How to choose a web designer: the short answer
How to choose a web designer comes down to one habit: ask every candidate the same specific questions about ownership, access, the platform, content, accessibility, and care after launch, then compare how clearly they answer. A portfolio shows taste. The answers show whether you will control your own website when the project is over.
First, check whether a website builder you run yourself would do the job.
A disclosure: Cleland & Co. is a web designer. These criteria apply to any designer, including this one, and include the cases where you should not hire one.
Website builder vs web designer: decide whether you need one
A website builder bundles templates, hosting, and an editor in one subscription. A designer plans the structure, shapes the content, builds the site, and often maintains it. In between, a designer sets up a site on a platform you own and hands over the editing.
| Your situation | A builder you run yourself may be enough | A designer is likely worth it |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One or two services, a few pages | Many services, locations, or audiences that need clear paths |
| Your time | You have time to set it up and keep it current | You need someone else to build and maintain it |
| Content | You can write the copy and have good photos | You need help organizing services and writing pages |
| Existing site | Nothing to preserve, or very little | Pages with search traffic or links that must move carefully |
| Features | Contact form, map, maybe simple booking | Integrations, intake forms with routing, custom requirements |
| Stage | Testing an idea or just starting | Established business replacing a site that no longer fits |
If most of your answers fall in the middle column, try a builder first. You can hire help later, with a clearer sense of what you need. If you are not yet sure you need a website at all, start with the decision table on a website vs a Google Business Profile.
Write down what you need before you call anyone
You need a few facts, not a full brief: your main services, where you work, the step you want visitors to take, what exists now, and who controls your current accounts. The redesign preparation checklist lists what to bring. Then every designer answers the same question, and proposals become comparable.
Build a shortlist and look at live work
Two or three candidates are enough. Ask business owners whose websites work well who built them, and look for designer credits in the footers of sites you like. Before the first call, check each candidate's work:
- Open their live sites on your phone. Find the phone number, use the menu, and look at the contact form.
- Ask what each site was meant to help a customer do and what the designer was responsible for; a good designer can explain the decisions behind a page.
- Ask to speak with one or two past clients about how the designer handled changes, delays, and the handover.
Questions to ask a web designer
Ask every candidate these questions, in the first conversation or in writing. The middle column describes a reassuring answer, not a script to grade word for word. To compare candidates, copy the first column into a sheet with one column per designer and mark each answer clear, vague, or red flag, with a note of what they said.
| Question | A good answer sounds like | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Who will be the registrant of my domain? | "You, in an account in your name. I can be given access to manage settings." | "I will register it under my account," with no written handover terms |
| Will I have my own admin login to the site, hosting, analytics, and Search Console? | Yes, owner-level access in your name, with the designer using a separate login | One shared login, or "you will not need access" |
| Who owns the design, code, text, and photos when we are done? | A clear written answer: what transfers to you, what is licensed (themes, fonts, stock photos), and what the designer keeps | "Do not worry about it," or nothing in the contract |
| If we part ways, what can I take with me? | A specific answer for this platform: which content exports, which does not, and how the domain moves | "You can always take it" with no detail |
| Why this platform for my business? | Reasons tied to your editing needs, features, and exit options, with subscriptions in your name | The same proprietary system for every client, editable only by the designer |
| Who writes the content and supplies photos? How many rounds of revisions? | Defined in the scope, including what happens if content is late | Left vague until after the deposit |
| How do you handle accessibility? | Names a standard, such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA, and describes manual testing: keyboard, contrast, zoom | "Our widget makes the site ADA compliant" |
| What happens after launch? | A written care scope or a handover: updates, backups, security (https, email authentication), fixes, and who to call | "Once it launches, it is done," with no plan either way |
| What will you do about search, and what do you promise? | Describes the work: page structure, titles, redirects for existing pages, Search Console setup. Makes no ranking promises | Promises first-page rankings or a special relationship with Google |
| Can I see live sites you built, and where do your results figures come from? | Live links, a plain account of their role on each, and evidence for any number they cite | Percentage gains with no source, period, or explanation |
Several rows rest on public sources:
- Search promises. Google's guidance on hiring an SEO (opens in a new tab) says no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google, and that if someone guarantees their changes will give you first place in search results, you should find someone else. For the search work a launch should include, see the launch-day indexing checklist.
- Results claims. The FTC's advertising guide for small businesses (opens in a new tab) says advertisers must have evidence for their claims before an ad runs, and that customer endorsements must reflect typical experience unless the ad clearly discloses the results consumers can expect or the limited applicability of the endorser's experience.
- Accessibility. The Justice Department's web accessibility guidance (opens in a new tab) names WCAG as helpful guidance and recommends pairing manual checks with automated tools. In April 2025, the FTC finalized an order (opens in a new tab) against an overlay widget vendor over allegedly unsupported claims that its tool could make any website WCAG compliant. The ADA website compliance guide explains what the rules say and includes a 30-minute first check.
- Security after launch. In a February 2018 post on hiring a web host (opens in a new tab), the FTC advised small businesses to pay close attention to the security features of hosting plans, especially SSL/TLS, which secures the connection between a site and its visitors, and email authentication.
Who owns the work
The U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 30 (opens in a new tab) explains that the author of a work is ordinarily the person who created it. A commissioned work is a "work made for hire," authored and owned by the commissioning party, only if it falls within one of nine categories listed in the Copyright Act and both parties sign a written agreement saying so.
So the contract should state plainly what you own, what you license, and what the designer keeps. This is general information, not legal advice. If ownership matters to your business, have a lawyer read the agreement before you sign.
Run the exit test before you sign
Picture the relationship ending the day after launch, and ask the designer to walk you through it. You should be able to:
- Log in to your domain registrar in your own name and move the domain or change its settings. As of October 2026, the registrant FAQ (opens in a new tab) from ICANN, which coordinates domain names, explains that moving a domain to another registrar requires a transfer code, which the registrar must provide within five calendar days of the domain holder's request unless it lets you generate the code yourself. ICANN's registrant responsibilities (opens in a new tab) page says the registrant assumes sole responsibility for the registration and use of the name, so that should be you. If you already have a site, the website ownership audit checks who holds each account today.
- Keep your business email working while the website changes hands.
- Sign in to the website as the owner, or receive a complete copy of it.
- Take your content and images. WordPress can export posts, pages, and other content (opens in a new tab) for import into another WordPress site, but a complete copy needs both the site files and the database (opens in a new tab). Squarespace's export (opens in a new tab) covers some content but leaves out many page types, blocks, and style settings. Wix says a Wix site cannot be hosted elsewhere (opens in a new tab).
- Keep your analytics and Search Console history, because the accounts are yours.
Limited export does not make a platform the wrong choice. It means leaving involves rebuilding the design, which you should know before you start.
Compare proposals: how web design pricing is structured
Fees vary too much by scope for published numbers to help, so compare structures:
- Fixed project fee. One price for a defined scope. Check what counts as a change and how extra work is quoted.
- Hourly billing. Flexible, but ask for an estimate and how you will hear when it is exceeded.
- Monthly care plan. Ongoing updates, backups, fixes, and small changes. Ask exactly which tasks are included.
- Setup on a builder. A designer configures a platform you pay for directly. Lower commitment, with the platform's limits.
Cost drivers include distinct page types, who writes the content, photography, integrations, moving an existing site and its links, accessibility testing, revision rounds, and ongoing care. Third-party costs, such as domain renewal, hosting, premium themes and plugins, fonts, stock photos, and booking tools, are often billed separately. Ask whose name each subscription will be in, and compare proposals by what they include, not by the total.
Make the choice and put it in writing
With answers and proposals side by side, the decision usually narrows quickly:
- Drop any candidate with a red flag on ownership, access, or the exit test that they will not resolve in writing.
- Among the rest, prefer the clearest written answers over the most impressive portfolio. What a designer will put in writing before the deposit is what you can rely on after it.
- Make sure the answers that mattered appear in the proposal or contract: who is the domain registrant, whose name each account is in, what transfers to you, what is licensed, and what care after launch covers.
Cleland & Co.'s write-ups on the Merchant American Concrete and Artistry Lounge websites explain the decisions behind each site. Fee and scope come together in a written proposal; to start that conversation, discuss website design and care.
