Choose a web designer by looking at more than the visual style of their portfolio. You want someone who can understand the business, explain the scope clearly, show credible work, communicate well, make sensible technical decisions, be transparent about the full cost and leave you in control of important assets such as your domain.
There are plenty of competent people who can make a website look attractive.
That does not automatically make them the right person for your business.
A small-business website has several jobs at once.
It has to present the business well.
It has to make sense to customers.
It has to work properly on phones.
It should have sensible search foundations.
It should be maintainable.
And the commercial arrangement around it should not leave you wondering what you own or why you are still paying a mysterious monthly fee three years later.
The designer matters.
So does the way they work.
Start with whether they understand the business
I would pay close attention to the questions a designer asks before they start talking about colours and layouts.
Do they want to know:
what the business actually sells;
which services matter most;
who the best customers are;
where those customers come from;
what usually stops them enquiring;
what the website needs to achieve?
That tells you something.
A good website is not simply a visual shell around text.
The structure should follow the business.
If somebody has effectively decided what you need before understanding what you do, the process may be backwards.
Gavin's take
I would rather see three live sites where the business is clear, the mobile experience works and the owner can explain what the site is doing for them than twenty polished mock-ups. A portfolio should show judgement, not just taste.
Look at live work, not only screenshots
A portfolio image is useful.
A live website tells you much more.
Open it on your phone.
Click around.
Can you understand the business?
Does the navigation make sense?
Does it load reasonably quickly?
Can you find the contact route?
Does the copy sound like the actual client or generic agency filler?
Is the site distinctive?
You do not need to become a web-design critic.
Use it like a customer.
If the finished work feels awkward to use, the explanation for why it won an internal design award is not especially relevant.
Do not judge purely by how expensive the quote is
Price is a terrible shortcut for quality.
An expensive website can be excellent.
It can also be a lightly modified template wrapped in an expensive sales process.
A lower-priced site can be too cheap because the scope is unrealistic.
It can also be genuinely efficient because the supplier has lower overhead and a more focused process.
The useful question is:
What am I getting for the price?
That means understanding:
scope;
content;
design;
functionality;
revisions;
technical setup;
launch;
support;
recurring costs.
I cover the budget side separately in what a small business should spend on a website.
Ask what is custom
"Custom website" can mean different things.
Ask.
Is the layout being designed around your business?
Is the site built from a generic theme?
Is a pre-existing template being modified?
Are the sections effectively fixed?
Templates are not automatically bad.
There are projects where they are a sensible cost-saving choice.
The problem is paying premium custom-project money while receiving something generic without being told.
Transparency matters more than ideology.
Understand the technology, but do not let it dominate the conversation
You do not need to become a developer.
You should still get a sensible explanation.
Why WordPress?
Why static?
Why Shopify?
Why Squarespace?
Why a particular booking tool?
The answer should connect to something the business actually needs.
For example:
you need to publish frequently yourself;
you need e-commerce;
you need a booking platform;
you have a simple brochure site with very little changing content.
Technology should solve a requirement.
If the answer is essentially:
This is just what we build everything in,
that may be fine for the supplier.
It does not necessarily mean it is the best fit for you.
Ask about recurring costs before signing
This is one of the most important conversations.
What will you pay after launch?
Domain?
Hosting?
Maintenance?
Software licences?
Plugins?
Booking systems?
Support?
SEO?
Email?
Ask for those costs separately where possible.
A recurring fee can be completely legitimate.
Managed hosting can have real value.
WordPress maintenance can involve real work.
Ongoing SEO can involve substantial work.
What I dislike is a recurring charge that nobody can clearly explain.
The monthly bill should correspond to an actual service or cost.
Make sure the domain is under sensible control
Your domain is the business address.
It should not become leverage.
My preference is that the business controls the registrar account or, at minimum, has a clearly documented ownership and recovery position.
That way changing supplier later does not become an argument over the web address.
Read who should own your business domain before agreeing to a setup you do not understand.
Ask what you actually own
The answer can be more complicated than:
the website.
Domain.
Code.
Design.
Copy.
Photography.
Fonts.
Plugins.
Software services.
Those can have different ownership or licence arrangements.
You do not need absolute ownership of every third-party library used to make the site work.
You do need to understand the practical position.
Can the site keep operating?
Can you move supplier?
Will you receive agreed source files?
Which subscriptions belong to you?
Which licences depend on the current provider?
That is the distinction explored in who owns a website after it is built.
Communication during the sales process tells you something
If it takes three weeks to get a basic answer before you pay, consider what communication may be like afterwards.
This does not mean the designer must reply within seven minutes.
Good professionals are busy.
What matters is whether communication is:
clear;
consistent;
specific;
honest.
Do they answer the question?
Do they explain delays?
Do they distinguish what is included from what is not?
A website project involves decisions.
Communication is part of the product.
Look for judgement, not automatic agreement
I do not think a good designer should say yes to every idea.
If you ask for something expensive that solves no obvious problem, they should be able to question it.
If a simpler third-party booking system is better than a bespoke backend, say so.
If the homepage does not need twelve sections, say so.
If the business is not ready for a 40-page SEO programme, say so.
You are partly paying for judgement.
Someone who agrees to everything may simply be increasing scope.
Ask what happens when you disagree
Revisions are normal.
The useful thing is having a process.
How many revision rounds are expected?
What counts as a revision?
What happens if the project changes significantly?
How are extra requests priced?
You do not need a hostile legal document.
You need enough clarity that nobody is surprised.
Search optimisation should be described precisely
"SEO included" can mean almost anything.
Ask what it actually includes.
Possibilities might include:
page titles and descriptions;
semantic structure;
crawlability;
sitemap;
canonical URLs;
performance;
local foundations;
content strategy;
Search Console;
ongoing optimisation.
A designer does not need to provide a full SEO campaign with every website.
But vague SEO claims should become concrete before you value them.
Ask to see the process after launch
What happens when the website goes live?
Who connects the domain?
Who checks forms?
Who submits or updates the sitemap?
Who owns accounts?
What if something breaks?
Can you request future changes?
What does that cost?
A website project should not end with:
It's live. Good luck.
Even when there is no monthly support plan, the handover should make sense.
Freelancer or agency?
Neither is automatically better.
A freelancer can provide:
direct access;
lower overhead;
consistent ownership of the work;
a personal relationship.
An agency may provide:
broader specialist capacity;
more people;
larger-project resilience;
dedicated account/project management.
The right choice depends on the project.
I compare that properly in freelancer vs web design agency.
Do they actually like small-business work?
This is underrated.
A supplier can be technically excellent and still be a poor fit.
Some agencies are built around larger budgets and enterprise processes.
Some developers prefer complex software problems.
Some designers want high-fashion brand projects.
A straightforward local-business website may not be the kind of work they care about.
Find someone whose model makes your project important enough to receive proper attention.
Ask whether you can speak to the person doing the work
For me, this is one of the advantages of an independent studio.
The person you explain the business to is the person making the design and technical decisions.
That reduces translation.
It is not the only good model.
A strong agency team can be excellent.
But if you are sold by one person, managed by another and built by a third party you never meet, understand that process before you sign.
A polished sales process does not guarantee a polished site
This is where parts of the industry can become upside down.
You can experience:
beautiful proposal;
discovery workshop;
account manager;
strategy deck;
project portal;
weekly meeting;
and still receive an ordinary website.
Those things may be useful on a complex project.
They also cost money.
For a small business, ask whether the process is helping produce a better result or simply creating agency overhead.
The website is the outcome.
What would make me confident?
I would want to feel that the designer:
understands the commercial goal;
can show credible work;
can explain what I am paying for;
is not creating unnecessary recurring costs;
can justify the technical approach;
is clear about ownership;
communicates normally;
and is willing to tell me when I do not need something.
That is a stronger buying framework than:
Whose homepage looks coolest?
How Built by Gavin approaches this
I am obviously not neutral about my own service.
My model is deliberately direct.
You deal with me.
I design and build custom websites around the business rather than selling a generic package full of features because they are convenient to resell.
I keep ongoing infrastructure lean where the project allows it.
I want domain and account arrangements to remain understandable.
And I publish pricing because I think small businesses deserve some idea what they are getting into before they start a sales call.
That will not make me the right fit for every project.
A large application requiring several specialist teams may genuinely be better suited to a larger agency.
I would rather say that than pretend one supplier model fits everything.
What I'd do
Shortlist two or three people, compare the actual scope and three-year cost, then choose the one whose decisions you understand. The best working relationship is usually the one where you can ask a basic question about ownership, hosting or SEO and get a plain-English answer rather than a sales pitch.
The bottom line
Choose the web designer whose work, process and commercial model make sense for your business.
Look at live sites.
Ask about the full cost.
Understand the technology.
Clarify ownership.
Check recurring fees.
Pay attention to communication.
And choose someone who can explain why they are recommending something rather than simply adding it to the quote.
Comparing web designers for a small-business project?
You can look at my work, see my current website options and pricing or tell me what you are trying to build.
Even if the sensible answer is that your project needs something outside my scope, I would rather establish that early.
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