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Web design · Miami

How to choose a Miami web design company

Check live work, languages, ownership and a plan to keep your rankings. A practical checklist with the questions to ask before you sign.

Test live sites on your phone

Plan English and Spanish pages properly

Own your domain and website

Talk to us

Tell us what you need and we’ll get back to you. Or book a free 30-minute call. Or call 954-539-5678.

The short answer

To choose a web design company in Miami, judge them on five things: real work for businesses like yours that loads fast on a phone, a plan for English and Spanish if your customers use both, a written process with dates, a clear answer on who owns the site and domain when you leave, and a plan to keep your Google rankings during the switch. A pretty portfolio is not enough. Ask to see live sites, ask who will actually do the work, and get the scope in writing before you sign.

Below is a practical checklist, the questions to ask on the first call, red flags to watch for, and how to compare proposals side by side.

Start with what the site needs to do

Before you talk to anyone, write down three things. Agencies give better proposals, and you can compare them fairly.

  • The main job of the site. Calls and form leads, online bookings, online sales, or recruiting. Each one changes the design.
  • Who your customers are. Local residents, tourists, other businesses, Latin American buyers. In Miami this often decides language and tone.
  • What you have now. Your current site address, the pages that bring in traffic, any booking, CRM or payment tools it must connect to, and who controls the domain.

The Miami-specific question: languages

Miami-Dade is one of the most multilingual markets in the country. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s QuickFacts, 75.3% of residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home (2020-2024 estimates), compared with 22.3% nationally. For many businesses, a Spanish version of key pages is not a nice extra. It is part of being found and understood.

If you need more than one language, ask each company how they handle it:

  • Separate pages for each language, each with its own address (for example /es/ pages). Google recommends a separate URL for each language version so search can show the right one.
  • Hreflang tags that tell Google which pages are translations of each other.
  • Who writes the Spanish content. Machine translation alone often reads badly and misses local terms. A fluent writer should review it.
  • Forms, emails and confirmations in the visitor’s language, not only the page text.
  • A plan for keeping both versions in sync when you add services or change prices.

If most of your customers are English speakers, start with English and add Spanish pages for your highest-value services. You don’t have to translate everything on day one.

Check the work, not the slideshow

Ask for links to five live sites they built in the last two years, ideally in your industry or a similar one. Then test them yourself:

  1. Open each site on your phone over cellular data, not office Wi-Fi. Does it load quickly? Can you find the phone number and main action without hunting?
  2. Run a page through Google PageSpeed Insights. Google’s Core Web Vitals set “good” targets of 2.5 seconds or less for the main content to load, 200 milliseconds or less to respond to a tap, and a layout shift score of 0.1 or less.
  3. Fill in a contact form. Do you get a confirmation? Does it feel trustworthy?
  4. Call one or two of their clients. Ask if the project finished on time, how changes were handled, and whether they can update the site themselves.

Templates that look the same across every client, or sites that look great in a slideshow but crawl on a phone, tell you more than any sales pitch.

Accessibility is part of the job

The U.S. Department of Justice says the ADA’s requirements for businesses open to the public apply to their websites, and it points to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as helpful technical guidance. WCAG 2.2 is the current version from the W3C. Ask how the company handles accessibility: color contrast, text alternatives for images, forms that work with a keyboard and screen readers, captions on video. A company that says “we add a plugin” is not giving you a real answer. This is general information, not legal advice.

Ownership and control: ask before you sign

This is where small businesses get hurt most often. Get clear, written answers to these:

  • Who owns the domain? It should be registered in your business name, with your login.
  • Who owns the site? If you stop working with the company, can you take the site with you, or does it live on a proprietary builder you can’t move?
  • Can you edit it yourself? You should be able to change text, photos and hours without filing a ticket.
  • Who owns Google Analytics, Search Console and Business Profile? Your business should be the owner, with the agency added as a user.
  • What happens to hosting? Who monitors uptime and security, and what does malware cleanup cost if something goes wrong?

Want a second opinion on a proposal or your current site? Book a free 30-minute call. We look at what you have and tell you what we’d change first. No obligation.

Ask who writes the content

Words and photos sell more than layout. Many projects stall because the business is asked to write every page at the last minute. Ask whether the company writes or edits page content, whether that includes Spanish, and whether they will use your own job and team photos instead of stock images. Real photos of your location, staff and work build trust faster than anything else on the page, especially for service businesses that compete with dozens of similar companies across Miami-Dade.

Protect the rankings you already have

A new site can wipe out years of search traffic if old page addresses disappear. Ask every company how they handle it. A good answer includes a list of your current pages and which ones bring visitors, a redirect from each old address to the matching new page, checks in Search Console after launch, and keeping titles and content that already rank well. If a company doesn’t bring this up, that is a warning sign.

Understand the process and timeline

A professional company can describe its process in plain steps with dates. A typical custom site moves through discovery, sitemap and content plan, design of key pages, build, your review, testing and launch. Ask:

  • How many weeks from signed agreement to launch, and what causes delays?
  • What do you need from us, and by when? (Content and photos are the usual bottleneck.)
  • How many rounds of design changes are included?
  • Who is our day-to-day contact, and is the work done in-house?
  • What does support look like in the first month after launch?

Red flags

  • The domain or site will be registered in the agency’s name.
  • No live examples, or only mockups.
  • A price given before anyone asks what the site needs to do.
  • Promises of first-page rankings by a set date. Nobody controls Google’s rankings.
  • No mention of redirects, mobile speed or accessibility.
  • Spanish pages promised with no plan for who writes and reviews them.
  • A long contract that bundles hosting and maintenance you can’t cancel.

How to compare proposals

Put the proposals side by side and check that each covers the same items, so you are comparing the same thing:

Scope

Number of pages and templates, languages, forms, booking or store features, integrations with your CRM or other tools.

Search

Redirect plan, page titles and descriptions, analytics and Search Console setup, structured data.

After launch

Hosting, security monitoring, updates, training, and who you call when something breaks.

The cheapest proposal often leaves out content, redirects or hosting, which you pay for later. The most expensive isn’t automatically better. Choose the company that answers your questions clearly and shows you real results.

How JLB USA approaches web design

JLB USA started in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton more than 15 years ago and has completed more than 1,000 projects for over 500 clients. We build custom WordPress sites, and most launch in 6 to 10 weeks. You can edit your own site, and you keep it if you leave. We redirect old pages so rankings carry over, and our hosting includes constant automated monitoring and malware cleanup. See web design for Miami businesses, our website design service, or before and after examples. Call 954-539-5678.

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Book a free 30-minute call

Pick a time. We look at what you have now with you and tell you what we would change first. No obligation.

Prefer to talk now? Call 954-539-5678, or send the form and we’ll contact you.

Questions we hear

Do I need a Spanish version of my website in Miami?

Often, yes. Census estimates show 75.3% of Miami-Dade residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home. Start with Spanish pages for your most important services if a full translation isn’t practical.

How long does a custom website take to build?

It depends on scope and how quickly content is ready. At JLB USA, most custom WordPress sites launch in 6 to 10 weeks.

Who should own my website and domain?

Your business. Register the domain in your name, and make sure you can move the site and keep analytics and Search Console if you change companies.

Will a new website hurt my Google rankings?

It can if old page addresses disappear. Ask for a redirect plan that maps every old page to a new one, plus checks in Search Console after launch.

Does my website need to be ADA accessible?

The Department of Justice says the ADA applies to websites of businesses open to the public and points to WCAG as guidance. This is general information; confirm specifics with your attorney.

Related services

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