How to choose a web designer

Start with a one-page website brief

A vague request for “a modern website” produces incomparable proposals. Give each candidate the same practical brief so differences in price and approach mean something.

• Business objective: the lead, booking, purchase, visit, or credibility outcome the site must support.
• Audience: primary customers, their questions, location, and decision concerns.
• Content: required pages, products, services, copy, photography, video, and legal material.
• Functionality: forms, booking, payments, ecommerce, CRM, email, maps, memberships, or portals.
• Constraints: budget, target date, approvals, existing brand, regulatory needs, and internal capacity.
• After launch: who will edit content, apply updates, monitor security, restore backups, and improve performance.

The brief is not a complete specification. It creates a shared starting point and exposes which providers ask the right follow-up questions.

How to evaluate a web designer’s evidence

Portfolio

Open relevant live sites instead of relying only on screenshots. Test navigation, forms, readability, and mobile layouts. Look for clarity and business fit, not whether every site shares your preferred visual style. Ask which parts the provider handled: strategy, copy, photography, design, development, SEO, hosting, or maintenance.

Reviews

Rating, review volume, recency, detail, and consistency all matter. Confirm the profile belongs to the same entity and location. Reviews show customer experience; they do not independently prove technical quality or revenue results. Our Cedar City ranking keeps these factors separate.

Results and case studies

A useful case study names the starting problem, work performed, time period, measurement source, and outcome. Ask whether the provider can attribute the result to its work. Traffic percentages without dates or baselines, PageSpeed screenshots without a URL, or ranking screenshots without query and location context are incomplete evidence.

Technical quality

Ask how the provider handles responsive design, accessibility, performance, semantic content, security, backups, forms, browser testing, analytics, redirects, canonicals, sitemap behavior, and true 404 responses. Google’s developer documentation recommends secure, fast, accessible sites that work across devices; no particular CMS guarantees that outcome.

Protect your domain, website, and account ownership

The business should normally control the registrar account for its domain, using a business-controlled email address, strong authentication, and documented renewal. The provider can receive delegated access. Losing the domain can disrupt the website and email, so this is not an administrative detail.

Also identify the owner and administrator of hosting, CMS, ecommerce, analytics, Search Console, Business Profile, tag manager, payment, email, font, theme, plugin, stock-image, and repository accounts. The contract should state what intellectual property transfers after payment and what remains licensed.

• Business is the domain registrant and controls recovery methods.
• Business receives administrator access to primary platforms.
• Final copy, original media, design files, code, and licenses are addressed.
• Backups can be exported and restored outside the provider’s account when practical.
• Cancellation explains data transfer, DNS changes, final invoices, and transition support.

See the focused website, domain, and hosting ownership guide.

Questions to ask every web designer

1. Show me a relevant live project and explain your role.Ask what problem changed and who created the content.
2. What exactly is included and excluded?Cover pages, features, copy, images, SEO, analytics, accessibility, testing, hosting, and support.
3. Who owns and controls each account?Confirm the domain, hosting, CMS, analytics, code, media, and licenses.
4. How do revisions and scope changes work?Define included rounds, approval, hourly rates, and change orders.
5. How will you protect existing search traffic?For redesigns, require URL inventory, redirect mapping, canonicals, and monitoring.
6. How will quality be tested?Expect specific mobile, keyboard, browser, form, performance, and launch checks.
7. What happens after launch or cancellation?Ask about warranty, maintenance, backups, updates, export, and transition.
8. How will we measure success?Choose qualified calls, forms, bookings, purchases, or another business action.

Web designer warning signs

• The provider insists on owning your domain without a documented reason and transfer right.
• Recurring fees or cancellation consequences are unclear.
• No live portfolio or no explanation of the provider’s role.
• No mobile examples or quality-testing process.
• Guaranteed first-place Google rankings. Google says there are no secrets that automatically rank a site first.
• Unclear rights to source files, copy, photography, themes, plugins, or code.
• No backup, security-update, or maintenance responsibility.
• A redesign proposal with no URL and redirect plan.

A warning sign is a reason to ask a sharper question, not automatic proof of misconduct.