Why this is harder than it should be
Choosing a plumber is relatively easy. You can see whether the leak stopped. Choosing a web designer is harder, because most business owners cannot judge the work directly and the industry knows it.
So quotes vary by a factor of ten for what sounds like the same thing, terminology gets used to obscure rather than explain, and the genuinely important details tend to appear after you have paid a deposit.
The good news is that you do not need to understand code to choose well. You need about twelve questions and the confidence to walk away when the answers are vague.
"Who will own my domain name?" The answer should be an immediate, unambiguous "you". Anything else, including a pause, tells you most of what you need to know.
Questions about ownership
This is where small businesses get genuinely trapped, and it is the least discussed part of the whole transaction.
- Will the domain be registered in my name? It should be. If it is in the agency's name, they control your address and your email, and leaving becomes a negotiation.
- Do I get access to the hosting? You may never use it, but being told no is a warning sign.
- Who owns the content and images? Words written for you and photos of your work should be yours to take.
- What happens to my site if I stop paying? On a monthly model this matters enormously. Get the answer in writing before you start.
Questions about what is actually included
Most quote disputes come from here. Two quotes can differ by £2,000 purely because one includes things the other quietly does not.
- Is the copywriting included, or am I writing it? "Client to supply content" means you. This is the single most common reason projects stall for months.
- What does a change cost after launch? Ask for the hourly rate, or confirmation that changes are included. A site you cannot afford to update goes stale within a year.
- Is hosting, SSL and backup included, and for how long? Sometimes free for year one and chargeable after.
- How many pages, and what happens if I need more? Get the number, and the price of page eleven.
How to judge the work without being technical
You do not need to read code. You need a phone and about five minutes.
- Ask for three live URLs, not screenshots. Screenshots hide slow loading and broken mobile layouts.
- Load one on your phone on mobile data, not office wifi. Count the seconds. Over three and you have your answer.
- Try to find the phone number in two taps. If you struggle on their client's site, your customers will struggle on yours.
- Search the client's business name plus their town. If none of their sites rank for anything, that tells you what their SEO claims are worth.
Run one of their live client sites through Google PageSpeed Insights. It is free, takes thirty seconds, and gives you an objective number rather than an opinion.
Red flags
- A guaranteed Google ranking. Nobody can promise this. Anyone who does is either inexperienced or counting on you not checking.
- Pressure to decide today. A discount that expires this afternoon is a sales tactic, not a business decision.
- No written scope before a deposit. You should know exactly what you are buying before money moves.
- Vagueness about the domain. Covered above, and worth repeating.
- A portfolio of designs rather than live sites. Concepts are easy. Shipped, working, ranking sites are the job.
- They will not tell you what changes cost. It means the answer is "a lot".
- Jargon instead of answers. If you ask a plain question and get an unhelpful technical answer, that is a choice they made.
Freelancer, agency or monthly provider?
All three can be the right answer. It depends on what you need and how much risk you can carry.
A freelancer is often the best value and the most personal service. The risk is continuity: they can get busy, change career or stop replying, and small businesses regularly end up locked out of sites nobody can edit. Mitigate it by owning your domain and hosting.
An agency gives you a process, a team and someone to chase when it goes wrong. You pay for that in the build fee and usually by the hour afterwards. Best when the project is genuinely complex.
A monthly provider, which is what we are, removes the upfront cost and bundles the ongoing work. The trade off is an ongoing relationship rather than a finished transaction. Best for a standard local business site you want live quickly and kept current.
We have compared the money side properly in monthly versus upfront, including the case where paying once is cheaper.
The questions we would rather you did not ask us
It would be a bit rich to write all that and then dodge it, so here are the questions to put to us, and our honest answers.
- "Can I see live sites you have built?" Ask. Our portfolio page is still being filled in, and we would rather tell you that than show you mockups.
- "How long have you been doing this?" Worth asking any provider. Fewer years is not automatically worse, but you should know.
- "What happens to my site if I cancel?" Ask for it in writing. So should you with anyone.
- "Are you cheap because you use templates?" A fair challenge to any low price. Get a straight answer about what is custom and what is not.
- "What is your notice period?" Confirm it before you commit, not after.
If a provider gets defensive at any of those, that is the useful information. If we do, hold us to the same standard.
When you are ready, ask us for a quote. You will get a straight answer, including when the answer is that someone else suits you better.