The questions to ask a web designer, and the answers to listen for

The short answer

Before hiring a web designer, ask who will own the site, domain and hosting account; what platform they build on and why; how they protect your Google rankings during a redesign; who writes the content; whether your team can edit the site; what happens after launch; and what it costs to run each year. The portfolio tells you about taste. These questions tell you about risk. Below are 20 questions grouped by topic, with the answers to listen for.

Ownership and access

Start here. Problems in this area are the most expensive to fix later.

1. Who will own the website, the content and the design when the project is done? Listen for: “You do,” in writing.
2. Whose name will the domain be registered in? It should be your company’s. ICANN’s registrant guidance stresses keeping your contact details current with the registrar, because the registrant controls the domain.
3. Whose account will hosting be under? Either yours, or theirs with a clear exit process.
4. Will we have full admin access? You should hold an administrator login from day one.
5. If we part ways, what do we take with us? The good answer is “everything.” A vague answer, or “the site only runs on our platform,” means a rebuild if you leave.

Platform and build

6. What platform do you recommend for us, and why? Listen for reasoning tied to your needs, not a single answer they give everyone.
7. Is the design custom or based on a template? Both can be fine. You should know which you are paying for.
8. How will you make the site fast on phones? Expect mention of image handling, lean code and Core Web Vitals.
9. Do you build to accessibility guidelines? A specific answer, such as WCAG 2.2 AA, is better than “we make it accessible.” Our guide to website accessibility requirements explains why this matters.
10. How will the site connect to our CRM, scheduling or other tools? Name your systems and see whether they have done it before.

SEO and redesign safety

11. How will you protect our current Google rankings? For a redesign, the answer must include a redirect map from every old URL to its new one. Google’s site-move guidance calls this out directly.
12. What SEO is included at launch? Page titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, Search Console setup and basic schema are reasonable to expect. Ongoing SEO is a separate service.
13. Will you set up analytics and lead tracking? You need to know which pages produce calls and form fills.

Be wary of anyone promising specific rankings. Google’s own advice on hiring an SEO warns that no one can promise a number one ranking.

Content and editing

14. Who writes the copy and sources photos? Content is the most common cause of delays. Get this in the proposal.
15. Can we edit pages ourselves? Can we see the editing screen? Ask for a short demo. If editing looks risky, every change becomes an invoice.
16. Is training included? A short recorded walkthrough saves many support requests.

Interviewing designers and want to hear how we would answer these? Book a free 30-minute call. We look at what you have now and tell you what we’d change first. No obligation.

After launch and costs

17. What are the yearly running costs? Hosting, domain, licenses, plugins and support, listed in writing. Our guide to website maintenance costs shows what to expect.
18. Who handles updates, backups and security? On WordPress, skipped updates are how sites get hacked. Someone must own this.
19. What happens if the site goes down or gets hacked? Ask about monitoring, response times and whether malware cleanup is included.
20. What is the timeline, and what do you need from us to keep it? A good designer names your responsibilities, not just theirs.

Answers that should make you pause

• “We register the domain for you” with no mention of whose name it is in.
• “You don’t need redirects, Google will figure it out.”
• “We’ll get you to the top of Google.”
• “You can’t edit it yourself, just send us changes.”
• A quote with no list of what is excluded.
• No references from clients similar to you.

Questions for references

Ask two past clients: Did the project launch on time, and if not, why? How did the designer handle problems? Can you edit your site easily? Did your traffic hold up after launch? Would you hire them again? The answer to the last question matters most. If a reference hesitates, ask what they would do differently next time.

Questions about how they work

Beyond the deliverables, you are choosing people you will work with for two or three months. These questions reveal how the project will feel:

• Who will be my main contact, and who does the actual design and development? Some firms sell with senior people and hand the work to juniors or subcontractors. That can be fine, but you should know.
• How do you collect feedback? Listen for a defined process with set review rounds, not open-ended email threads.
• How many revision rounds are included, and what does an extra round cost?
• What do you need from us, and when? A designer who lists your responsibilities up front is planning to hit the timeline.
• What usually goes wrong on projects like ours? Experienced designers answer this easily. Vague answers suggest limited experience.
• How do you handle changes in scope? Expect a written change process with prices before work starts.

How to use these questions

You do not need to ask all 20 on a first call. Send the ownership, SEO and cost questions in writing before the call, so answers can be compared side by side. Use the call for platform, process and the questions about how they work, where tone and confidence matter. Then ask your top choice to put the key answers, especially ownership, redirects, running costs and exclusions, into the proposal or contract. A spoken promise about who owns the domain is worth little if the contract says something different.

Keep a simple comparison sheet with one column per designer and one row per question. Gaps and vague answers stand out quickly when the answers sit side by side, and the sheet makes it easier to explain your choice to partners or managers.

How JLB USA answers

We build custom WordPress websites and e-commerce sites. You can edit your own site, and if you ever leave, you keep it. On redesigns, we set up redirects from old pages so rankings carry over. Most custom sites launch in 6 to 10 weeks. Our hosting includes constant automated monitoring and malware cleanup. We are happy to answer every question on this list before you sign.

Related services

• Custom web design
• Website maintenance costs
• Website accessibility requirements
• Redesign without losing rankings