How to choose someone to build or fix your website

The ownership questions

These matter more than anything about design, and they are the ones people forget to ask until it is too late.

• Whose name is the domain registered in?It must be yours. If your designer registers it in their name you do not own your own web address, and getting it back can be genuinely difficult.
• Do I get access to the hosting?You should have your own account, or at minimum full administrative access. Otherwise leaving means rebuilding.
• Do I own the code and the content?Get it in writing. Some arrangements licence the site to you rather than selling it, which means you cannot take it elsewhere.
• Can I edit it myself?If every text change requires paying someone, small updates never happen and the site goes stale.
• What happens if you disappear?An unglamorous question with a revealing answer. Someone who has thought about it will tell you where things are documented.

Questions about the work

Ask how they will handle speed and mobile, not whether they will. Everyone says yes to "will it be mobile friendly". A useful answer describes testing on real devices and gives you a target — see site speed for what a reasonable target looks like.

Ask what happens to your existing rankings if URLs change. Covered properly in redesign or repair.

Ask what is included after launch. Most faults appear in the first few weeks of real use, and a site handed over with no aftercare tends to mean those faults become a new invoice.

Answers that should worry you

None of these are automatically disqualifying, but each is worth pressing on.

• "We guarantee first page on Google"Nobody can guarantee this. Google itself warns against anyone who claims to, in its guidance on choosing an SEO (opens in a new tab).
• "We will handle the domain for you"Handling is fine. Owning is not. Clarify which is meant.
• A price with no defined scopeA number with no list of what it covers is not a quote, and it will grow.
• No examples of live sitesMock-ups are not evidence. Ask for real sites you can visit and test yourself.
• Reluctance to explainAnyone good can explain what they are doing in plain terms. Deliberate obscurity usually protects the seller, not the buyer.

How to check their work yourself

You do not need technical knowledge to sanity-check a portfolio. Take two or three of their live sites and run each through PageSpeed Insights (opens in a new tab). Then open them on your phone.

If the sites they are proudest of are slow and awkward on mobile, that is what you will get. This takes five minutes and tells you more than any conversation.

Sources and further reading

• Do you need an SEO? (opens in a new tab)Google Search CentralGoogle's own advice on hiring, including the warning signs.
• PageSpeed Insights (opens in a new tab)GoogleFree. Use it on a prospective designer's portfolio.
• ICANN Lookup (opens in a new tab)ICANNCheck who your domain is registered to, in seconds.

Common questions

Should I use a freelancer or an agency?

Either can work. A freelancer usually means direct contact with whoever does the work and lower cost; an agency means more capacity and cover if someone is ill. What matters more is the ownership terms and whether they answer questions clearly.

How do I know if a quote is reasonable?

Get three, and make sure each lists what is included. Wildly differing numbers usually mean they are quoting for different things. A cheap quote that omits content, testing and redirects is not cheap.

What should I do before I start looking?

Write down what is actually wrong and what you want to achieve. "More enquiries" is a goal; "the site looks old" is a symptom. Arriving with a clear problem gets you far more useful quotes.