15 questions to ask before you hire a web designer

Ask the fifteen questions below before you sign anything, and get the answers to five of them in writing. Most website projects that go badly were not ruined by bad design. They were ruined by things nobody asked about early: who owns the domain, what happens when you change your mind about the homepage in week five, and what the second year costs.

This is the script version of our longer piece on how to choose a web design company. Copy it into an email, send the same list to every candidate, and compare the replies side by side. The pattern of the answers will tell you more than any portfolio does.

I have been building websites in Minnesota for 14 years and I answer these questions several times a month. None of them are hostile. A vendor with a real process is glad you asked, because written expectations protect them from you as much as they protect you from them.

What are these questions actually testing?

Three things, and only three: whether you can leave, whether you can maintain the site without paying someone, and whether the number you were quoted is the number you will pay.

Design taste is the easy part to evaluate — you can see it. Everything on this list is the part you cannot see until it is too late to renegotiate.

The 15 questions

1. Who owns the domain, hosting, site files, and design source files when we are done?

Why you are asking: these are four separate accounts and vendors often keep one or two out of habit.

The answer you want: all four end up in accounts registered to your organization’s name and email, and the layered design files come to you, not just flattened images. If you are unsure what you hold today, our guide on how to check whether you own your website walks the four accounts one at a time.

End the conversation if you hear: “We manage all of that for you, so you never have to think about it.” That is a rental agreement described as a favor.

2. Which parts of the site can I edit myself, and can you show me right now?

Why you are asking: the difference between “you have a CMS” and “you can actually change the staff photo on the About page” is enormous.

The answer you want: a screen share of the real editing interface, plus a straight list of what is locked. Some things should be locked. Nobody wants a volunteer accidentally deleting the navigation.

End the conversation if you hear: “Just email us and we’ll update it.” A charter school office manager who has to email a vendor to change a snow-day notice will simply stop updating the site.

3. Where will the site be hosted, and whose credit card is on the account?

Why you are asking: hosting is where lock-in hides. It is also where a $12 monthly cost quietly becomes $180.

The answer you want: a named host, a monthly figure, and the account in your name. Typical small-site hosting runs $10-$50 per month. Managed hosting above that is defensible for a busy store, not for a five-page brochure site.

End the conversation if you hear: hosting is “included forever” with no price attached. Included forever means bundled into something you cannot audit.

4. Who writes the words?

Why you are asking: content is the single most common reason projects stall, and most quotes assume you are supplying it.

The answer you want: an explicit split. Something like “you supply the About and program descriptions by week two, we write the service pages and all page titles.” Copywriting for a full site is real work, and if it is included, it is in the price.

End the conversation if you hear: nothing. If content is not mentioned in the proposal at all, you are the content team and you did not know it.

5. What is the timeline, and what specifically makes it slip?

Why you are asking: you want to know whether the delay risk is on their side or yours.

The answer you want: a range with named dependencies. A realistic answer sounds like “four to eight weeks, and the two things that push it are late content and slow feedback on the design round.” Our breakdown of how long a website takes to build covers the normal ranges by project size.

End the conversation if you hear: a firm two-week promise for a fifteen-page site. That is a template with your logo dropped in.

6. What is included in this price, and what is explicitly not?

Why you are asking: the exclusions list is more informative than the inclusions list.

The answer you want: named exclusions. Photography, logo design, translations, e-commerce, an events calendar, an online intake form, an integration with your scheduling software — each of those is a real line item. See our published price ranges for what typical add-ons cost.

End the conversation if you hear: “Everything you need.” Nobody knows everything you need in week one, which is exactly why the boundary has to be written down.

7. How do change requests work after we approve the design?

Why you are asking: this is where scope creep turns into an invoice you were not expecting.

The answer you want: a number of revision rounds included, a definition of what counts as a round, and an hourly rate for anything past it. Hourly work in this market generally runs $95-$150 per hour.

End the conversation if you hear: “We do unlimited revisions.” Unlimited revisions means either the price already includes a large cushion, or the project never ends. Usually both.

8. What happens the day after launch?

Why you are asking: software rots. WordPress plugins update, forms break silently, SSL certificates expire.

The answer you want: a written support arrangement with a response time. A care plan typically runs $75-$600 per month depending on whether it is backups and updates or backups, updates, edits, and monitoring. It is also fine to decline one and pay hourly — but decide on purpose.

End the conversation if you hear: “Call us if anything breaks,” with no rate and no response window.

9. If this is a redesign, what is your plan for redirects and existing rankings?

Why you are asking: this is the most expensive mistake in the whole process and it is invisible for months.

The answer you want: the words “301 redirect map,” plus an offer to show it to you before launch. Every old URL needs to point at its new equivalent. Our guide to moving a website without losing rankings explains what that map actually looks like.

End the conversation if you hear: “Google will figure it out.” Google will figure out that half your pages return 404.

10. What accessibility standard will you build to, and how will you test it?

Why you are asking: for Minnesota public schools and charter schools this is now a legal question, not a nice-to-have.

The answer you want: WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the target, keyboard and screen-reader testing named as part of the process, not just an automated scanner. The Justice Department’s 2024 Title II rule sets that standard for public entities with compliance dates in April 2026 and April 2027 depending on size. WebAIM’s annual scan of the top million home pages has found detectable failures on the large majority of them every year it has run, so assume nothing is accessible by default. More detail in our accessibility guide for small organizations.

End the conversation if you hear: “We’ll add an accessibility widget.” Overlay widgets do not fix underlying markup, and they have been the subject of their own lawsuits.

11. Can you show me three sites you built at least three years ago that are still live?

Why you are asking: recent work proves taste. Old work proves the handoff worked and the client did not run away.

The answer you want: three URLs, still live, ideally with content updated since launch. Then look at the footer, check whether the news page has anything from this year, and call one of them. Our project archive is organized this way on purpose.

End the conversation if you hear: only work from the last eight months, or a portfolio of sites that are all now offline or rebuilt by someone else.

12. What will my total cost be over the first twelve months?

Why you are asking: build price is not annual price, and the gap is where budgets break.

The answer you want: one number that includes build, hosting, domain renewal at $12-$25 per year, care plan, and any licensed plugins or themes. For a typical Twin Cities small business site, a $4,500 build plus $25 monthly hosting plus a $150 monthly care plan is about $6,600 in year one. Our Minnesota website cost breakdown shows the ranges by project type.

End the conversation if you hear: a build number and a shrug about everything else.

13. Who is actually doing the work?

Why you are asking: the person who charms you in the sales call is often not the person who builds the thing.

The answer you want: names and roles, including whether any work is subcontracted and where. Subcontracting is fine. Undisclosed subcontracting is a support problem waiting to happen.

End the conversation if you hear: evasion, or “our team” repeated four times without a single name.

14. What happens if the project stalls?

Why you are asking: plenty of stalls start on the client’s side, and you want to know the consequence before you cause one.

The answer you want: a clause both directions. Something like: if you go quiet for 30 days the project pauses and restarting may require a new slot; if the vendor goes quiet, you get the files and design source for work paid to date. Standard payment on most website projects is 50 percent to start and 50 percent at launch, so make sure “launch” is defined.

End the conversation if you hear: a large deposit with no delivery milestone attached to it.

15. If we disagree about a design decision, how do we settle it?

Why you are asking: you will disagree. Every project has one.

The answer you want: a named decision-maker on your side, a defined number of design rounds, and a tiebreaker rule. Good vendors say something like “we will push back once with a reason, and if you still want it your way, it is your website.” That is the correct answer.

End the conversation if you hear: “The client is always right.” A designer who never argues is not applying judgment, and you are paying for judgment.

Which answers must be in writing?

Verbal answers are for the call. These five belong in the proposal or contract, because these are the ones that cost real money when memories differ.

Question	What a good written answer says	Red flag
Ownership	Domain, hosting, code, and design files transfer to the client at final payment	“We host and manage everything” with no transfer clause
Scope	Page-by-page list plus a named exclusions list	A one-line description like “new website, 10 pages”
Change requests	Number of rounds included, plus $95-$150 per hour beyond	“Unlimited revisions”
Redirects	A 301 redirect map delivered before launch	No mention of redirects at all
First-year cost	Build plus hosting plus domain plus care plan, totaled	Build price only

When you should not hire a web designer at all

If your entire budget is under about $1,500 and you need five straightforward pages, do not hire us and do not hire anyone else. At that number you will get a rushed template either way. Build it yourself on Squarespace or Wix for $16-$30 a month, spend your time writing good page copy, and come back in two years when the site is holding your business back. Our DIY versus hiring comparison lays out where that line sits.

Two more cases where the honest answer is to keep your money. If your current site is only two or three years old, loads quickly, and works on a phone, you probably need better content and a fixed Google Business Profile, not a rebuild — a rebuild is a $5,000 answer to a $0 problem. And if a freelancer you already trust answers all fifteen questions well and quotes less than a studio, hire the freelancer. The questions matter more than the size of the shop.

Copy this into an email

Paste this list, add your deadline, and send it to every candidate on the same day.

1. Who will own the domain, hosting, site files, and design source files when the project is complete?
2. Which parts of the site can we edit ourselves, and can you show us the editing interface?
3. Where will the site be hosted, at what monthly cost, and whose account is it in?
4. Who writes the page content, and what do you need from us?
5. What is the timeline, and what specifically causes it to slip?
6. What is included in the price, and what is explicitly excluded?
7. How many rounds of revisions are included, and what is the hourly rate after that?
8. What support is available after launch, at what cost, with what response time?
9. What is your plan for 301 redirects and preserving our current search rankings?
10. What accessibility standard will you build to, and how will you test it?
11. Can you send three sites you built at least three years ago that are still live?
12. What is our total expected cost over the first twelve months?
13. Who will actually be doing the design and development work?
14. What happens if the project stalls on either side?
15. How do we resolve a disagreement about a design decision?

If a reply skips more than two of these, that is your answer. If you are a nonprofit running a formal process, our website RFP template turns the same list into a document your board can approve, and the launch checklist covers what to verify on the day the site goes live.

If you want our answers

We answer all fifteen in writing before anyone signs anything, and our ranges are published on the pricing page rather than quoted case by case. If you are comparing a few options in the Twin Cities, send us the same email you are sending everyone else — get in touch or call (612) 293-0636 and we will reply in the same format so you can put the answers side by side.