How to choose a web designer
Most people choosing a web designer are comparing things that cannot be compared: a freelancer at a few hundred pounds, an agency at several thousand, and a builder subscription at a few pounds a month. The quotes describe different products, and the differences that matter are usually not written down anywhere.
These are the questions that separate them, and the answers that should make you walk away.
Ask who will own the domain
The right answer is that the domain is registered in your name, with you as the registrant, and that you can get into the account.
The wrong answer is any version of do not worry about that, we handle it. A domain registered in somebody else's name is the commonest way small businesses lose control of a website, and it only surfaces years later when you want to move and cannot. Recovery is possible but slow, and in the meantime you are stuck.
The same question applies to hosting, the Google accounts and anything else the site depends on. You do not have to manage them. You do need to be able to get them back.
Ask what happens if you stop paying
Monthly arrangements are normal and often good value, but you should know exactly what stops. Hosting and updates stopping is reasonable. The website disappearing entirely, or the content being held until you settle up, is not.
Ask it plainly: if I stop the monthly fee, what do I keep? A designer who answers clearly has thought about it. One who gets vague has usually built a business on the answer being unclear.
Ask what a change costs after launch
This is where cheap builds get expensive. A quote that looks low can come with a per-change fee, an hourly rate with a minimum, or a queue measured in weeks.
Ask for a real example: what would it cost and how long would it take to change a phone number, add a page, or swap ten photographs? Vague answers here are the single best predictor of frustration later.
Ask to see three live sites, with the businesses named
Not mock-ups, not a portfolio of concepts, not screenshots. Live sites you can open, belonging to businesses you can look up.
Then check them on a phone, because that is where most of your customers will be. Look at how fast they load, whether the phone number is tappable, and whether the copyright year is current, which tells you whether the designer is still maintaining them.
If you can, ring one of the businesses and ask what the designer was like to deal with six months after launch. Most owners will tell you honestly, and it is the most useful five minutes of the whole process.
Be careful with these
Guaranteed first place on Google. Nobody can guarantee a position, including Google, and the promise usually means either paid ads being passed off as rankings or nothing at all.
A long contract with an early exit fee. Reasonable for a large build, a warning sign for a small site.
A quote with no written scope. If it does not say how many pages, what is included and what is not, the argument later is inevitable.
Pressure to decide today. Discounts that expire this afternoon exist to stop you checking anything.
Nobody you can speak to. If everything runs through a form and you never get a name, consider what happens when something breaks at five on a Friday.
How to compare quotes that look nothing alike
Put them on the same footing by working out three years of total cost for each, including the build, any monthly fee, hosting, the domain and a realistic number of changes. That single number makes a £249 build with a monthly fee and a £2,000 agency build directly comparable for the first time.
Then judge what is not in the number: who owns what, how fast changes happen, and whether anybody will still be answering the phone in year three. Those are usually what you end up caring about.
Common questions
- Is a cheap website always worse?
- No, but it is always worth asking why it is cheap. Low overheads and reused layouts are a legitimate reason. A tiny build fee that depends on expensive change requests afterwards is not, and the two look identical on a quote.
- Should I use a local designer?
- It matters less than it used to. Almost all of this work happens by phone, message and email, and several of my clients I have never met. Local helps if you want somebody to sit down with. It is not worth paying much extra for on its own.
- Freelancer or agency?
- An agency gives you more people and more process, which matters on a large build and adds cost on a small one. A freelancer gives you the person doing the work, which is faster and cheaper, with the risk that they are one person. Ask a freelancer what happens if they are ill, and an agency who will actually be doing the work.
- How long should a small business website take?
- One to three weeks once the content is ready is normal for a straightforward site. Months usually means either a genuinely large build or a designer juggling too much. The delay is almost always waiting for content, so having your words and photographs ready is the fastest thing you can do.
- What should I have ready before I get quotes?
- What the business does, the services you want more of, the areas you cover, your logo and any photographs of your own work. You do not need finished text. Having those four things makes every quote more accurate and every build faster.
If you would rather somebody just did it
I build websites for self-employed tradesmen and small businesses across the UK: £249 to build, then £49.99 a month to host, maintain and update it. The sites I have built currently hold 97 page-one Google rankings between them.