How do you choose a web designer when every portfolio on your shortlist looks good? The pictures were chosen to impress, so they tell you about the designer’s taste. They say very little about who will own the site, or about what happens when you need a change next March.
The questions below each fit in a first call or an email, and the answers show you how a designer works long before the first design arrives.
Who will own the website when it is finished?
Raise this before anything else, and cover every account the site depends on: the domain, the hosting, the website itself and the analytics. The answer you want is that each is registered in your name, with your email address, and that you hold the login.
A designer can still look after all of it. You give them access, and you can take the access back. The trouble starts when a designer registers the domain in their own account to save you the paperwork. When the work ends, or a bill is disputed, you need their permission to move your own web address. Domain-industry writers have reported designers keeping a client’s domain until extra money was paid.
Put the question like this: if we stop working together next year, what do I keep, and what would I have to ask you for? A clear answer is short. You keep everything, because it was in your name from the start. If you can only log in through the designer, the website is not yet yours.
Before launch, get on a call with the designer and log in to the domain, the hosting and the website yourself, with your own email address. If a login only works through them, have it moved into your name that day.
What exactly is included, and what is extra?
Get the scope in writing, as a list. A useful quote names the pages, what goes on each and what you are shown at handover. It also says what you have to send and by when: the copy, the photographs and the logo files.
Then find out what is extra. Writing the words, an additional page, a blog, an email signup and analytics setup are the usual candidates for a second invoice, along with the yearly domain and hosting renewal. Ask for the figure beside each, and for the renewal figure beside the first-year figure, since the two are often different.
Do the same with revisions. “Unlimited revisions” sounds generous, and it often means nobody has written down what a revision is. A clear definition separates small changes inside the agreed direction, such as spacing, a swapped photograph or a corrected line, from a change of direction, such as a new layout, an extra page or a rewritten offer. It also says what another round costs.
If you can only log in through the designer, the website is not yet yours.
Will I see the plan and the copy before design?
Ask how the site is planned, and when the words are agreed. A careful designer starts from what the site has to get a visitor to do. The sections are then laid out in order with the real words in them, for you to read and approve, and design begins after that.
If the first design you see is a finished-looking homepage full of placeholder text, your copy will later have to fit a layout drawn without them. The most important line on the page is often the line that gets cut to fit a box.
Check who writes the copy, too. If it is you, find out how many words each page takes and when they are due. If it is the designer, make sure the writing is in the quote. What to prepare before a website project lists the material a designer will want from you.
The plan also protects your launch date. A website usually runs late when the copy or the photographs arrive after the design has started, and the design waits for them. Ask what starts the clock on your project, what happens if your material is late, and whether the launch date is written into the agreement.
Who will I be speaking to?
Ask who designs the site, who builds it, who writes it and who answers your emails. In a studio, the person who wins the work is not always the person who does it. That can work well, as long as you meet the designer before you sign and know who to write to when something goes wrong.
Then there are the meetings. A project keeps moving when check-ins are fixed in advance and somebody on your side can make decisions and reply on time. If you and the designer are in different time zones, agree the meeting times before booking, and check how quickly emails are answered in between.
What happens on the day after launch?
A website needs looking after from the day it goes live: updates to the platform and its plugins, backups, and a regular check that the enquiry form still delivers messages. Ask who does this work, what it costs each month, how much time it covers and how you stop if you no longer need it.
Check what you will be able to change yourself. A good handover shows you the everyday edits on your own site, such as a new photograph or an updated opening time, along with the settings to leave alone. I go through the monthly side in my article on website maintenance.
A last question here: who do you write to next year when a message from your form fails to arrive? The answer should be a person’s name and an email address.
How do you read a web designer’s portfolio?
Screenshots and laptop mockups show a website from its best angle. Ask for the live links instead, and open them on your phone, which is where your own visitors are likely to see your site first.
Then read each site the way a customer would. Can you tell what the business does from the first screen? Can you reach the next step with your thumb? Does the text stay readable without zooming, and do the photographs load sharp?
Take NAVA Events, an event planner’s website I designed. Scroll it on a phone and the page leads with the evenings themselves, explains the planning and decoration services, and ends in an enquiry form that asks for the date, the venue and the number of guests. Those are the details an event planner needs before a reply can be useful.
Look for that kind of fit on every site in a portfolio. If five websites for five different businesses share a layout with only the colours changed, yours is likely to get it too.
Which answers should worry you?
Warning signs usually arrive as vague answers to the questions above. Read them side by side:
| A clear answer | An answer to look into | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the domain? | You do. It is in your name and you hold the login. | I’ll keep it in my account to save you the trouble. |
| What is included? | A written list, with what you send and what each extra costs. | Everything you need. We can sort out the details later. |
| What is a revision? | Small changes inside the agreed direction, defined in writing. | Unlimited revisions. |
| When are the words agreed? | In a page plan you approve before design starts. | We’ll drop the text in at the end. |
| When will it be live? | On a date in writing, once your material and access are in. | A few weeks, give or take. |
| What happens after launch? | A handover on your own site, and monthly care you can stop. | Email me if anything breaks. |
| Will it bring me clients? | It is built to, with a clear offer, proof and an easy next step. | First place on Google, guaranteed. |
Treat a guaranteed ranking as a reason to look again. No designer controls where Google places a page. A quote far below the others deserves the same care, because the work it leaves out usually comes back later as extras. What a website costs in 2026 sets out what moves a quote.
How I answer these questions
My own answers are written on my Services page, so you can check them before we speak.
- Ownership: your website is set up in your name on WordPress, static HTML or Canva. If I arrange the hosting and domain, they are in your name too, with the first-year and renewal figures shown before you agree.
- Scope: each launch lists its investment, what you get and what you send, and your written quote confirms the scope, dates and any extras before anything is booked.
- The plan: you read and approve the sections, their order and the words before design starts.
- Revisions: a round of final tweaks inside the agreed direction is included, and another round is $125.
- Who you speak to: me, at check-ins agreed in advance and held online.
- The date: the clock starts at a time agreed in writing, once your content, files, access and payment are in.
- After launch: a walkthrough of the everyday edits on your own site, then Website Care from $129 a month if you want it, which you can stop with a month’s notice.
Questions people ask about choosing a web designer
Should my web designer own my domain?
No. Register the domain in your own name, or have it registered in your name, and give the designer access to the settings they need. You can take that access back at any time.
How many revisions should a web designer include?
The definition is more useful than the number. Ask what counts as a small change, what counts as new work and what an extra round costs, and get the answers in writing.
Is a freelancer or an agency better?
Either can do good work. With a freelancer you usually speak to the person designing your site. With an agency, ask to meet the designer and to know who answers when something goes wrong.
Should I avoid a designer who uses templates?
It depends on what the site starts from, and what is designed for you on top of it. A bought theme with your logo dropped in will look like the other sites built on the same theme.
Do I need to meet a web designer in person?
No. A project runs well online when the check-ins are fixed in advance, at times that suit both time zones, and the person making decisions joins them.
