Hiring the wrong web designer costs more than money. I've taken over projects where the business owner didn't own their own domain, couldn't log in to their own website, or paid for a "custom" site that turned out to be a template with the logo swapped. Every one of those situations was avoidable with a few checks up front. Here's what to look for, what to ask, and the warning signs that should end the conversation.
Before you talk to anyone, know what you need
The most common hiring mistake happens before the first phone call: shopping for a designer without knowing what the website is supposed to do. "I need a website" is not a goal. "I need people searching for emergency plumbing in my city to find me and call" is a goal, and it changes who the right hire is.
Write down three things before you start comparing anyone:
- What the site needs to accomplish. More phone calls? Online bookings? Selling products? Looking credible when a referral checks you out?
- What it needs to include. A typical small business website is five to ten pages: home, services, about, contact, and maybe a page per service or location. If you need online payments, customer logins, or booking software integrations, say so up front, because not every designer builds those.
- Your realistic budget range. You don't have to share it immediately, but you should know it. It keeps you from being talked into things you don't need and from wasting calls with people out of your range.
With that list in hand, you can evaluate designers against your goal instead of against each other's sales pitches.
What to look for in a web designer or agency
A portfolio of live sites you can actually visit
Don't settle for screenshots. Screenshots hide slow load times, broken mobile layouts, and sites that no longer exist. Ask for links to real, live client websites, then open them on your phone, because that's where most of your customers will see your site too.
While you're at it, run one or two of their sites through PageSpeed Insights, Google's free speed test. Paste in the address and it scores the site from 0 to 100 for mobile and desktop. You don't need to understand the technical details. If most of a designer's recent work scores poorly on mobile, your site probably will too, and slow sites lose visitors and rank worse in search.
One more portfolio question: "Which of these did you actually build, and what was your role?" Agencies sometimes show work done by people who no longer work there, or by subcontractors you'll never meet.
Proof that their sites produce results, not just compliments
A pretty website that nobody finds is a business card in a drawer. Ask what happened after launch: did calls go up, did the site start showing up in Google searches, did bookings increase? Good designers can answer this for at least a few projects. When I rebuilt the website for a welding shop in Tampa, the part of the project that mattered most to the owner wasn't the design itself. It was that the site reached page one of Google for the searches his customers were typing. That's the kind of specific, checkable outcome you want to hear about, and it's fine to ask for a past client's phone number to verify it.
A straight answer on SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the work that helps your site show up when people search Google for what you sell. Some designers build it into every site. Many don't, and a site built without it can be invisible in search no matter how good it looks.
Ask directly: "What do you do to help this site show up in Google, and is it included in the price?" A trustworthy answer names concrete things: researching what your customers search for, writing page titles and descriptions around those terms, making the site fast and mobile friendly, and setting it up so Google can read it properly. Google publishes its own plain-language guide on what to expect when hiring someone for SEO, and it's worth ten minutes of your time before these conversations.
Clear ownership of your domain, your site, and your content
This is the one that burns small business owners the worst, so slow down here.
Your domain name (yourbusiness.com) should be registered in an account you control, under your name and your email address, even if the designer sets it up for you. If a designer registers it under their own account, you can be held hostage later: leave them, and you lose the address all your customers know. You can check who a domain is registered to right now with ICANN's free lookup tool.
Ask these three questions and get the answers in writing:
- "Will the domain be registered in my account, in my name?"
- "If we part ways, do I keep the website files and everything on the site?"
- "Are there monthly fees, and what exactly do they cover?"
Monthly plans are legitimate when they cover hosting, updates, and support. They're a problem when the contract says you never own the site and everything disappears the day you stop paying. Neither answer is wrong by itself; hiding the answer is.
A process, a contract, and a person you can reach
Ask what happens between "yes" and launch. A real answer sounds like: we'll talk through your business, I'll show you a design, you give feedback, we revise, we launch, and here's roughly how long each step takes. Vague answers now become missed deadlines later.
The contract doesn't need to be long, but it should state the price, what's included, who owns what, the timeline, and what happens if either side walks away. No contract, no project.
Finally, find out who you'll actually be talking to. At larger agencies, the person selling you is rarely the person building your site, and your questions may go through an account manager to a production team you never meet. That isn't automatically bad, but you should know before you sign. This is also the honest tradeoff in the freelancer versus agency decision: an agency offers more hands and more overlapping skills, while a solo designer offers direct access to the person doing the work and usually lower overhead. Match the choice to your project size, not to whoever has the slickest pitch.
Web design red flags that should end the conversation
Some of these are judgment calls. Most are not.
They guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Nobody can promise this, and Google says so plainly in its own hiring guidance linked above. A guarantee like this tells you the person is either lying or planning shortcuts that can get your site penalized.
They contacted you unexpectedly, claiming your website has problems. Unsolicited calls and emails about a “broken” website are often part of mass outreach campaigns targeting thousands of businesses. To determine whether the message is legitimate, look for specific, personalized details about issues that genuinely apply to your website rather than vague, generic claims.
You can't visit their own website, or it's bad. A designer whose own site is slow, dated, or broken on your phone is showing you their standard.
The portfolio is all screenshots or "confidential" work. Real clients have live sites. If none can be shown or verified, assume there aren't any.
They won't put ownership in writing. Any hesitation about whether you'll own your domain, your content, and your site is your cue to leave. This is the difference between an inconvenient breakup and a hostage negotiation.
They ask nothing about your business. If the conversation jumps straight to packages and pricing without questions about your customers, your services, and what you want the site to accomplish, you're buying a product off a shelf, not hiring a professional.
The price is dramatically below everyone else's. Rock-bottom pricing usually means a template flipped in an afternoon, no attention to search visibility, and no support when something breaks. You'll pay the difference later, plus the cost of doing it again.
Everything is urgent. "This price expires Friday" is a sales tactic, not a project plan. A designer confident in their work doesn't need to rush your decision.
Questions to ask a web designer before you sign
Bring this list to the call:
- Can you send links to three live sites you built?
- Will my domain be registered in my own account?
- If we part ways, what do I keep?
- What do you do to help the site show up in Google, and is it included?
- What's the timeline, and what do you need from me to hit it?
- What happens after launch if something breaks or I need a change?
- What exactly does the price include, and what costs extra?
You're not testing for perfect answers. You're testing for direct ones. The right hire answers all eight without flinching.
Common Questions
How much should a small business website cost?
It varies widely by scope, region, and who builds it, from a few hundred dollars for a template to five figures for complex agency work. Instead of anchoring on a number, anchor on the checklist above: live portfolio, verifiable results, written ownership terms, and a clear process. A fair price with bad ownership terms is a bad deal.
Should I hire a freelancer or an agency?
For a typical small business site, a skilled solo designer or small studio usually covers everything you need with less overhead and a direct line to the builder. Agencies make more sense for large projects needing many specialists at once, like a big e-commerce build or a multi-brand rollout. Judge the individual or team in front of you against the checklist, not the label.
Does my web designer need to be local?
No. Web design work happens remotely almost everywhere now, and limiting yourself to your zip code shrinks your options. Local can help if you strongly prefer face-to-face meetings, but a responsive designer two time zones away beats an unresponsive one across town.
What if I already signed with someone and I'm seeing these red flags?
First, confirm what you own: check your domain with the ICANN lookup tool linked above, and ask in writing for admin access to your website and hosting accounts. Then reread your contract's termination terms. If you own your domain and can get your content, switching designers is inconvenient but very doable. Owners in this situation usually wait too long, not too little.
Take your time with this decision. The designers worth hiring will still be there next week, will answer every question on this list without dodging, and will put it all in writing. The ones who won't have just saved you a lot of money.