16 questions to ask before you hire a web designer

Hiring a web designer is hard to judge from portfolios alone. Every agency shows attractive screenshots. What separates a site that brings in calls from one that just looks nice is in the details below: who owns what, how leads get to you, and what happens when the relationship ends. Bring this list to every sales call. A designer who answers clearly and puts it in writing is a good sign. One who gets vague on ownership or exit terms is telling you something too. For what the finished site should include, see what a contractor website needs.

1. Who will be listed as the owner of my domain?

Your domain is your address on the internet, printed on trucks, yard signs and invoices. If the designer registers it in their own name or account, they control it. ICANN's registrant benefits and responsibilities page says the registrant must provide accurate contact information and promptly update it when anything changes. The registrant should be your company.

Good answer: "You register it, or we register it in your company's name in an account you control, and we get delegated access."

2. Do I own the site's design, text and photos when it's finished?

Some contracts license the site to you for as long as you pay. Stop paying, and the design and the words you approved stay with the agency. That's fine if you know it going in, but many owners assume they're buying something.

Good answer: the contract states that on final payment you own the content, the photos you supplied, and the design as built, with any licensed fonts or stock images listed separately.

3. Will I be the admin on hosting, analytics and Search Console?

Beyond the domain, a website depends on several accounts: hosting, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and often a form or call-tracking tool. If the agency holds all of them, switching providers later can mean losing access to your traffic and lead history and starting those reports over.

Good answer: every account is created under your company's email, with the agency added as a user. Ask them to send you a list of every account and who the owner is at launch.

4. What will I pay each month after launch, and what does it cover?

A low build price paired with a high monthly fee can cost more over three years than a bigger upfront project. "Maintenance" can mean anything from security updates to unlimited content changes.

Good answer: a written list of what the monthly fee includes (hosting, updates, backups, a set number of edits, reporting) and what costs extra. Multiply the monthly fee by 36 and add the build cost to compare offers fairly. Our guide on what a contractor website costs breaks the pricing models down.

5. Who writes the words, and how will you learn my business?

Much of what makes a contractor site useful is the writing: what's included in each service, what affects the price, what towns you serve, what happens on the day. A designer who expects you to supply all of it may leave you with a nice template full of placeholder copy.

Good answer: they interview you or your office about real customer questions, write a draft for each service page, and ask you to correct the facts. If you're writing it yourself, ask for a page-by-page outline of what's needed.

6. Can you show me leads from sites you built, not just designs?

A portfolio shows taste. It doesn't show whether those sites ring phones. A designer who builds for service businesses should be able to explain how past sites are measured, even if client numbers are confidential.

Good answer: they explain which events they track (calls, form submissions, booking requests) and offer to connect you with a past client you can call yourself. Be wary of anyone who promises rankings or a set number of leads; nobody controls Google's results.

7. How will you measure speed on a phone?

Many of your visitors will be on phones, often on cell data. Google's page experience documentation says Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems and recommends good scores, but it also says good results in a Core Web Vitals report don't guarantee your pages will rank at the top. Speed matters first because a customer on a slow connection can give up before your phone number loads.

Good answer: a named tool (PageSpeed Insights, Search Console's Core Web Vitals report) and a commitment to test the mobile result before launch, with photo compression and minimal scripts as part of the build.

8. How will I know which calls and forms came from the website?

Traffic charts don't pay bills. You need to know how many people called or asked for a quote, and where they came from: Google search, the Business Profile, an ad, a yard sign.

Good answer: calls and form submissions are tracked as events, each lead carries its source into your CRM, and you get a simple monthly count. See our guide on tracking lead sources for what that looks like.

9. Where do form submissions go, and what happens if email fails?

A contact form that only sends an email is fragile. Emails get filtered to spam, inboxes fill, and plugins break after updates. You find out weeks later, if ever.

Good answer: submissions are saved in a database or sent directly into your CRM, with an email and text alert as backup, and the customer gets an automatic confirmation. Ask them to show you a test submission arriving before launch.

10. Can I change hours, prices and photos myself?

You will need to update holiday hours, swap a photo, or change a price range more often than you'd guess. If every edit is a support ticket, the site goes stale.

Good answer: they show you exactly how to edit the common items, or explain which changes are included in the monthly fee and how fast they're made. Either way, you should know the turnaround before you sign.

11. What happens to my old pages and their addresses?

If your current site has pages that bring in search traffic, a redesign that changes their addresses can lose it. Google's guidance on site moves with URL changes recommends permanent server-side redirects (such as 301 or 308) from each old URL to its new match, keeping them as long as possible and generally at least a year, and warns against sending many old URLs to one irrelevant page such as the home page.

Good answer: a spreadsheet mapping every old URL to a new one, delivered before launch, and a check in Search Console afterward.

12. How will the site work for customers with disabilities?

Low-contrast text, images without descriptions and forms that can't be used with a keyboard shut people out. The Department of Justice's March 2022 web accessibility guidance, which is still posted on ADA.gov, says the department has consistently taken the position that the ADA's requirements apply to the goods and services businesses open to the public offer on the web. The guidance itself is not legally binding, and courts and rules vary, so treat this as general information, not legal advice.

Good answer: they build to a named standard such as WCAG, test forms with a keyboard, and write alt text for your photos as part of the job.

13. Who handles security updates and backups?

Sites built on plugins need regular updates. WordPress's own hardening guide tells site owners to keep plugins updated, delete the ones they don't use, and keep WordPress itself on the latest version, because older versions of WordPress aren't maintained with security updates. Static or custom-built sites have fewer moving parts but still need someone responsible.

Good answer: a named person or process, how often updates and backups happen, where backups are stored, and how quickly they'd restore the site if it went down. Ask when they last restored a client site from backup.

14. Will my site look like every other contractor you build for?

Some agencies reuse one template across many clients in the same trade, sometimes with nearly identical text. Copy-paste content gives homeowners and search engines little reason to choose you.

Good answer: they explain what is shared (a framework, a component library) and what is written and designed only for you. Ask to see two sites they built for the same trade side by side.

15. Do you work with my direct competitors, or sell leads in my area?

Some marketing companies build sites for several contractors in the same town, or run lead-generation sites that sell inquiries to whoever pays. Neither is automatically wrong, but you should know whose interests come first.

Good answer: a straight yes or no, and if yes, how they keep your leads, data and strategy separate. Ask, too, whether any lead form on your site ever sends inquiries anywhere except to you.

16. If I cancel, exactly what do I get and how fast?

This is the question that reveals the most. Ask it plainly and ask for the answer in the contract.

Good answer: on cancellation you receive the domain (already yours), a full export of the site files or content and images, access transfer for every account, and a reasonable handover window. Our comparison of website builders and custom websites shows how ownership differs by platform.

Where to start

If a sales call only leaves time for three questions, ask these:

1. Question 1, domain ownership. It's the one mistake that's hardest to undo.
2. Question 16, exit terms. The answer tells you how the agency sees the relationship.
3. Question 8, lead tracking. It decides whether you'll ever know if the site works.

On our own website builds, the domain, the hosting account and the site are set up in your company's name, and you keep all of it if we ever part ways. Ask us the rest of this list too. If you'd like an outside view of your current site first, the free system quote is a good starting point.

Frequently asked questions