Start With Their Portfolio, Not Their Pitch
Every web designer will tell you they build beautiful, high-converting websites. That claim means nothing without evidence. Before you read a single word on their site, look at their work.
Open five or six of their portfolio sites on your phone. Do they load fast? Is the design clean and modern? Can you immediately tell what each business does and how to contact them? If the answer to any of those is no, move on.
Pay attention to variety. If every site in their portfolio looks the same, they are using templates and swapping out colours. That is not custom design — it is a paint job.
Look for results, not just aesthetics. A good designer should be able to show you what happened after a site launched. Did enquiries go up? Did the business start ranking on Google? Pretty means nothing if it does not perform.
Check Whether They Understand SEO
A website that does not rank on Google is a billboard in the desert. Your designer needs to understand search engine optimisation — not at an agency level, but at the fundamentals level.
Ask them: will my site have proper meta titles and descriptions? Will the pages be structured with heading tags? Will images be compressed and have alt text? Will the site load in under three seconds on mobile?
If they look confused by any of those questions, they are not the right person for the job. These are non-negotiable basics in 2026.
You do not need your designer to run full SEO campaigns. But the site they build must give you a fighting chance of being found. A beautiful site that Google cannot read is worthless.
Red Flags That Should Make You Walk Away
If a designer cannot show you a live portfolio, that is a red flag. If their own website is slow or broken on mobile, that is a bigger one. If they promise you page-one rankings within a week, run.
Be wary of anyone who insists on owning your domain name or hosting your site on their own server with no migration path. You should always own your domain and have full access to your hosting account.
Watch out for designers who disappear during the quoting process. If they take two weeks to reply to your initial enquiry, imagine what happens when something breaks on your site at 9pm on a Friday.
Cheap quotes often come with hidden costs. A headline price of a few hundred pounds usually means a template with your logo dropped in, no SEO, no mobile optimisation, and no ongoing support. You will end up paying someone else to fix it within a year.
Avoid anyone who cannot explain their process clearly. If they cannot tell you what happens at each stage — from initial brief to launch — they are making it up as they go.
Questions You Should Ask Before Signing Anything
What is included in the price? Get a written breakdown of every deliverable. How many pages, how many rounds of revisions, does it include copywriting, stock images, SEO setup, analytics installation?
What happens after launch? Will they provide ongoing support? Is there a maintenance plan? What does it cost to make changes down the line? You need to know the full picture before you commit.
Who owns the website? This is critical. You should own the design files, the code, the domain, and the hosting account. If the designer owns any of those, you are locked in.
What is the timeline? A professional designer should give you a clear timeline with milestones. If they say 'a few weeks' with no specifics, that project will drag on for months.
Can I speak to a previous client? Any designer worth hiring will happily connect you with past clients. If they refuse or make excuses, that tells you everything you need to know.
Understanding Contracts and Payment Terms
Never pay 100% upfront. A standard payment structure is a deposit to begin work, a payment at the design approval stage, and a final payment on launch. This protects both sides.
Read the contract carefully. Look for clauses about intellectual property, cancellation terms, and what happens if the project goes over the agreed timeline. If there is no contract at all, do not proceed.
Make sure the contract specifies exactly what you are getting. Vague descriptions like 'a modern website' mean nothing. You want page counts, feature lists, and deliverable dates in writing.
Check the revision policy. Some designers include unlimited revisions, others include two or three rounds. Know what you are getting so there are no surprises when you want to change a headline colour.
Why the Cheapest Option Almost Always Costs More
A cheap website is not a bargain — it is a liability. When you pay rock-bottom prices, you get a template site with no strategy behind it. No conversion optimisation, no SEO, no thought given to how your customers actually behave online.
The real cost of a cheap website is the business you lose. If your site does not convert, every pound you spend on advertising is wasted. Every Google search where you do not appear is a customer going to your competitor.
This does not mean you need to spend a fortune. It means you need to spend wisely. A well-built website should pay for itself within months through increased enquiries and conversions.
Think of your website as an employee that works 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Would you hire the cheapest person you could find for your most important role? Your website is your most important salesperson.
What a Good Web Designer Actually Delivers
A good web designer does not just make things look nice. They build a system designed to turn visitors into customers. That means clear messaging, fast load times, mobile-first design, SEO foundations, and conversion-focused layouts.
They will ask you hard questions about your business. Who is your ideal customer? What makes you different from your competitors? What is the one action you want every visitor to take? If they do not ask these questions, they are not designing for results.
After launch, they should hand you a site you fully own and control, with analytics set up, search console connected, and a clear plan for what comes next.
The right designer becomes a long-term partner, not a one-off vendor. They understand your business, your market, and your goals. That relationship is worth far more than saving a few hundred pounds on a template.
The bottom line
Choosing a web designer is a business decision, not a design decision. Focus on results, not aesthetics. Ask the hard questions, check the portfolio on mobile, and never sign anything without understanding exactly what you are getting. Your website is the foundation of your online presence — get it right from the start.