How to Choose a Web Designer for Your Small Business

The short answer

Choose the designer whose live websites already do what you need yours to do (bring in calls, bookings or sales), who gives you a fixed price, a list of what's included and a timeline in writing before any work starts, and who puts your domain, hosting and every account in your name. Then open their sites on your phone and talk to one of their past clients.

That's the whole decision. The rest of this post is how to check each part, the questions to ask on the first call, and the warning signs that should send you to the next name on your list.

1. Start with what the site has to do

Before you talk to anyone, write down the one thing your website is for. For most small businesses it's one of these:

• Calls and quote requests, for a contractor, a cleaner or a landscaper
• Bookings, for a salon, a clinic or a trainer
• Sales, for an online store
• Trust, for a firm whose clients look it up after a referral

That sentence is how you judge everything that follows: the designers' past work, their questions, their quote. A good designer will ask about it in the first few minutes, along with who your customers are and how they find you today. Google gives the same advice for hiring someone to work on your search rankings, and it holds just as well for a web designer:

See if the SEO is interested in you and your business. If they're not interested, find someone who is. Your SEO should ask questions about what makes your business unique, who your competitors are, how search results can help, and how your customers find you.

If the first conversation is all about colors, animations and their favorite fonts, and none of it is about your customers, that tells you what they'll optimize for.

2. Judge live websites, not screenshots

A portfolio of polished screenshots shows you how a site looked on a big monitor on the day it launched. It doesn't show you whether it loads, works on a phone or still exists. So ask for links to live sites they built for real clients, and open them on your own phone:

• Tap the phone number. It should start a call.
• Fill in the contact or quote form. Count the fields, and notice whether it tells you what happens next.
• Wait for the first screen. If you're staring at a blank page, so are their clients' customers.
• Read a few pages. Do they sound like that business, or like every other business?

Then run two or three of the sites through Google's PageSpeed Insights. It scores speed out of 100, and Google's own guide counts 90 to 100 as good. Scores move a few points between tests, so look for a pattern across sites rather than one number.

3. Ask these questions on the first call

You'll learn more from how a designer answers these than from any portfolio:

1. Who will design and build my site? The person you meet, a team, or someone they subcontract to? Hand-offs are where details get lost.
2. What's the price, and what exactly does it include? The number of pages, the copywriting, the photos, the forms, the revisions. And what costs extra.
3. How long will it take, and what do you need from me? The usual delay is content: photos, service lists and approvals the owner hasn't gathered yet.
4. Whose name will the domain, hosting and accounts be in? The answer should be "yours."
5. Can I edit it myself, and on what platform? WordPress, Shopify, a site builder or custom code all have trade-offs. Our Shopify vs WordPress guide covers the two most common.
6. What happens after launch? Who hosts it, who keeps it updated, who fixes it when something breaks, and what that costs each month.
7. How will people find it? A page for each service, speed on phones and a Google Business Profile that matches the site matter more than any promise about rankings.
8. Can I talk to a past client? Ask them whether the designer was easy to work with, kept to the timeline, and whether the site brought in work.

Write the answers down. When you compare two quotes, these are what make them comparable.

4. Make sure you'll own everything

This is the part owners most often find out about too late, usually when they want to switch designers. Before you sign, make sure these are in your name, with your own login:

• Your domain (yourbusiness.com). Whoever registers it is the registrant, and the registrant is the one the registrar deals with. Have it registered to you, at a registrar where you have your own account. ICANN's lookup tool shows which registrar holds any domain, though the owner's name is often hidden for privacy, so the surest check is logging in yourself.
• Your hosting account, or a written agreement that says the site's files are yours and will be handed over if you leave.
• Your Google Business Profile. You should be its primary owner, and your designer, if they help with it, a manager:

As the owner, you have full control over the profile. You can add or remove users, manage profile info, and even delete the profile. A Business Profile can have multiple owners but only one primary owner.

• Your analytics and Search Console, so years of data stay with the business.
• The design and the content, written into the agreement: once you've paid, the site is yours.

5. Know what a website should cost

Prices for a small business website range widely, and the number alone tells you little. What matters is what it includes, how it's billed and what you keep. Most designers price in one of three ways:

• A fixed price for the project, agreed before work starts. The clearest way to buy a website.
• A monthly fee, for ongoing work like SEO, updates and hosting. Fair for ongoing work, but if the website itself is a monthly subscription, ask what you keep if you stop paying.
• An hourly rate, for small or open-ended changes. Ask for an estimate first.

A site adapted from a finished design costs less than one designed from scratch, because the design and the build are already done and you pay to make it yours. Ours start at $1,500 for ten pages, with $100 for each extra page; a custom design costs more. Our website cost page breaks down what changes the price and what you'll pay after launch, wherever you end up hiring.

6. Watch for these warning signs

• A guaranteed first place on Google. Nobody can promise it, and Google says so plainly:

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google.

• No written scope or price. If it isn't written down, it's whatever you each remember it to be.
• The domain or the Business Profile in their name, with no plan to move them to you.
• A contract you can't leave, or a monthly site you lose the moment you stop paying.
• No live sites, or no clients you can talk to.
• Vague answers about what they'll do. Google's advice for hiring help with search fits here too: "Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do."
• No questions about your business. If they quote before they know what the site is for, the price is for a website, not for yours.

Before you sign with a web designer

0 of 8 done

• You've written down what the site has to do: calls, bookings, sales or trust
• You've opened three of their live sites on your phone
• Their sites score 90 or more for speed in PageSpeed Insights, most of the time
• You know who will design and build your site
• You have the price, what it includes and the timeline in writing
• The domain, hosting and Business Profile will be in your name
• You know what you'll pay each month after launch, if anything
• You've talked to at least one past client

Your ticks are saved in this browser, so you can come back to the list.

Where Axidus fits

We're a small web design and marketing studio in Hillsborough, New Jersey, so we've written this from the other side of the table. The person on your first call designs and builds your site. The price, what's included and the timeline are agreed in writing before work starts, and your website, domain, accounts and files are in your name. If you'd like a second opinion on your current site before you hire anyone, ask for a free review: the five things costing you the most customers, by email, with no call needed.

If you're ready to talk about a new site, see our custom website design and website redesign services.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a small business website cost?

It depends on the number of pages, whether the design starts from scratch, and what has to work, like booking or a store. A site adapted from a finished design can start around $1,500 for ten pages; a custom design costs more. Compare quotes by what they include and what you'll pay each month after launch, not by the headline number alone.

Should I hire a freelancer or an agency?

Either can be the right choice. What matters more is who does the work and how clearly it's priced. A freelancer or small studio usually means you talk to the person building your site. A larger agency adds account and project managers, which can help on big projects and adds cost and hand-offs on small ones. Ask who will design and build your site.

What should a web design contract include?

The pages and features included, the price and how it's paid, the timeline and what the designer needs from you, how many rounds of changes are included, who owns the domain, the accounts, the design and the content once you've paid, and what happens after launch: hosting, updates, support and their monthly cost. If something you discussed isn't in it, ask for it to be added.

How long does it take to build a small business website?

A small site adapted from a finished design can be live in about two weeks. A site designed from scratch usually takes longer, depending on its size and features. The most common delay isn't the build: it's waiting on content like photos, service details and approvals. Gathering those before you start is the easiest way to launch on time.