How to hire a web designer (and keep control of your website)

This guide is written for owners of service businesses: contractors, realtors, law firms and the like. It walks through the six steps in order, with the questions to ask, the red flags to walk away from, and what the contract should say. I build websites for a living, so I have a stake in this. Every outside fact below links to its source.

1. Decide what the site has to do

Before you talk to anyone, write down the one thing a visitor should do: call, request an estimate, book a consultation or ask about a listing. Then list what the site needs to make that happen.

• Your services and towns. A page for each service you want more of, and the towns you serve. This decides the page count, which decides most of the price.
• What you already have. A logo, photos of real jobs, reviews, and the login for your web address if you own one.
• What your trade needs. Contractors need their license, photos and service area up front. Realtors usually want listings, which needs an IDX feed paid to the provider. Law firms need a page per practice area, a confidential way to get in touch and wording that fits their state bar's advertising rules.

A one-page note with these answers gets you better quotes, because every designer is pricing the same job.

2. Set a budget range

Prices vary mostly by who builds the site. Our guide to what a small business website costs covers this in detail. The short version:

Who builds it	Typical cost	Best for
You, on Squarespace or Wix	$200–$500 a year	A simple site, if you have the time.
A freelancer	$1,500–$5,000	A custom design on a tight budget. Quality varies widely.
A small studio	$2,500–$10,000	A site with a plan for getting found, and someone who answers the phone afterward.
An agency	$15,000 and up	Larger organizations that need a full team.

Some designers charge a monthly fee instead of one large payment. That can be a fair deal, but only if you own the site at the end of it. Step 6 covers how to check.

3. Find three designers worth talking to

• Businesses you admire. Find local sites you like and scroll to the bottom. Many designers put a small credit in the footer. Ask the owner how the project went.
• Google Maps. Search for web designers near you and read reviews from businesses like yours, not just the star rating.
• People in your trade. Ask your trade association, chamber of commerce or the suppliers you buy from.
• Marketplaces like Upwork. A huge range of skill and price. Budget for the fees: Upwork charges clients a marketplace fee of up to 7.99% on payments, plus a one-time contract fee of $0.99 to $14.99.

4. Check their past work in ten minutes

Most owners judge a portfolio by how it looks. A site can look great and still lose calls. Pick three sites the designer built for real clients and test them yourself:

1. Open each one on your phone. Can you find the phone number in five seconds, and does tapping it call? Is the contact form easy to fill in with your thumb?
2. Run each through Google's free speed test. Paste the address into PageSpeed Insights and look at the Core Web Vitals. Google counts these as good: the main content shows within 2.5 seconds, the page reacts to a tap within 200 milliseconds, and the layout barely shifts while it loads (a score of 0.1 or less).
3. Search for the client. Type the client's main service and town into Google. If a site the designer built a year ago is nowhere to be found, ask why.
4. Call one past client. Ask whether they would hire the designer again, and how problems were handled after launch.

5. Ask every designer the same questions

Asking all three the same questions makes the answers easy to compare. Good designers answer these without hesitating.

Ask	A good answer sounds like
Who will I actually work with?	A named person, not "the team."
Whose name will the web address be registered in?	Yours, in an account you control.
Will I own the design, the words and the photos?	Yes, in writing, once you have paid.
What happens if we stop working together?	You get the site, the logins and a copy of everything.
Who writes the words?	A clear yes or no, and the price if it is extra.
What is the timeline, and what would delay it?	Dates for the first draft and launch. Our guide to how long a website takes shows what is realistic.
How many rounds of changes are included?	A number.
What does it cost after launch, and what does that cover?	A list. Hosting and maintenance are different things. See what maintenance costs.
How will I know the site is working?	Calls and form messages tracked, and Google's free Search Console connected.
Is it built so people with disabilities can use it?	A specific answer about how they build and test for it.
When do I pay?	In stages tied to work you can see, not everything upfront.
Can you guarantee the top spot on Google?	No. Google says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."

6. Get ownership in writing before you pay

This is where most bad stories start. On Reddit's small business forum, one owner told how the person hosting the business's website and email shut off the email the same afternoon the owner said they were switching providers, while still holding the web address the owner needed to move. A law firm owner described five years with a large legal marketing company that had set up the firm's Google, social media and directory accounts, none of which the owner could get into. Owning the web address was the only reason they could reach their own Search Console. A few lines in the contract prevent both.

The copyright

Under U.S. law, the person who creates a work usually owns the copyright, even when you paid for it. A commissioned work only belongs to you automatically in nine narrow categories, and only with a signed agreement, and a website is not clearly one of them. A transfer of copyright is valid only in writing and signed. So the safe route is a clause that assigns the copyright in the design, the words and any photos the designer created to you once you have paid. This is general information, not legal advice. For anything unusual, ask a lawyer.

The web address

Whoever is listed as the registrant controls the web address, and ICANN, the body that oversees domain names, makes the registrant the only party who can approve a transfer. Register it in your own account, with your own card on automatic renewal. If a designer already registered it under their name, ask them to change it to you now, while everyone is on good terms. Owners on Reddit describe losing their web address when a renewal card failed and someone else grabbed it.

The logins

You should own the accounts, and the designer should have access to them, not the other way around. That covers hosting, your Google Business Profile (you as owner, the designer as a manager), Google Analytics and Search Console.

What "done" means

Write down what has to work before the final payment: every page on the list, forms that arrive in your inbox, a phone number that dials when tapped, the site loading quickly on a phone.

After launch

Get the monthly price in writing, with what it covers, and what happens to the site if you stop paying. Some monthly plans are rentals, where the site goes away when the payments stop.

Red flags

• The web address will be registered in their name or their account.
• No written contract, or a contract that says nothing about who owns the site.
• Full payment before you see any work.
• A guarantee of first place on Google. Google's own advice: if anyone guarantees that, "find someone else."
• No live client sites they are willing to show you.
• A system only they can work on, with no way to take the site elsewhere.
• A monthly fee nobody can explain.
• No timeline in writing.

A note on accessibility

Plaintiffs filed 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits in federal court in 2025, up from 2,452 the year before, according to the law firm Seyfarth Shaw. The Justice Department's guidance says the ADA applies to the websites of businesses open to the public, and that businesses have flexibility in how they comply. You do not need to become an expert. Ask how the designer builds for people who use screen readers or a keyboard, and expect a concrete answer. This is general information, not legal advice.

If your designer disappears

If the web address and accounts are in your name, you are inconvenienced, not stuck. As the registrant, you can get the transfer code from your registrar, which has to provide it within five days, and move the site to someone new. If they are in the designer's name, you are asking a stranger for a favor. That is the whole case for step 6.

How Primilink answers these questions

You work with me, Elijah, from the first call to launch and after. Your web address is registered in your name from day one, and the site, the words, the photos and the logins are yours, so if you ever leave, everything goes with you. Your site goes live within five weeks with two rounds of changes, and nothing is due until you have seen the first draft. Plans start at $249 a month. And no, I cannot guarantee you first place on Google. Nobody can.

Where these facts come from

Checked October 29, 2026.

• Upwork fees: Upwork Help on the client marketplace fee (up to 7.99%, lower for some U.S. bank payments) and the contract initiation fee.
• Site speed: Google's PageSpeed Insights and web.dev's explanation of Core Web Vitals.
• Ranking guarantees: Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO?
• Copyright: the U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 30 on works made for hire, and 17 U.S.C. §101, §201 and §204.
• Web addresses: ICANN's registrant benefits and responsibilities and its transfer policy. ICANN approved changes to the transfer rules in June 2026 that are not yet in effect.
• Accessibility: Seyfarth Shaw's count of 2025 lawsuits and the Justice Department's web accessibility guidance.
• Owners' experiences: a thread on r/smallbusiness about a web host who shut off a business's email, on r/LawFirm about leaving a legal marketing company, and on r/web_design about a web address lost at renewal.
• Price ranges: see the sources in our website cost guide.