What to Ask a Web Designer Before Hiring: 8 Questions That Protect You

A website is usually something you buy once every three to five years. It is also the first thing most of your customers see. Get the questions right before you hire, and you avoid the two most common outcomes: paying too much, or paying for a site that does not work.

Here are eight questions to ask any web designer before you sign anything, and what a good answer sounds like.

1. Who actually does the work?

The person you speak to is not always the person who builds the website.

Some studios sell the project, then pass the work to a junior team or an overseas subcontractor. That is not automatically a problem, but you should know who touches your project before you pay for it. Ask to speak to the person who will build the site, not just the person who sells it.

A good answer: “You will work directly with me. I build the site myself, and I will show you work I built personally, not work the studio produced.”

If the designer cannot clearly say who does what, the answer is that they do not know yet. That is a risk you should not carry.

2. Who owns the accounts?

This is the question that causes the most pain later.

Three things matter: the domain name, the hosting, and the analytics. If the designer registers the domain in their own name, or hosts the site on an account they control, they hold your website hostage. Even a good relationship can turn into a problem when the designer retires, raises prices, or simply stops replying.

A good answer: “The domain is registered in your name. The hosting is in your name, on your bill. The analytics account is yours. I administer them on your behalf, but you own them, and you can take them anywhere.”

Never accept “it is easier if I manage it for you.” Your website should never live in someone else’s drawer.

3. What happens if you disappear?

Small studios close down. Freelancers move on. It happens more often than the industry admits.

Ask what you receive at the end of the project: the code, the logins, the documentation. Ask whether you can hand the site to another developer if you need to. A designer who builds on a platform with dozens of custom plugins, or who refuses to share the code, is building a trap.

A good answer: “The finished code is yours. You get the full source, the database, the logins, and a short handover document. Any competent developer can take over.”

If the answer is about how they will always be there for you, and not about what you receive, you are hearing a sales line, not a plan.

4. What is not included in the price?

Most disputes happen here.

Designers quote a headline price, then add on the essentials. Copywriting is extra. Photography is extra. Forms and booking systems are extra. SEO setup is extra. Email setup is extra. By the time the site is useful, the bill has grown by half.

A good answer: “The price covers discovery, copy, design, development, testing and launch. Here is a one-page scope of exactly what you get and what you do not. Nothing is added without your written approval.”

Ask for the list of exclusions in writing. If the list is vague, the surprises are coming.

5. What happens when something breaks?

Every website breaks eventually. A plugin update goes wrong. A form stops sending. The site is hacked, or the hosting company has an outage.

Ask who monitors the site, what happens when it goes down, and how quickly someone responds. If the answer is “just email me,” you are buying a website without a support plan.

A good answer: “The site is monitored around the clock. If it goes down, we know before you do. Emergencies are fixed the same day. Routine changes are handled on a clear turnaround, and you have one person to contact.”

6. How are changes made after launch?

Websites change. Prices change. Opening hours change. New services get added. The question is what it costs and how long it takes, every single time.

With a page builder, a change can take a developer an hour and cost £50, and the request has to queue behind every other client. With a custom-coded site, a well-run change process is faster and cheaper.

A good answer: “You send the change as a voice note or an email. We make it, test it, and it goes live. Small changes are covered by your plan. Bigger changes are quoted clearly before we start.”

What you are really asking is this: does the site get better after launch, or does it start dying the day it goes live?

7. What is the timeline, and what can delay it?

A realistic timeline has two columns: what they do, and what you must do.

If the timeline assumes you deliver every piece of content and every approval instantly, the project will slip, and the slip will be your fault in their telling.

A good answer: “The build takes four to six weeks from sign-off. Here is the week by week plan, and here is exactly what we need from you at each stage, with deadlines. We agree the content schedule before we start.”

8. What does success look like, in numbers?

Designers talk about aesthetics. You should talk about outcomes.

What should the website do for the business? More enquiries. More bookings. More calls. Fewer wasted visits. Ask how the designer will measure that, and where the data lives.

A good answer: “We set conversion goals before we build. We install tracking so you can see enquiries and calls from day one. We review the numbers with you after launch and make changes based on what they say.”

If the designer cannot name a single metric, they do not know what a successful website is. That means they cannot tell you whether the money was well spent.

The checklist before you sign

Print this or keep it next to you:

The designer can name who builds the site, and you have spoken to them
The domain, hosting and analytics are in your name
You receive the code, logins and documentation at the end
The scope lists what is included and what is not, in writing
There is a named person to contact when something breaks
Changes after launch have a clear process, cost and turnaround
The timeline includes what you must provide, with dates
Success is defined in numbers, and the data is yours

The one thing that matters most

A good web designer asks more questions than they answer. They want to know who your customers are, what your current website fails to do, and what a successful project looks like for you. If the whole conversation is about them, their portfolio and their process, you are a transaction, not a project.

You are not looking for the cheapest designer, or the flashiest one. You are looking for someone who treats your website as an investment that has to pay for itself, and who can tell you, in numbers, how they will know it did.

Next steps

LeadBuilt builds custom-coded websites for UK service businesses on a fixed scope and a fixed price. No templates, no page builders, no hidden costs.