A local agency or a one-person web designer?
Agencies and solo designers both build good websites. They are set up for different customers, and knowing which you are saves money and frustration.
What an agency is good at
Several people with separate skills: design, development, copywriting, project management, ads. That suits a bigger business with a bigger budget, complex features, or a need for several people working on it at once.
You pay for that team and its overheads, and you often deal with an account manager rather than the person building your site.
What a one-person designer is good at
You speak to the person who builds and maintains the site, every time. There is less overhead to pay for, and changes tend to happen quickly because there is nobody to hand them to.
The trade-off is capacity: one person can only take on so many projects. Ask how they cover holidays and illness, and what happens to your site if they stop trading.
Questions to ask either
Who owns the domain and the content? Is there a minimum term? What exactly does the monthly fee cover? Can I see live sites you have built for businesses like mine?
My answers: the domain is registered in your name, there is no minimum term, the monthly fee covers hosting, changes and updates, and every site I have built is on the showcase page, live on its own domain.
Common questions
- What if you stop trading?
- Because the domain is registered in your name and the content is yours, the site can be moved to someone else. The guide on what to do if your web designer disappears covers this in detail.
- Do you work with businesses outside Cornwall?
- Yes. I'm based in Cornwall and build for small businesses across the UK.
If you would rather somebody just did it
I build websites for self-employed tradesmen and small businesses across the UK: £249.99 to build, then £49.99 a month to host, maintain and update it. The sites I have built show on page one of Google for 103 searches between them, in Search Console.