

We take half of the build price to start and the rest when the site goes live, so you never pay in full for something you haven't seen.

3. How long until it goes live, and what do you need from me?

Timelines slip for one reason more than any other: the designer is waiting on the owner for photos, service details or a login. A good answer gives you a date and a short list of what they need from you, so you know when the clock actually starts.

4. Who will I work with from the first call to launch?

Agencies often sell with one person and build with another, and details get lost in the handoff. Ask for the names of the people who will design and build your site, and whether you can reach them directly once it's live.

Here it's the two of us. Brian and Eric take the first call, design the site, build it and handle your changes after launch.

5. Can you show me live sites you built, and what changed for those businesses?

Mockups prove a designer can draw. Live sites prove they can ship. Ask for links you can open on your phone, then ask what changed for the business after launch, in numbers.

Numbers from Google Search Console are the honest kind, because nobody can edit them to look better. Reisz & Shine, one of the businesses we built for, went from 589 appearances in Google results a month to 5,904 between summer and fall 2026.

6. Is it designed for phones and built to bring in calls?

Most people who visit a service business site arrive on a phone, often in the middle of a problem. Open one of the designer's sites on your own phone before you hire them. The phone number should dial when tapped, the quote form should be short, and the page should load before you lose patience.

We design every page for the phone first. Each site ships with a quote form that sends requests straight to your inbox, plus our own analytics, which show which pages bring calls (no cookie banner needed).

7. How will Google and AI assistants find it?

A site that search engines can't read is a brochure nobody finds. Ask what ships on every page: titles and descriptions, structured data that states your services and location, a sitemap, and copy that loads without scripts, so AI crawlers can read it too. More customers now ask ChatGPT or Google's AI answers before they search, and those answers quote pages they can read.

Ask whether you will get a page for each service and each town you serve. One services page can't rank for everything.

Our answer: every site we build ships with its own titles, descriptions and structured data, a sitemap and an llms.txt file, and for local businesses we build a page for each town you serve. You can check any site, yours included, with our free AEO score.

8. How do changes work after launch?

Your business will change, and the site has to keep up with it. Ask how you request a change, how quickly it goes live and what it costs. Some designers hand you an editor and wish you luck. Others turn every small edit into a billable ticket.

Our answer: text or email us the change. Most go live within 24 hours to 5 days, depending on the work, and nothing goes live until you approve it. Care includes an hour of small changes a month, and Care Plus covers every small change you send.

9. If I already have a site, how will you protect my rankings?

Moving to a new site can cost you rankings when old addresses break and page titles get lost along the way. A careful designer lists every page on your current site before building anything, redirects each old address to its new page and watches Search Console after launch.

We map every old URL to its new home before launch and test every redirect. Our guide walks through the method step by step.

10. What happens if I decide to leave?

It feels awkward to ask at the start, which is exactly why it matters. Long contracts, setup fees and sites that can't be exported all make leaving expensive. Ask how much notice you need to give and what you take with you.

Our answer: care plans are month to month. If you leave, your site comes with you. We send you the files, help you move to a new host, and your domain stays yours. We'd like you to stay because the site keeps bringing in work.

Our answers at a glance

Ask us

If you are comparing designers, send us your questions. We will answer all ten in writing, with a price, before you pay anything.