How to Choose a Web Designer: A Guide for Business Owners

Most business owners hire a web designer only a few times in their careers, and the choice shapes how the business looks, how it’s found and how much of your time the website takes for years. Portfolios make every designer look good. What separates them is how they work, what they take responsibility for and what happens after launch.

This guide walks through the decision, from what to settle before you talk to anyone to how to compare proposals.

Decide what you need first

You’ll get better proposals, and compare them more easily, if you can answer these questions first:

• New website or rebuild? A rebuild has an extra job: protecting the content, search visibility and customer trust your current site has earned.
• What should the website do? Bring calls and estimate requests, take bookings, answer common questions, help with hiring, sell online. Put them in order of importance.
• Who will write the content and supply photos? You, the designer, or both.
• Who will update the site after launch? Your team, the designer, or both.
• Budget and timing. A realistic range, and any dates that matter, such as a busy season.

You don’t need a detailed plan; a good designer will help you shape one. But you should know your priorities.

Website builder, freelancer or agency?

• A website builder such as Wix or Squarespace is the cheapest start and can be fine for a simple site. You do the work, you’re limited to what the platform allows, and moving away later can be hard.
• A freelancer can be a great fit for a well-defined project. Ask how they handle the parts outside their own skills (writing, search, hosting, security) and what happens when they’re unavailable.
• An agency brings several skills under one roof, and usually continuity: more than one person knows your site. It typically costs more, so make sure you’re paying for skills you need, and find out who actually does the work.

There’s no universally right choice. The right one matches the size of the job and how much responsibility you want to hand over.

What to look for

• Relevant work. Live websites for businesses like yours, not just mockups. Open a few on your phone: are they fast, clear and easy to use?
• A clear process, from discovery and planning through content, design, development and launch, with your reviews and approvals at defined points.
• Business thinking. Questions about your customers, services and goals before any talk of colors and fonts.
• Help with content. Most website projects stall on content. Find out who writes, edits and adds it.
• Search and migration skills, for a rebuild: an inventory of your current pages, and redirects for every address that changes.
• Accessibility: readable contrast, keyboard use, alternative text for images and labeled forms.
• Ownership. You should own your domain, your content and your data, with the accounts in your business’s name.
• Care after launch. Updates, backups, security, monitoring and support, with clear response times. A website is never really finished.
• Clear pricing: what’s included, what costs extra and what the ongoing costs will be.

15 questions to ask a web designer

1. Have you built websites for businesses like mine? Can I see them live?
2. Who will I work with day to day, and who will do the design, writing and development?
3. What does your process look like, and when do I review and approve the work?
4. What will you need from me, and by when?
5. Who writes the content, and who provides the photos?
6. Which platform will you use, and why is it right for my business?
7. Will I be able to edit the content myself, and will you show me how?
8. How do you make sure the site works well on phones and loads quickly?
9. How do you handle accessibility?
10. For a rebuild: how will you protect our current search visibility and page addresses?
11. Who will own the domain, the hosting account, the website files and the content?
12. What happens after launch? What does ongoing care include, and what does it cost?
13. How quickly do you respond to problems, and during which hours?
14. What isn’t included in your proposal?
15. If we stop working together, how does the handoff work?

Good answers are specific and given without hesitation. Vague answers to the last five are a warning sign.

Red flags

• Guaranteed rankings or traffic. Nobody controls Google, so be wary of anyone who promises first-page results.
• Your domain or accounts registered in their name. It makes leaving difficult, sometimes impossible.
• No written proposal or contract, or a price with no scope behind it.
• “Unlimited revisions.” It sounds generous, and usually means the process isn’t defined.
• No plan for after launch. Websites that aren’t updated become easy targets, so someone has to own updates and backups.
• A proprietary system that only they can edit or host.

How to compare proposals

Line the proposals up on the same points: the pages and features included, who writes the content, the search and migration work, training, the timeline, the payment schedule, and ongoing care with its monthly cost. The cheapest proposal often leaves out content, migration or care, and those come back later as extra costs.

Local or remote?

A local designer can meet you in person and already knows your towns, customers and competitors, which helps with local search. For a Long Island business, someone who knows how Nassau and Suffolk customers search, and how the North Fork differs from the South Shore, saves a lot of explaining. Still, a good process matters more than distance. Most of the work happens online either way, so choose the partner whose work, communication and care fit you best.

How we work

At All Phase Media, every website project starts with discovery, then moves through planning, content, design, development and launch, with your approval at each stage. Every website we launch moves into ongoing care, so updates, backups and support already have an owner. Our Process page shows the steps, Pricing shows starting points, and you can book a call whenever you’re ready to compare.