Hiring the wrong web designer is expensive in three separate ways: the money you spend, the months you lose, and occasionally the position of being unable to change your own website because someone else controls it.
That last one sounds dramatic. It’s routine. Business owners regularly discover they can’t move hosts, can’t get their content, or can’t renew their own domain, because none of it was ever in their name.
A handful of questions asked before you sign filters out nearly all of that risk. Here are ten, with what a good answer sounds like.
1. “Will I own everything when we’re finished?”
The most important question on this list. Ask it first.
You should own your domain, your hosting account, your content, and the site itself, outright and in your name.
A good answer is immediate and unqualified. Yes, registered to you, here’s how we hand it over.
A bad answer involves the designer holding the domain “for convenience,” or a contract where the site remains their property, or vagueness about what happens if you leave.
If someone hesitates here, stop. This is the trap that produces the worst outcomes in this industry, and it’s entirely avoidable by asking one question.
2. “What mobile PageSpeed score will it launch with?”
Speed affects visitors and rankings, and it’s one of the few things you can hold someone to numerically.
A good answer names a number. “We target 90+ on mobile, and we’ll show you the score before launch.”
A bad answer is “it’ll be fast,” or an explanation of why the score doesn’t matter. It matters. See why is my website slow.
3. “Is it built mobile-first?”
Most of your visitors arrive on a phone.
A good answer describes process: designed at phone width first, tested on real devices, checked on mobile data rather than office wifi.
A bad answer is “it’s responsive,” which only means the layout adapts. Mobile-first is a different and more demanding thing.
4. “Who writes the words?”
The most underestimated question, and the most common cause of stalled projects.
A good answer is either “we write it, based on a questionnaire and a call,” or a clear statement that you’re providing it, with a deadline and a format.
A bad answer is a vague “you provide content.” That sentence is how a two-week project becomes a six-month one, because writing your own sales copy is genuinely hard and endlessly postponable. See how long it takes to build a website.
5. “How will this help me get found on Google?”
A site nobody finds is a poster in a drawer.
A good answer covers structure: separate pages per service and area, page titles, schema markup, speed, sitemap submission, Google Business Profile.
A bad answer is “we’ll add keywords,” or a guarantee of first-page rankings. Nobody can guarantee a position, and anyone offering one is either uninformed or dishonest.
6. “What’s included, and what costs extra?”
A good answer is itemised in writing: page count, revision rounds, copywriting, images, forms, analytics, and the hourly rate for anything beyond it.
A bad answer is a single line reading “Website: $4,000.”
7. “How many revision rounds?”
Two is typical and usually sufficient.
A good answer states the number, describes how feedback should be given, and says what happens if you need more.
A bad answer is “unlimited revisions,” which sounds generous and reliably produces projects that never end. Constraints protect both sides.
8. “What happens after launch?”
A good answer covers an included support period, what ongoing maintenance costs, who to contact when something breaks, and how quickly they respond.
A bad answer is silence on the subject. Ask directly: if my contact form stops working in November, what do I do?
9. “Can I see live sites and speak to a past client?”
Not a portfolio image. Live URLs you can open and test yourself.
A good answer is a list of sites still running, ideally for businesses like yours, and a willingness to connect you with someone.
A bad answer is design mockups only, or work you can’t verify is live. Open the sites they send. Run them through PageSpeed. That tells you more than any conversation.
10. “What’s the total cost, including everything?”
A good answer covers the project fee, ongoing fees, and third-party costs like domain, hosting, and any licences.
A bad answer omits the recurring parts. Watch for premium plugin licences registered to the developer rather than you, which stop updating the day you part ways. What a website costs breaks the numbers down.
Watch how they answer, not just what they answer
The content of the answers matters. The manner matters as much.
Do they ask about your business first? Someone who quotes before asking what you do, who your customers are, and what a job is worth to you is selling a template. The good ones interview you before they price anything.
Do they explain in plain English? Jargon is often used to make simple things sound difficult. If you can’t follow the explanation, ask them to say it again more simply. How they handle that request is informative.
Are they honest about tradeoffs? Everything in web design is a tradeoff. Someone who says every choice is purely upside either doesn’t know or isn’t telling you.
Will they talk you out of something? The most reassuring thing a builder can say is “you don’t need that.” Someone who upsells every option is optimising for their invoice.
Warning signs
Any one of these is worth pausing over. Two together, walk away.
- They want to hold your domain. Non-negotiable. It’s yours.
- Guaranteed Google rankings. Impossible to promise honestly.
- Pressure to sign today. Discounts that expire in an hour exist to prevent comparison.
- No written scope. Verbal agreements become disputes.
- A portfolio of dead links. Check that the sites they show are still live.
- Full payment upfront. A deposit is standard. All of it is not.
- No questions about your business.
- Wildly cheap. Under about $500 you’re buying a theme with your logo in it, which is fine only if that’s what you wanted.
Freelancer, agency, or platform?
The ten questions apply to all three, but the risks differ.
A freelancer gives you direct contact with the person doing the work, and usually better value. The risk is continuity: they get overbooked, change careers, or stop replying. Mitigate it by owning everything and keeping your own copy of the site.
An agency gives you process and cover if someone leaves. You also pay for overhead, and a small project may land with a junior. Ask directly who will do the work.
A platform or builder removes the people question entirely and replaces it with a lock-in question. Website builders vs a pro covers the tradeoff.
None is inherently better. What predicts the result is the quality of the individual and how clearly the scope is defined.
Reading a proposal properly
Once quotes arrive, the differences between them are rarely about quality. They’re about what’s included, and the only way to see that is to line them up.
Normalise the scope first. One quote covers eight pages, another five. One includes copywriting, another assumes you write it. Until you’ve adjusted for those, comparing the totals tells you nothing.
Find the recurring costs. Some proposals bury a monthly figure in the last paragraph. Multiply it by sixty and add it to the project price. That’s the real five-year number.
Look for what’s missing. Analytics setup, conversion tracking, redirects from an old site, sitemap submission, and a thank-you page are small items that get quietly omitted and then cost extra. If your current site has pages that rank, redirect mapping is not optional.
Check the payment schedule. A deposit then a balance on completion is normal. Staged payments against milestones are fine. Everything upfront is not.
Check what “revision” means. Two rounds of feedback on a design is standard. Two individual changes is not the same thing, and the ambiguity is where disputes start.
Notice who wrote it. A proposal that references your business, your customers, and something specific you said on the call was written for you. A proposal that could be sent to anyone was.
Before the first call
Fifteen minutes of preparation makes every conversation more useful and gets you sharper quotes.
Write down what you want the site to do, in business terms. “Get more emergency call-outs from people searching at night” is a brief. “Look modern” is not.
Collect three sites you like and three you don’t, with a note on why in each case.
Know your rough budget. Not to disclose immediately, but so you can tell whether a quote is in the right universe.
Know who decides. One name.
Frequently asked
Should I get multiple quotes? Two or three. More than that and you’re comparing noise. Give each the identical brief or the numbers won’t be comparable.
Is local better? It helps for understanding your market and getting real photographs taken. It matters less than competence. Judge on the answers above.
What if I already have a site and just need fixes? Say so plainly and ask for a fixed-price audit first. A good builder will tell you honestly whether you need a rebuild or four hours of work. Signs your site needs a redesign helps you frame it.
How do I check someone is legitimate? Open their live client sites. Run one through PageSpeed. Search their business name. Ask for one reference and actually call them.
What if it goes wrong mid-project? This is why ownership and written scope matter. If you own the domain and hosting, and the scope is documented, you can end the relationship and hand the work to someone else. Without those, you’re stuck.
How much should I pay upfront? A deposit of a third to a half is normal and protects both sides. Anyone asking for the full amount before starting is asking you to carry all the risk.
Do I need a contract for a small project? Yes, though it needn’t be elaborate. A written scope, a price, a payment schedule, a revision count, and a line confirming you own the finished work covers nearly everything that goes wrong.
They quoted much less than everyone else. Is that bad? Not automatically, but find out why. Sometimes it’s low overhead, which is genuinely good. Sometimes it’s a template and an hour of work, which may still be fine if you know that’s what you’re buying. Ask what’s included and compare against the others item by item.
Should I hire the person who built a site I like? It’s a reasonable starting point. Just check the site is still fast and still live, and confirm the same person would do your work rather than it being handed to someone else.
What if I don’t know enough to judge the answers? You know more than you think after reading this. And the meta-signal is reliable: someone who explains clearly, asks about your business, and volunteers the downsides is usually competent. Someone who deflects is usually not.
What good looks like
To make this concrete, a strong engagement generally runs like this.
They ask about your business before they talk about themselves, and specifically about what a customer is worth to you. They send a written scope that references things you told them. The domain is registered in your name from day one. Copy is handled, or the deadline for you providing it is explicit. There’s a named launch date. You review twice, in structured rounds. Before launch they show you the PageSpeed score and submit your sitemap. After launch you can log in, change your own hours, and reach a human if something breaks.
None of that is exotic. It’s just what happens when the scope is clear and the incentives are honest, which is exactly what the ten questions above are designed to establish before any money changes hands.
We’re happy to answer all ten of these on a short call, with no pressure. Get in touch and ask us anything, including the awkward ones. If we’re not the right fit for what you need, we’ll say so.
Want this handled for you?
SimplyGood builds fast, lead-generating websites for local businesses across the US. Get a tailored quote in one business day.