Hiring a web designer is one of those decisions small business owners only make every four or five years. That is exactly why it goes wrong so often: you do not do it enough to spot the warning signs. A slick portfolio and a friendly first call are not proof of anything. What actually protects you is asking the right questions early, before a deposit changes hands.
Below are the 15 questions to ask a web designer during a first call or discovery meeting. For each one you get two things: what a professional answer sounds like, and the vague reply that should make you pause. Print it, keep it open in a tab, or read it out loud during the call. Nobody serious will be offended.
How to use this list on a first call
You do not need to fire all 15 questions like an interrogation. A first call usually lasts 30 to 45 minutes and should be a two way conversation. Pick the eight or nine that matter most for your situation, and pay attention to how the answers are given, not just what is said.
- Specific beats confident. A good designer gives you numbers, names of tools, examples of past projects. A weak one gives you adjectives.
- Written beats spoken. Anything important that gets promised on the call should end up in the quote or contract.
- Questions back at you are a great sign. If a designer talks for 40 minutes without asking about your customers, you are buying a template, not a solution.
Part 1: Process and discovery (questions 1 to 3)
1. What happens between me signing and you starting design?
You are trying to find out whether there is a real process or improvisation.
- Good answer: A named sequence with deliverables. Something like: kickoff call, content and brand audit, sitemap and page structure approved by you, wireframes or a homepage concept, then full design, then build, then testing, then launch. They can tell you what you have to provide at each stage.
- Red flag: We will just get started and show you something in a couple of weeks. No structure means no accountability, and the project will drift.
2. How do you decide what goes on the homepage?
This separates decorators from designers.
- Good answer: They talk about your customers, the questions people ask before buying from you, competitor research, search intent, and the single action you want visitors to take. They may mention analytics from your current site or heatmaps.
- Red flag: Answers only about visuals: colours, sliders, animations, something modern and clean. Pretty is not a strategy.
3. Who writes the content, and what happens if I am late with it?
Missing content is the number one reason web projects stall. Ask before it becomes your problem.
- Good answer: A clear split. Either they write it (and it is priced separately), or you write it against a brief and a deadline they give you. They explain what happens to the timeline and the price if content arrives three months late.
- Red flag: Just send us the text whenever. That vagueness turns into a stalled project and awkward invoices later.
Part 2: The build itself (questions 4 to 6)
4. What platform will you use, and why that one for my business?
- Good answer: A reasoned choice tied to your needs. WordPress for content heavy sites you want to edit yourself, Shopify for product driven ecommerce, a static or headless setup for speed critical projects. They explain the trade offs honestly, including cost of ownership.
- Red flag: One platform for every client, no matter what, with no explanation. Or a proprietary system that only they can maintain (see question 10).
5. Do you use a pre built theme, a page builder, or a custom build?
There is no wrong answer here, only a dishonest one. A well configured premium theme can be excellent value for a small business. The problem is paying custom prices for a template.
- Good answer: Straight talk. We are using a premium theme as a base and customising it, which is why the price is what it is. Or: This is a custom design built on a lightweight framework, here is what that buys you.
- Red flag: Dodging the question, or claiming everything is 100 percent bespoke while the portfolio shows six sites with identical layouts.
6. How will the site perform on mobile, on speed, and on accessibility?
In 2026 this is not a bonus feature. More than half your traffic is mobile, Core Web Vitals feed into rankings, and accessibility is increasingly a legal expectation in Europe rather than a nice to have.
- Good answer: They mention concrete targets and tools: PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse scores, image optimisation and lazy loading, caching, contrast ratios, keyboard navigation, alt text, semantic headings, WCAG 2.2 AA as a reference point.
- Red flag: Of course it is responsive. Full stop. Responsive is the bare minimum, not a differentiator.
Part 3: Money and timelines (questions 7 to 9)
7. What exactly is included in the quote, and what is not?
- Good answer: An itemised list: number of page templates, number of unique pages, copywriting, photography, stock licences, forms, integrations, SEO setup, training, first year hosting. Plus a clear list of exclusions.
- Red flag: A single round number on one line with no breakdown. You will not be able to compare it to any other quote, which is often the point.
8. What is the realistic timeline, and what causes it to slip?
- Good answer: A range with milestones and dependencies. Eight to ten weeks assuming content is delivered by week three and feedback comes within five working days. A professional makes your obligations explicit.
- Red flag: An impossibly short promise (your site will be live in a week) or an open ended a few months, depends.
9. How many rounds of revisions do I get, and what counts as a revision?
This is where the most disputes happen. Ask for the definition, not just the number.
- Good answer: Two or three consolidated rounds per stage, with a definition. Changing a headline or swapping an image is a revision. Deciding after approval that the whole homepage should be restructured is a scope change, billed at a stated hourly rate they will tell you now.
- Red flag: Unlimited revisions. That is either priced defensively from the start or it means the project never ends. Equally bad: no mention of revisions at all.
Part 4: Ownership, hosting and access (questions 10 to 12)
This block matters more than design taste. It determines whether you own a business asset or rent one indefinitely. designpowers.com has covered this at length.
10. Who owns the website files, the design and the domain when we are done?
- Good answer: You own the domain (registered in your company name, with you as registrant contact), you own the content, and full intellectual property in the final design transfers to you on final payment. They keep the right to show the work in their portfolio. All of it is written in the contract.
- Red flag: The designer registers the domain in their own name, or the site lives on a proprietary platform you cannot export. If leaving means rebuilding from zero, you are locked in.
11. Will I get admin access to everything, including hosting and DNS?
- Good answer: Yes, with a handover document listing every account: registrar, hosting, CMS admin, analytics, Search Console, email, any licences and their renewal dates.
- Red flag: We manage all of that for you, you do not need to worry about it. Convenience is fine, but you should still hold the keys.
12. Where will the site be hosted, what does it cost, and who is responsible if it goes down?
- Good answer: A named host, a yearly or monthly price, server location (EU based matters for GDPR comfort), backup frequency and retention, SSL, and a stated response time if something breaks. They tell you whether hosting is resold by them or bought directly by you.
- Red flag: Vague hosting bundled into an unclear monthly fee, no mention of backups, and no answer on who to call at 9pm when the site is offline.
Part 5: Launch and after (questions 13 to 15)
13. What happens to my existing pages, rankings and traffic at launch?
Redesigns kill traffic when nobody plans for it. This question alone will tell you if the designer thinks about SEO.
- Good answer: A migration plan: crawl the current site, map old URLs to new ones, set 301 redirects, keep title tags and page structure for top performing pages, submit a new sitemap, monitor Search Console for four to six weeks after launch.
- Red flag: Blank stare, or Google will figure it out. It will not, and you may lose months of traffic.
14. Can I update the site myself, and what training do I get?
- Good answer: Yes for text, images, blog posts, products and simple sections. You get a training session, a recording of it, and a short written guide. They are honest about which parts you should not touch.
- Red flag: Every small text change has to go through them and is billed. That is a revenue model, not a service.
15. What does support look like after launch, and what does it cost?
- Good answer: A defined warranty period for bugs (typically 30 to 90 days at no charge), then a maintenance option with a clear scope: CMS and plugin updates, security monitoring, backups, uptime checks, a set number of support hours, and a stated response time. Cancellable with notice.
- Red flag: No offer at all (you are on your own with an ageing CMS), or a long lock in contract with no description of what you actually receive each month.
Quick reference: good answer vs red flag
| Question | Sounds professional | Should worry you |
|---|---|---|
| Process | Named stages with deliverables and approvals | We will just start and show you something |
| Quote | Itemised, with exclusions listed | One number, no breakdown |
| Timeline | Range plus your obligations and dependencies | Live next week, or no date at all |
| Revisions | Defined rounds plus a definition of scope change | Unlimited, or never mentioned |
| Ownership | IP transfers on final payment, domain in your name | Domain or files held by the agency |
| Hosting | Named host, price, backups, response time | Bundled monthly fee with no detail |
| SEO at launch | URL mapping and 301 redirect plan | Google will sort it out |
| Support | Warranty period plus a scoped maintenance plan | Nothing, or a vague lock in contract |
Three extra questions if you are based in Belgium or the EU
Most English language advice on this topic is written for the US market and skips the rules that actually apply here. If you operate in Belgium, add these:
- How will you handle cookies, consent and GDPR? Look for a proper consent banner that blocks scripts before consent, a privacy policy, and a data processing agreement if they handle personal data on your behalf. We will add a cookie popup is not compliance.
- Can the site handle multiple languages properly? French, Dutch and English versions need separate URLs and hreflang tags, not an automatic translation widget. Ask how translations will be managed over time.
- Does the site meet accessibility expectations? The European Accessibility Act applies to many online services since June 2025. Ask whether they build to WCAG 2.2 AA and how they test it.
Reverse the table: what a good designer should ask you
A first call is a mutual assessment. If the designer does not ask most of the following, they cannot possibly quote accurately:
- What does a customer typically do before they contact you?
- Which pages or services actually make you money?
- What is not working on your current site?
- How will we know in six months whether this worked? (Leads, calls, bookings, sales)
- Who signs off internally, and how quickly?
- What is your budget range and your hard deadline, if any?
A designer who asks about your revenue drivers before asking about your favourite colours is a designer who will build you something that pays for itself. An extended version exists for anyone curious.
Two questions that are not on most lists but should be
Can I speak to a client you worked with two years ago?
Recent references are easy. A client from two or three years back tells you what the relationship looks like once the excitement fades: does the site still work, did support stay responsive, did the invoices stay predictable?
What happens if we part ways mid project?
Uncomfortable, but revealing. A professional has a clause for it: work completed is invoiced, files delivered in their current state, accounts handed over. Someone who has never thought about it has probably never had to be accountable. For a real-world example, look at a design studio worth a look.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most important questions to ask a web designer?
If you only ask five, ask these: what is included in the quote, what is the timeline and what could delay it, how many revisions are included, who owns the files and domain at the end, and what support exists after launch. Those five cover the areas where disputes actually happen.
How much should a small business website cost?
In Belgium, a credible professional brochure site for a small business generally lands between roughly 2.500 and 8.000 euros depending on page count, custom design and content work, with ecommerce and multilingual projects going higher. Prices far below that usually mean a template filled with your logo, which can be fine as long as you are told that is what you are buying.
Should I ask for a written contract for a website project?
Always. It should state deliverables, milestones, payment schedule, revision rounds, IP transfer on final payment, hosting arrangements and what happens if either side cancels. If a designer resists putting the basics in writing, that is your answer. tagdesign.co.nz walks through the specifics.
How long does it take to build a small business website?
Six to twelve weeks is typical for a five to fifteen page site, and the biggest variable is not the designer, it is how fast content and feedback come from your side. Ecommerce or multilingual builds commonly take longer.
What is the biggest red flag when hiring a web designer?
Refusing to be specific. Vagueness about price, ownership, timelines or support is almost never accidental. Every one of those grey areas eventually becomes a cost, and it will be yours.
Ready to put these questions to us?
We would genuinely rather answer all 15 on a first call than discover a mismatch three weeks into a project. If you are planning a new site or a redesign, get in touch with the team at dric.be and bring this list with you.
