Hiring a web designer to build your website should be exciting. After all, it means your business is growing and you’re ready to invest in the online presence to grow with it. For many individuals and small businesses, however, the sheer amount of options, costs, and technical jargon can be confusing and overwhelming.
Do you choose the cheapest quote? The one that “includes SEO” (whatever that means)? Or the agency with the fancy, slick proposal?
After working with small businesses and nonprofits over the years, I’ve seen how starting the process feeling unsure can lead you to spend on a website that doesn’t quite fit what you need. The good news is that a bit of clarity before you start makes the rest much easier.
Here’s what you should know before hiring someone to design (or redesign) your website, and my advice on making the process smoother from the very beginning.
1. Know What You Actually Need — Not Just What You Want
Most people have a simple, if broad, goal in mind when they start out: “I need a website.” That can mean very different things depending on your business and its needs.
Before you take the time to start comparing platforms, quotes or portfolios, it’s a good idea to define what a successful website looks like for you. Before speaking to anyone, you might ask yourself:
- Who is this website really for? (Who is my target audience?)
- What do I want it to achieve? Measurable things like more enquiries, sales or bookings, or just more general awareness of your organisation?
- How do I want it to grow with my business over the next couple of years?
Clarifying these basics in your mind will help you find the right designer who will build your site with purpose.
A great web designer or developer will take the time to understand your goals, and to suggest the best tools to achieve them. If they don’t ask questions about your audience or your business, that’s usually a red flag.
2. Understand What’s Included (and What’s Not)
There are many plates to spin in order to get a website online. If you’re researching this for your new website, you may be coming across a lot of the terms for the first time. Whether it’s hosting, web design, web development, site security and updates, this can be one of the biggest surprises people find when hiring someone to develop their website.
Some vendors will focus purely on the visuals. They’ll give you a site that looks great, but it’ll be your job to research and set up your domain, web hosting and other site maintenance. Others may take care of that side but expect you to handle technical updates, website backups and security yourself once it’s been handed over.
On paper, these extra jobs might not look like much, but in reality they add up and mean using time that could’ve been spent running and growing your business in other areas. If something goes wrong, you could find yourself contacting your hosting company, your designer and your developer, with each pointing you towards the others for help.
I discuss the hosting and maintenance side further in “How to Keep Your Website Fast, Secure & Stress-Free“, and how having managed site care can save you time and money.
If you’re at the point of comparing quotes, ask each designer exactly what’s included.
- Who provides hosting and backups? Does it come with a free restore?
- What platform are you using to make my website? How easy is it for me to make content updates
- What happens if you need small edits after launch?
- For a CMS, who will handle plugin updates and security?
The right designer or agency will be happy to explain how everything fits together, because they’ll already have a plan for it.
3. Don’t Choose on Price Alone
Everyone has a budget, and that’s understandably a very important factor when choosing a web designer. It can be tempting to choose the lowest quote, or choose a subscription site builder that promises a beautiful website in an afternoon. Those platforms have their place and are fine for simple projects, but they often hide the true cost: your time.
Most business owners don’t want to spend their evenings learning software, tweaking templates shared by other companies, or troubleshooting why their site looks so different or loads slowly on mobile. A DIY website can work, but as an option it almost never gives you the flexibility or personal guidance of working with someone who understands your business and its goals.
When it comes to hiring people, a cheaper build can look fine on day one but start causing issues months later. With missing updates, slow performance, or extra charges for small fixes, sometimes the real cost of a “cheap website” isn’t the money you save, it’s the time and stress you lose.
When comparing prices, think about what’s included after launch. Does it come with hosting, updates, and support? If you ever want to expand your site beyond a subscription builder’s capabilities, how difficult would that be?
A good designer should be transparent about costs upfront and make it easy to understand why their service is priced the way it is. That transparency, and time saved, will probably end up being worth more than saving a bit at the start.
4. Look for Clarity, Not Complexity
A trustworthy designer should be able to explain their process in plain English. They’ll keep you informed about what’s being built, how it works, and when each step will happen. You shouldn’t have to decode technical jargon or feel talked down to.
Clarity also matters in the website itself. Navigating around your site and finding the information you need should be easy for everyone, not just people who work in tech. Clean layouts, consistent headings, readable text, and accessible design choices make your website more enjoyable and more effective.
Here’s what to look for when reviewing proposals or communicating with a potential developer:
- Clear timelines and deliverables
- Simple, honest language
- Thoughtful design choices that consider accessibility and usability
- A willingness to answer questions without rushing you
At the end of the day, clarity is professionalism. A designer who makes things easy to understand — and easy to use — will probably make your whole project easier to manage, too.
5. Think Beyond Launch
A great website isn’t just something that’s “done” once the developer hands it over, it should also grow with your business.
In my experience, the most effective sites are the ones that stay alive: they evolve, share updates, and give people reasons to come back. Whether that’s adding a blog, posting new projects, or updating key information as your business changes, your site should be flexible enough to keep pace with you.
That’s a big reason I choose to build with WordPress. As the world’s most popular CMS (Content Management System), it’s flexible and powerful enough to allow you to publish posts or refresh your content without rebuilding from scratch, or being stuck in locked-down templates.
And when things do need a little care through performance tuning, plugin updates, security checks, and more — it’s important to us that these things aren’t afterthoughts. My goal with hosting and site care isn’t just to hand over a fast, polished site, but to make sure it stays that way.
6. Trust Your Gut
Choosing a designer is part logic, part instinct. Look for someone whose work you like, but also someone who listens and communicates clearly.
You’ll be working closely with this person, so the relationship matters as much as the technical skills. If they make you feel comfortable, ask good questions, and seem genuinely interested in your business, that’s a good sign.
Many of my long-term clients tell me they chose me because it felt easy to talk, and I think that’s exactly how it should be. If you’d like to see whether we’d be a good fit, you can book a free short video chat to ask questions and discuss what might make sense for your site.
In a Nutshell
A good designer should make things simpler, and help you understand everything that’s involved with running your dream website.
If you’d like a website that’s built, hosted, and cared for in one place, get in touch today.
