12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Web Designer

Hiring a web designer is a high-stakes decision. Your website is where most prospects will form their first impression of your business, and you’ll have to live with whatever the designer builds for years. Most clients I talk to don’t really know what to ask. They end up filtering on price or vibe alone, and they get burned.

These 12 questions filter for the designers who take the work seriously. If the person across from you can answer most of these clearly and honestly, they’re worth hiring. If they can’t, that tells you something.

A quick note on language: throughout this article, I’m using “designer” to mean whoever’s actually building your website. Designer, developer, agency, freelancer, whoever. The questions apply the same way.

1. Who will own everything when we’re done?

The right answer is “you.” You should own your domain (the address of your site, like yourbusiness.com), your files, your hosting accounts, and your content. All of it in your name. You should be able to walk away with everything and rebuild somewhere else if you ever needed to.

The way I work is hybrid. Depending on what the client prefers, I either set them up with their own hosting account or I host them on my reseller setup. Either way, the non-negotiable is the same: the domain is always in the client’s name, the files are theirs, and they can move at any time. They’re never locked in.

A note on Squarespace and Wix: you own your domain if you bought it, and you own your content. What you don’t own is the ability to leave. Your site is built on the platform’s proprietary system, so if you ever want to move, you start over from scratch. That’s the thing most people don’t see until they’re stuck.

A client came to me after a previous developer held their account hostage and sold their domain. That kind of thing happens. The way you prevent it is by making sure everything is in YOUR name from day one.

The red flag: a designer who registers your domain in their name, holds account access as leverage, or builds your site somewhere you can’t leave.

2. What’s your process before you start designing?

Before I open a single design file, I send a thorough questionnaire. The questionnaire is the most important part of the project. Clients tell me it actually helps them realize there are gaps in their own business plan or positioning. That’s the part nobody talks about: a real discovery phase often surfaces what’s actually wrong before any pixel gets pushed.

After the questionnaire, I design the homepage first. Just the homepage. I send it as a PDF for approval, and we go through three rounds of revisions on that one page. Once the homepage is approved, it becomes the visual roadmap for the rest of the site. That way I’m not designing 20 pages and then redoing them when something shifts.

A current client in the wellness space filled out the questionnaire and realized they had business model gaps that needed to be resolved before design could move forward. We paused. That’s not a delay, that’s the questionnaire doing its job.

If a designer skips discovery, you’ll feel it during development. Lots of changes mid-build, lots of “wait, can we move this?” moments. The build becomes chaos, and everyone gets frustrated.

The red flag: a designer who jumps straight to mockups with no questionnaire, no strategy phase, and no questions about your business.

3. What platform will you build on, and can I update it myself?

I build on WordPress with Elementor Pro. The reason: it gives you full ownership and full customization. You can code the parts that need custom work, and you can still update most of the content yourself without me.

Squarespace and Wix are easier to start with, but you can’t really leave them. Webflow is beautiful but you need a developer to update anything dynamic. WordPress gives you ownership, flexibility, and the ability to update most things yourself. The trade is a small learning curve in exchange for actually owning your site.

After launch, you can update text, images, and structured content yourself. For things like an events page, a team page, or a case studies section, I set up custom fields (using ACF and CPT UI) so you can add or change items without breaking the design. ApolloK12updates their own events page. They don’t have to call me every time they have a new event.

I also walk clients through video tutorials that show them exactly how to make the changes they’ll want to make. And Elementor preserves your fonts when you edit, so you can’t accidentally break the typography by clicking the wrong thing.

The red flag: custom code you can’t touch without a developer. If everything on your site requires the original designer to update, you’re locked in as much as you would be on Squarespace.

4. What’s NOT included in this project?

This question separates the honest designers from the rest. It’s the easiest way to filter.

In my projects, the default exclusions are: photography, ongoing maintenance, paid ads management, brand identity from scratch, and content migration from your old site. Each of those can be added on as a separate scope, but they’re not included by default.

I name exclusions out loud in the proposal because it builds trust on both sides. No guesswork, no surprise change orders. We both know what we’re working on and what we’re not. The project moves faster because the scope is clear.

The red flag: a designer who says “yeah, sure, I can do it all.” That kind of answer creates two problems. Either the scope creeps and the project drags on forever, or the price doesn’t actually reflect what you’re getting and someone gets resentful. Vague scope is bad for both sides.

5. Who’s writing the copy?

This is the question almost nobody asks but should. Even the best-designed site fails if the copy is bad.

In my projects, copy gets handled one of two ways. Either I refer you to a copywriter I trust (my friend, Faith, does conversion-focused copy and is who I bring in for high-stakes work), or I write it with AI using your questionnaire answers as the raw material. The path depends on the project and what you need.

If AI is in the mix, I tell you upfront. Hidden AI in copy is a problem. It tends to come out sounding generic, like nothing in particular, and it won’t connect with your audience. Disclosure isn’t optional.

I had a client who started writing their copy in ChatGPT and couldn’t get the voice right. Through the questionnaire, I brought a conversion copywriter in. The client ended up hiring her directly. Their site is great now.

The red flag: a designer who waves it off with “oh I’ll write something” and has no actual plan, no copywriter network, and no transparency about how the copy is getting made.

6. Can I see work you’ve done for clients similar to mine?

The right way to read a portfolio is to ask: “Is this person adept at what I want?” Look at the design quality, the aesthetic, the structure of the pages, and whether it reflects something close to what you need. Industry isn’t the only thing that matters. The principles transfer.

A real example. I’d never built for a law firm before I worked with Xenos Law Group. I’d never built for a financial firm before I worked with Peregrin. In both cases, the client didn’t see a perfectly matching project in my portfolio. What they saw was work that demonstrated the same principles: trust-building, clarity, the ability to make a complex service feel approachable. The skills transferred. Xenos saw +42.7% active users and +48.6% in event count within 3 months of launch.

If a designer doesn’t have direct experience in your industry, that’s not automatically disqualifying. What matters is whether they can point to work that solves a similar kind of problem, and whether they’re upfront about the gap.

The red flag: a designer who can’t actually explain their own work, or who takes credit for projects they didn’t really do. If they can’t talk you through the decisions behind a portfolio piece, they probably weren’t the one making them.

7. How do revisions work?

Three rounds of revisions on the design phase. Three rounds on the development phase. That’s the structure.

A revision means changes to what we’ve already built or designed. Scope creep means something outside the contract. They’re not the same thing. If you ask for changes to the design we agreed on, those are revisions and they’re included. If you ask me to add a whole new section that wasn’t in the scope, that’s a change order. I’ll flag it, name a price ($85/hour), and you decide.

A client once approved the homepage design fully. Days later, he came back wanting to scrap everything and rebuild based on what ChatGPT had told him. That’s exactly why revisions are bounded. If a client wants to start over after approval, that’s a new project, not a revision.

The red flag, two versions: Unlimited revisions creates an eternal feedback loop. Projects with unlimited revisions never end. Both sides lose. The other extreme, no revision policy at all, leaves everyone exposed. Three rounds per phase is the structure that actually works. The right move on your end is to take your time when you review the design, observe it carefully, and send thoughtful feedback. That’s the version of revisions that works.

8. What’s the timeline, and what do you need from me?

A standard rebuild takes 3 to 4 weeks. A premium rebuild with strategy work takes 4 to 6 weeks. Those numbers assume both sides are doing their part.

The smart version of this question is “what do you need from ME to hit that timeline?” That’s the part nobody asks. What I need from you: the questionnaire completed early, content (text, photos, brand assets), and timely approvals when I send work for review. Most projects don’t drag because the designer is slow. They drag because content takes weeks to come in, feedback takes a week per round, and decisions don’t get made.

A current client hired me last August. We’re still in the design phase nearly 9 months later. The design isn’t off. She just hasn’t had time on her end. I like her, the work is good, and I’m not pushing. But that’s a real example of how timeline is a partnership, not a one-sided promise from the designer.

The red flag, two versions: A designer who promises a 2-week rebuild for a real business site is cutting corners. There’s too much to consider in that time. The other red flag is a designer who can’t give you any timeline estimate at all. Without a structure, projects can drag on for years.

9. How do you test the site before launch?

I test across multiple browsers and multiple devices before anything goes live. Forms get submitted and emailed to me to confirm they work. All links get clicked. Speed gets tested as we build, so I can see what’s slowing the site down and fix it.

I design mobile-first. Most of your prospects will see your site on their phone before they ever see it on a desktop. Building for mobile first means mobile gets the careful treatment, not the leftovers. I check the live site on an actual phone, not just a simulator, before launch.

For accessibility, I cover the WCAG basics: alt text on images, color contrast that passes, semantic heading structure, visible form labels, and keyboard navigation (Elementor handles most of that by default). Deep audits, full screen reader optimization, and detailed ARIA work happen on projects that specifically require them.

The red flag: a designer who only tests on their own Mac, only in Chrome, and ships. Your site will render differently on Safari, Edge, and mobile, and “differently” often means “broken.” Testing isn’t optional.

10. What happens after launch?

For the first 30 days after launch, I cover bug fixes and small support requests at no extra cost. If you’re hosting with me, that extends to 90 days.

After that, the Care Plan starts at $250/month. It includes: WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates; monthly security scans and malware monitoring; backup verification; uptime monitoring; up to 30 minutes of minor content edits per month; and email support. Higher tiers add more edit time (up to 2 hours per month), priority email support, monthly performance checks, and quarterly SEO.

If you’d rather not take the Care Plan, that’s fine. You can come back for hourly help whenever you need it. No hard feelings.

One client passed on the Care Plan initially. A few months in, she realized that maintaining a WordPress site is busy work she didn’t want to deal with. She came back and subscribed. That’s how it tends to go.

The red flag: a designer who hands you the site, says “email me if anything breaks,” and disappears. Ghosting clients after launch isn’t ethically right. You owe your clients the best experience possible, and that includes some real care after the site goes live.

11. How long until I see results?

Here’s what a realistic results curve looks like for a well-built rebuild.

First 30 days. You’ll see an initial bump from sharing the new site. Direct traffic from your email announcement, LinkedIn posts, referrals checking out the upgrade. Bounce rate usually drops if the new site is meaningfully better than what was there before. SEO hasn’t moved yet because Google needs time to re-crawl and re-index.

Around 90 days. This is where SEO starts kicking in. New pages get indexed, Search Console shows movement, and if your homepage and service pages have tighter calls-to-action, conversion rate improves. This is the window where Xenos Law Group hit +42.7% active users and +48.6% in event count.

6 months and out. Compound effects. Inbound leads ramp if you’re feeding the site (LinkedIn, referrals, content). Keywords you’re targeting start showing real movement. The site is doing the work you hired it to do.

One thing worth being honest about: a new website doesn’t generate traffic on its own. It multiplies what you’re already doing. If no one knows about your business yet, a beautiful site won’t fix that. The site amplifies the trust and traffic you’re already building. It doesn’t create those from scratch.

The red flag: a designer who promises “page 1 of Google in 30 days” or guarantees specific traffic numbers. Both are nonsense. The way you’d get traffic that fast is by buying junk traffic or doing black-hat SEO, neither of which is the work you actually want.

12. How will we know the website is actually working?

Here’s what I set up and what we track.

By default: Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, and Search Console. These cover the basics: who’s visiting, where they’re coming from, what they’re doing, and which pages are pulling search traffic for which keywords.

What matters depends on your business. A law firm cares about consultation requests. A financial firm cares about discovery call bookings. An EdTech client cares about event page traffic and enrollments. Before launch, we talk about which numbers actually matter to YOU, so the analytics are set up to answer the question “is this site doing its job?”

What’s not included by default: heatmaps, session recordings, and A/B testing. Useful tools, but they’re for optimization, not core measurement. We add them when there’s a specific question worth answering (like “why are people dropping off the contact page?”). Add-on, not standard.

Post-launch cadence: I check in with clients monthly for the first few months. Not a formal report, more like “here’s what I’m seeing, here’s what looks healthy, here’s what might be worth tweaking.” If something’s clearly off, I flag it. If everything’s quietly working, I tell you that too.

The red flag: a designer who hands you the site with no analytics installed and no way to know if it’s working. No accountability after launch.

So what now?

These twelve questions are the filter. Most of them are designed to expose corner-cutting. If a designer can’t answer them clearly, they probably haven’t thought about this stuff, which means they probably won’t think about it when it’s your site on the line. If they CAN answer them, you’re talking to someone who treats the work seriously.

If you want to talk about a rebuild for your business and you’ve already started running through these questions in your head, let’s see if we’re a fit.