Questions to Ask a Web Designer Before Hiring
Quotes tell you less than questions do. Here's the list, and what each answer is really telling you.
Why a list of questions matters more than a list of prices
Most owners shop for a web designer by comparing quotes. It's the wrong first move. A quote is just a number attached to a vague scope, and two designers quoting the same figure can be selling wildly different things. The questions you ask before you sign tell you far more about what you'll actually get than the price ever will — because the answers reveal whether the designer has thought about the things that make a site earn its keep, or just the things that make it exist.
Here's the list, with what each answer is really telling you.
"Can I see a live site you've built, not a screenshot?"
Portfolios are curated. Live sites can't lie. Click around a real site the designer made: does it load fast, does the mobile version work, does it read like a real business? If they can't point you to a live site, that's a sign in itself.
"How will you make sure my site shows up in local search?"
This is the one that separates designers who bring customers from designers who make pretty things. A good answer names specifics: page structure, titles, content written around what your customers search, local signals like your area and a map. A bad answer is "we include SEO" with no detail — which usually means they'll tick a plugin box and move on. (We wrote the full version of why this matters here: why your website isn't getting any customers.)
"Who actually does the work?"
Plenty of "designers" are fronts who subcontract to someone you'll never meet. That's not always a problem, but you should know. Ask who builds it, who writes the copy, and who you call when something breaks. Vague answers mean you're buying a chain, not a person — and a chain is what disappears.
"What happens after launch?"
A site needs hosting, updates, the occasional fix, and small changes as your business moves. Ask what's included, what costs extra, and crucially whether you own the site or you're renting it from their platform. The businesses that get trapped are the ones who didn't ask and found out a year later that "their" site was a rental with a leaving fee.
"Can I update it myself?"
This isn't about wanting to do the work; it's about not being held hostage. A site you can't touch without paying the designer for every comma is a site that slowly rots, because small updates stop happening. A good designer builds in a way that lets you change text and images yourself, even if you'd rather they handle the bigger stuff.
"What does this actually cost, all in?"
Not the sticker — the full picture, including hosting, domain, and anything recurring. A cheap build with expensive upkeep costs more than a fair build with fair upkeep. We broke down the real numbers here: how much a website costs. A designer who won't give you the full picture is one to be wary of.
"What if I don't like it?"
This tells you how they handle risk. A designer who offers a mockup before you pay is putting the risk on themselves, which is where it belongs. One who wants full payment upfront before you've seen anything specific is asking you to carry it. The answer to this one question tells you a lot about how the whole relationship will feel.
The one question that beats all the others
Before you ask any of these, ask yourself: do I want to spend this much effort interviewing designers, or do I want to just see the work? The lowest-risk way to choose is a free mockup — pick a style below, tell us about your business, and we'll build you a real preview. No payment, no obligation. If it's right, you'll know without needing to ask a single question. If it's not, you'll have a concrete benchmark to judge every other designer against.