Guide
Before you hire a web designer: what to prepare and what to ask
By Studio Swing
Before you contact a web designer, gather a few things: what the site must achieve, who it is for, your current site and its accounts, the content you already have, examples you like, the functions and systems it needs, your timeframe, and a budget range if you have one. Then ask every designer the same questions about scope, process, ownership and life after launch, and compare the answers side by side. A good studio will be glad to answer every question below, and it will ask you nearly as many.
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Three quotes that cannot be compared
Say you run a physiotherapy clinic with two locations. Your website was built years ago, it is slow on phones, and patients still call to ask which location offers which treatments. You contact three web designers.
The first sends a price within an hour. The second sends a long questionnaire. The third asks for a 30-minute call. A week later you have three numbers, far apart, and no way to tell which is the good deal, because each one describes a different website. One assumed you would write every word. One included booking software. One never mentioned what happens to your existing pages, which bring in most of your new patients from search.
This clinic is hypothetical, and the situation is very common. The fix is to arrive prepared, ask everyone the same questions, and make each answer specific enough to compare.
What to gather before you contact anyone
None of this is required to start a conversation. A good studio will help you work out what you do not know. But the more of it you bring, the more accurate the first answer you get back.
1. What the site must achieve. One or two outcomes: more enquiries, online bookings, sales, or fewer repetitive phone calls. “A modern look” is a wish, not an outcome.
2. Who it is for. Your best customers, and the questions they ask before they buy. Write down what people ask on the phone or at the counter.
3. Your current site and its accounts. The address, who controls the domain and hosting, and whether Google Analytics and Search Console are connected. If they are, a designer can see which pages bring visitors before deciding what to change.
4. The content you have. Text, photos, logos, brand colors, product or service details. Note what is out of date, and who could write or photograph what is missing.
5. Examples you like, and why. Two or three sites, with the specific thing you like about each: the way prices are explained, the photography, how quickly you can book. “I like it” is hard to act on; “I could find the price in two clicks” is easy.
6. Must-have functions. Booking, online payment, a product catalog, search, member logins, more than one language.
7. Systems it must connect to. Booking software, a customer database, stock or inventory, email marketing, accounting.
8. Timeframe. Any fixed date that matters, such as a launch event, a new location opening or a busy season.
9. A budget range, if you have one. Sharing it lets a designer propose the right scope for the money instead of guessing, and saves both sides time when the gap is large.
10. Who decides. Who on your side gives feedback and who signs off. Projects slow down most when a new decision-maker appears near the end.
If you want to turn this list into a written brief, our guide on how to write a website brief that gets you a useful quote walks through it.
Questions to ask any web designer
Ask every designer the same questions, in writing if you can, so you compare like with like. Each comes with what a good answer sounds like.
1. What do you need to know about my business before you can quote?
A good answer is a set of questions about your goals, your customers and your current site, asked before anyone talks about pages or colors. A fixed price before a single question can be a price for a template.
2. What exactly is included, and what would count as extra?
Ask for the scope in writing: the pages, the content work, the design rounds, the features, the testing and the launch tasks. A good answer also says how something added halfway through is handled: scoped and priced on its own, so the original agreement stays clear.
3. Who writes the words, and who provides the photos?
Content is the most common hidden difference between two quotes. If you are writing, ask what guidance you will get. If they are writing, ask how they will learn enough about your business to do it well.
4. Can I see work like what I need, and what was your part in it?
Ask which examples are client projects, which are concept work, and which parts the designer actually did (design, build, content, or all three). Some studios, including ours, show original concept work rather than client projects. That is a fair way to show skill as long as it is labelled clearly, and you should still ask how the thinking would apply to your business.
5. How will you decide which pages the site needs and what each one says?
A good answer starts from your customers' questions and the searches they make, and the plan is agreed with you before design starts. Ask to see what that plan looks like, even as a sample.
6. How will the site work on a phone, and how do you test it?
Many of your visitors may arrive on a phone. A good answer describes phone layouts as designed in their own right and tested on real devices, not just checked by narrowing a desktop browser.
7. What accessibility standard do you work to, and how do you check it?
A good answer names a standard. The current W3C standard is WCAG 2.2, and it has levels A, AA and AAA. Ask which level they work to and how it is checked: keyboard-only navigation, color contrast, form labels, screen reader testing.
8. How fast will the site be, and how will you measure it?
A good answer refers to Google's Core Web Vitals as targets: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) within 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) of 0.1 or less. All three should meet their targets at the 75th percentile of real page loads, assessed separately for mobile and desktop. Be wary of anyone who promises a perfect score; a speed score is a diagnostic, not a ranking or a sale.
9. If I already have a site, what happens to my existing pages and their addresses?
This is the question most often skipped, and the one that can cost you the most. A good answer describes a list of your existing pages, a decision for each, a map from every old address to its new one, permanent redirects, and checks after launch. That is what Google itself recommends for a site move. “We'll point everything at the homepage” is a poor answer. Our guide to redesigning without losing search traffic explains why.
10. How will we know whether the new site is working?
A good answer names the actions that matter (an enquiry sent, a booking made, a sale) and how each will be counted, plus a connected Search Console account. If you have an existing site, ask for a record of how it performs before launch, so there is something to compare against.
11. Who will own the domain, the code, the content and the accounts at the end?
A good answer is “you”, in writing. The domain should be registered in your name, because the registrant is the person or organisation ICANN treats as responsible for it. Analytics and Search Console should list you as an administrator. Copyright needs the most care: in both the US and the UK, a commissioned work generally belongs to whoever created it unless you agree otherwise in writing, so ask for the transfer to be in the contract. Our guide to who owns your website and what a handover should include covers this in more depth; for anything binding, ask a lawyer where you are.
12. Which platform will you build on, and why that one for me?
A good answer explains the tradeoffs for your situation, including running costs and how easy it would be to move to another provider later. Sometimes the honest answer is a website builder you can manage yourself; our guide to choosing between custom-coded, Shopify and a website builder explains when.
13. What will the site cost to run each month, and who pays which bills?
Hosting, platform subscriptions, the domain renewal, paid plugins or apps, and payment fees all continue after launch. A good answer lists each one and says whose account it sits in.
14. What happens after launch if something breaks or I need a change?
A good answer says what is included, for how long, how you ask for help, and what ongoing work costs. “We're always here for you” is a sentiment, not a term you can rely on.
15. Can you guarantee rankings or a number of enquiries?
The right answer is no. Google's own advice on hiring search help says no one can guarantee a top ranking, and warns against anyone who claims to. A good studio tells you what it controls (structure, content, speed, tracking) and what it does not.
What a good studio should ask you
The questions a designer asks you are as revealing as the answers they give. Before quoting, a careful studio will want to know:
- What should the website make possible for your business?
- Who are your best customers, and what do they need to know before they buy?
- How do customers find you today: search, referrals, social media, walk-ins?
- What does your current site do well that must not be lost?
- What happens after an enquiry arrives, and who answers it?
- What content exists, and who will supply the rest?
- Which systems must the site work with?
- Is there a date or a budget we should plan around?
- Who will give feedback, and who decides?
If a designer asks none of these, they are quoting for a site they have imagined, not the one your business needs.
What changes a quote
Two honest quotes for “a website” can differ a great deal because they describe different amounts of work. The main things that move a quote are:
The number of pages, and especially how many different kinds of page need their own design.
The content required: whether you supply finished text and photos, or the studio writes, photographs or illustrates.
The visual work: adapting an existing template, or designing from scratch.
Features beyond a standard page: booking, search and filters, accounts, several languages.
Integrations with the systems you already use.
What launch requires: moving an existing site and its addresses, setting up tracking, accessibility and speed testing.
We explain each of these, and why quotes differ, in what affects the cost of a website. We do not publish prices because every quote is built from these factors for one project.
Warning signs worth taking seriously
None of these proves a designer is a bad choice on its own, but each deserves a follow-up question:
- A price before any questions about your business.
- A promise of first place in search, or a guaranteed number of enquiries.
- The domain or the analytics account registered in the designer's name, with no plan to transfer them.
- No written scope, or a scope that lists pages but says nothing about content, testing or launch.
- Answers you cannot follow. A good designer can explain any choice in plain words.
- Pressure to sign quickly, such as a discount that expires this week.
Google's guidance on hiring search help adds a few of its own: be wary of unsolicited emails about your search visibility, of anyone claiming a special relationship with Google, and of anyone who will not explain what they plan to do.
What these questions will not tell you
Good answers make a good project more likely; they do not guarantee one. Look at the work itself, and judge whether the designer listened to you. A low quote is not automatically a bad one either: if your needs are simple, a smaller scope or a website builder may be exactly right, and a designer who says so is giving you good advice. And you do not need answers to every preparation point before you get in touch. Bring what you have; working out the rest is part of the job.
Your preparation checklist
Checklist
- One or two outcomes the site must achieve, written down.
- A list of the questions customers ask before they buy.
- Access details, or at least the owner's name, for your domain, hosting, Analytics and Search Console.
- An inventory of the content you have and what is missing.
- Two or three example sites, each with the specific thing you like.
- Your must-have functions and the systems the site must connect to.
- Any fixed dates, and a budget range if you have one.
- The 15 questions above, sent to every designer you are considering.
Next steps
Our own answers to these questions are on our approach page. Your quote is tailored to your project. Your scope is agreed in writing before any work starts. Two rounds of design changes are included before the build. Your domain, accounts, files and logins are in your name. To see what we build, read about custom website design. Tell us about your project, and we reply with next steps. No cost, no obligation. Discuss your project
For the next step in preparing, read how to write a website brief, or browse the rest of the Learn library.
Sources
1. Google Search Central, “Do you need an SEO?” (questions to ask and warning signs; no one can guarantee a top ranking): https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo
2. Google Search Central, “Site moves with URL changes” (URL mapping, permanent redirects, monitoring): https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes
3. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, “WCAG 2 Overview” (WCAG 2.2, conformance levels A, AA, AAA): https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/
4. web.dev, “Web Vitals” (LCP 2.5 seconds, INP 200 milliseconds, CLS 0.1, measured at the 75th percentile): https://web.dev/articles/vitals
5. ICANN, “Registrants' Benefits and Responsibilities”: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/benefits-2013-09-16-en
6. U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 30, “Works Made for Hire” (revised 08/2024): https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ30.pdf
7. GOV.UK, “Ownership of copyright works” (commissioned works): https://www.gov.uk/ownership-of-copyright-works
8. Google Analytics Help, “Add, edit, and delete users and user groups” (Administrator role): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9305788