Before you call anyone, write down three things
Most hiring mistakes happen before the first call, because the owner has not decided what the site is for. Spend twenty minutes on this and every conversation after it gets shorter.
- What the site has to do. Make the phone ring, take bookings, sell products, answer the same ten questions so your staff do not have to. Pick one main job.
- What you can spend, up front and monthly. Two numbers, not one. A low build with a monthly and a higher build with no monthly are different decisions, and you should know which you prefer.
- Who on your side will supply content and approve drafts. If the answer is "me, in the evenings", say so. A good designer will plan around it.
Then look at work. Every studio worth hiring has a portfolio of real, live sites you can open on your phone. Open three. Check how fast they load, whether the phone number is easy to tap, and whether you can tell within five seconds what each business does and where.
Twelve questions to ask before you sign
These work whether you are talking to a large agency in Halifax, a freelancer in Fredericton or a small studio anywhere in between. A good answer to each is short and specific. A vague answer is information too.
- 1. Who will actually build my site? The person on the sales call is not always the person doing the work. Ask for a name, and whether it is staff or a subcontractor.
- 2. Can I see three live sites you built for businesses like mine? Live, not mockups. Then call one of those owners and ask how the first year went.
- 3. What exactly is included in the price? Number of pages, rounds of revisions, content writing, photos, forms, setup of analytics and Google Business Profile. Get it as a list.
- 4. Who writes the words? If it is you, ask what guidance you get. If it is them, ask whether it costs extra.
- 5. Whose name is the domain registered in? The right answer is yours, in an account you can log into.
- 6. Do I get the files if I leave? Ask what format, how quickly, and whether there is a fee. Some platforms make a full export impossible, which is worth knowing before you build on them.
- 7. What does hosting cost, and who holds the account? Get the monthly or yearly figure and find out whether it is bundled into something else.
- 8. What does a change cost after launch? Ask for the hourly rate, the minimum billing increment, and how long a typical small change takes to go live.
- 9. How fast do you reply, and how? Same day, next business day, a ticket system. All can work. What you want is an answer you can hold them to.
- 10. How long is the contract, and how do I end it? Month to month, a year, longer. Ask what it costs to leave early and what you walk away with.
- 11. How will the site be found in local search? You want to hear about page titles, service and area pages, speed on phones and your Google Business Profile. You do not want to hear a promise of first place.
- 12. Who handles security and backups? Especially on WordPress, where outdated plugins are a common way in. Ask how often updates happen and where backups are kept.
"If I want the hours on every page changed eight months from now, what happens and what does it cost?" The answer tells you more about the next three years than the build price does.
Red flags worth walking away from
Any one of these on its own may have an innocent explanation. Two or three together usually do not.
- A promise of first place on Google. Nobody outside Google controls rankings. Good work improves your odds, and an honest designer says exactly that.
- The domain registered in their name. It is the single hardest thing to get back when a relationship ends badly.
- A long contract with no exit. Multi-year terms with heavy cancellation fees protect the seller, not you.
- Full payment before any design is shown. A deposit is normal. Paying everything before you have seen a draft leaves you with no leverage.
- A portfolio of mockups and no live sites. Anyone can make a pretty picture. Live sites show what survives contact with a real business.
- A quote without a written scope. If the quote is a single number with no list beneath it, every disagreement later turns into an argument about memory.
- Pressure to decide today. A discount that expires at five o'clock is a sales tactic. A good designer will still be there next week.
- Silence during the sales stage. If it takes four days to get a reply while they are trying to win your business, it will not be faster once they have it.
What a fair quote should include
A fair quote is one you could hand to a friend and they would understand what you are buying. At a minimum it should state:
- The build price, and what triggers any extra charges.
- The pages, by name, and the features on them, such as forms, booking or a gallery.
- Who supplies content and photos, and when they are due.
- How many rounds of design changes are included.
- A timeline, with the milestones where you approve something.
- The payment schedule.
- Hosting cost, support cost and the rate for changes after launch.
- Contract length and how to cancel.
- A sentence saying the domain, content and files belong to you.
Price alone tells you little, because two quotes can describe completely different jobs. The pricing page shows how I lay mine out, if a reference point is useful: a fixed build fee, a monthly that is month to month, and a typical build of one to two weeks.
Agency, freelancer or small studio
None of these is better in general. Each fits a different kind of project.
An agency
Several specialists under one roof: strategy, design, development, copywriting, project management. Choose an agency when the project is large, has many stakeholders, needs custom software, or has to fit an existing brand system. Expect a higher price, a longer timeline, and a structured process with formal sign-offs. For a hospital foundation or a regional retailer, that structure is worth paying for.
A freelancer
One person, usually paid once for the build. Often the best value for a small, well-defined site, and often very skilled. The risk is continuity. Ask what happens after launch, and whether there is anyone who can step in if they are unavailable.
A small studio
One person or a few, set up to build and then keep looking after the site. That is what Alp Web Studio is, so weigh this paragraph with that in mind. You talk to the person doing the work, decisions are fast, and someone stays responsible after launch. The trade-off is capacity: a small studio is the wrong fit for a project that needs a dozen people at once.
For most local service businesses, the real question is whether the person you hire will still answer your email in a year. Ask, and ask to speak to a client who has been with them that long. You can see finished projects on the portfolio page, and the Halifax and Fredericton pages cover how builds work in each city.
Who should own the domain, hosting and files
This is the part most owners never think about until a relationship ends. Settle it in writing before you start.
- Domain. Registered to you or your company, at a registrar where you have your own login. Your designer can be added as a user to manage it.
- Hosting. Either in your name, or in theirs with a clear written promise to hand over the files and help you move if you leave.
- Site files and content. Yours. That includes the text, the images you paid for, and the code built for you. Licensed fonts, stock photos and plugins have their own terms, so ask which parts are licensed.
- Google Business Profile, analytics and Search Console. You should be the owner on each, with the designer added as a manager. These accounts carry years of history that you cannot recreate.
- Email. If your business email runs on the same domain, make sure you can reach the settings without the designer.
Clients own their files and domain at Alp Web Studio, and the monthly plan is month to month. If you stop paying for it, the site is still yours to move. Whoever you hire, ask for the same thing in writing.