Seven questions to ask a web designer before you pay them

You are about to give someone a few thousand euros and the face of your business. The portfolio looked nice. The quote was reasonable. Before you sign, ask these. The answers matter more than the price.

1. Who owns it when we're done?

The design, the code, the domain, the hosting account. The answer should be "you, all of it, from day one". Some studios keep the site on their own licence or hosting, which means leaving them costs you the website. Ask, and get it in the contract.

2. Who will actually build it?

The person in the meeting or someone you will never meet? Neither answer is wrong, but you should know. Small studios build what they sell. Larger ones sell what someone else builds.

3. Can I update it myself?

Prices, hours, a new photo, a closed day. You should be able to change these in five minutes without an invoice. If the answer involves the word "ticket", think twice.

4. Show me one of your sites on a phone. Now.

Not a screenshot — their phone, live, right there. Watch how long it takes to load and whether you can tap the buttons with a thumb. More than half your customers will see the site exactly this way.

5. What happens to my Google rankings?

If you already have a site that people find through Google, a redesign can quietly throw that away. A good designer will talk about keeping the old page addresses working and moving the page titles across. A bad one will look blank.

6. What does it cost per year, after launch?

Hosting, maintenance, updates, the plugin that needs a licence. Get the full yearly number. A cheap build with an expensive tail is not cheap.

7. What would you leave out?

This is the one that separates the good ones. Someone who has done this well will look at your wish list and say "you don't need that yet". Someone who says yes to everything is either inexperienced or billing by the item.

And the one to answer yourself

What is the site for? More calls, more bookings, more orders, fewer questions? If you cannot say it in a sentence, no designer can build it. Say it in the first meeting and watch who takes notes.

If you want to try the questions on us, we are easy to find. Question seven is our favourite.