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The person who builds your website will shape how strangers decide whether to call you. Price matters. It is not the only thing that matters, and the cheapest offer is often the one that leaves you with a site you cannot change and a login you do not own.
Start with the work, not the software
A useful first conversation is about how you get customers now. Referrals, Google, the van, a shopfront, a directory, a sales visit. The site should support that, not replace it with a generic brochure.
Ask the designer to say back, in their own words, who the site is for and what those people should do. If they move straight to a theme, a logo animation or an AI generator, you have learned something.
Questions worth asking
You are listening for specific answers. 'We do everything SEO' is not specific. 'We will set up Search Console, write the service pages and report what changed' is closer.
- Will the domain, hosting and analytics accounts be in my name?
- What is included in the price, and what is a later project?
- How many rounds of feedback are included, and how do you handle extra pages?
- Who writes the words, and who checks that they are accurate?
- What happens if I want a small change in six months?
- Can I leave with the site if we stop working together?
- How do you measure whether the enquiry path is being used?
Answers that should slow you down
Templates, freelancers and website builders all have a place. They are a poor fit when the business needs a structure, a set of tools or a standard of writing that a theme will not provide. The right test is whether the person can describe your enquiry, not whether they use a fashionable tool.
- A guaranteed position on Google
- A finished site in a day, for a business they have not asked about
- A page for every town in the county, written the same way
- Ownership of the site staying with the designer
- A monthly fee you cannot explain, with no list of what it covers