What should you ask a web designer before you hire one?

A new website is a big purchase, and the surprises tend to come after launch, when you want to change something or move on. These six questions sort that out before you sign.

By Jacob Henning · November 5, 2026 · 2 min read

The short answer

Ask who will own the domain and the site, what you can change yourself, who writes the words, how their sites score on Google’s Lighthouse test, how they’ll keep your rankings in a redesign, and what each month costs after launch. Clear answers to those six protect you long after the site goes live.

Who will own the domain and the site?

Your domain, the address people type to reach you, should be registered in your name, on an account you can log in to. If the designer registers it in theirs, you may need their help, or their permission, to move it later.

Ask the same about the site itself: the pages, the words and the photos. A good answer is that all of it is yours, and you get the logins at launch.

Can I make changes myself?

Find out what you can edit on your own, like hours, prices and photos, and what needs the designer. Then ask what a change costs and how soon it goes live. Customers notice old hours and prices, so a site you can’t update costs you calls.

Who writes the words?

Some designers build the pages and leave the writing to you. Ask who writes each page, and whether it answers the questions your customers type into Google and ask AI tools like ChatGPT.

How does your work score on Lighthouse?

Lighthouse is Google’s free test of a website, scored out of 100 for performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO. Ask for the report on a site they built recently, or run one yourself at pagespeed.web.dev. Google rates 90 and up as good.

Will I keep my Google rankings?

If you already have a website, ask how they’ll keep the rankings it has earned. A common way to lose them is moving pages to new addresses without redirects, which send Google and your customers from each old address to its new one.

What happens after launch?

Ask what each month includes, like hosting, updates, backups and fixes, and what costs extra. Ask who you contact when something breaks and how quickly they answer.

You can see what a site from me includes on the web design page.