You’re about to spend on something that will represent your business 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Most potential clients, when they hear about you, will, at some point, look you up online.
And what they find there will either build trust or quietly cost you the job. Hiring the right web designer matters (A lot).
The problem is walking into that first conversation with the wrong questions. Asking “How much does it cost?” may feel like the practical starting point. But price is actually one of the last things you should be asking about.
A cheap website that does not attract, engage, and convert visitors is not a bargain. It’s a waste of money.
What you need isn’t a designer who makes a website look pretty. You need someone who understands your business goals, your audience, and how to build a site that actually moves the needle for you.
This article covers the 10 questions you should be asking a web designer before working with them.
The Quick-Scan Checklist
Here are all of these questions upfront so you can take them into your conversation:
- How will this design actually help me reach my specific business goals?
- What is your Discovery or Strategy phase like?
- How do you handle Information Architecture and User Intent?
- Is SEO built into the foundation, or is it an add-on later?
- Will my site be built on a custom framework or a pre-made template?
- How do you ensure the site is fast and mobile-responsive?
- Do I own 100% of the site, or am I renting it from you?
- What is your process for ongoing security, hosting, and support?
- What website qualities does Google actually care about?
- Can I manage this strategy without spending five hours a week in meetings?
Now let’s go deeper on each one.
Section I: The Strategic Foundation
Question 1: “How Will This Design Actually Help Me Reach My Specific Business Goals?”
This is one of the most important questions on the list, and the one many designers aren’t prepared for.
“Looking professional” isn’t a business goal. Getting more bookings is. Converting more enquiries is. Ranking your website above your competitor on Google is.
If a designer cannot make design decisions to directly influence your business goal, they’re simply decorating, not building.
Your website’s design and look are important, but it should also help visitors navigate smoothly. It should guide visitors through a clear journey, answering their most pressing questions, and making it easy to take the next step.
Every layout decision, every call to action, and every element on a page should move the visitor to the next step.
Ask this question and observe their answer. Do they talk about fonts and colors? Or do they talk about how their design fits into the whole conversion journey a visitor takes on your site? The answer tells you everything.
If you want to understand more about how strategic web design translates into real business results, the web design page walks through the full approach.
Question 2: “What is Your Discovery or Strategy Phase Like?”
If a designer starts building your website before they fully understand your audience, your offers, and how your customers make decisions, they’re guessing. And guessing with your money.
A proper strategy phase is where the real work happens. It’s where your target audience gets defined, your key pages get mapped out, and your messaging gets clear before any design decision is made.
If you skip this step, you’ll likely get a website that looks good but doesn’t perform.
Here’s the thing though: Strategy building does not have to mean a full day of back-and-forth Zoom calls.
It’s not practical for busy professionals like builders, clinicians, or consultants to sit through three-hour discovery meetings. It takes you away from the work that actually pays.
So, what’s the solution? The Asynchronous Strategy Portal. Instead of trying to capture everything in one high-pressure meeting, the portal gives you a private, collaborative workspace where strategy happens in stages.
You contribute when it suits you (On your own time), and the result is a far deeper, more accurate brief than you’d get from a long Zoom call.
This process gives your strategy process the time and attention it deserves, and it won’t consume your calendar.
Question 3: “How Do You Handle Information Architecture and User Intent?”
Information architecture is the process of deciding what pages your site needs, what order they should be in, and how visitors move through them.
It may sound technical, but the principle is simple: Your site structure should be based on what your users look for when they land on it, not on what looks nice.
For instance, let’s say someone searches for “Emergency Physio Melbourne”; they have a different intent than someone searching for “Long-term rehab physio.”
Those two need to land on separate pages, see different messaging, and move towards different CTAs. You need to treat them differently; otherwise, you’ll convert neither of them.
A good designer maps this out before designing anything. They let the logic dictate the layout. They address the questions that shape the architecture of your site first:
- What does this person already know?
- What do they need to understand?
- What do they need to feel before they will trust you enough to act?
If a designer does not ask about your audience’s intent early in the conversation, that is a red flag worth noting.
Section II: Performance & SEO
Question 4: “Is SEO Built Into the Foundation, or Is It an Add-On Later?”
Think of SEO like the electrical wiring in your house. It’s far easier, and far cheaper, to run the wiring before the walls go up than to cut everything open afterward and rewire. The same is true for your website.
SEO that gets bolted on after a site is already live is a risk you shouldn’t take. Here are some potential problems with that:
- The URL structure might not be clean
- The heading hierarchy might be a mess
- Page speed might already be suffering
Now, these aren’t just some small tweaks; fixing them later can mean rebuilding parts of your site from scratch.
A designer who treats SEO as a foundation, not an afterthought, builds with it in mind from day one.
Clean site architecture, proper heading structure, fast load times, optimised images, and logical internal linking are all baked into the build.
In a competitive market like Melbourne, that foundation is not optional. It is the difference between a site that ranks on page one and a site that’s buried on page 10.
For a deeper look at what proper SEO foundations involve, the SEO page page covers it in detail.
Question 5: “Will My Site Be Built on a Custom Framework or a Pre-Made Template?”
A $50 theme from a marketplace might look great, but what you can’t see in the demo is the thousands of lines of code behind it.
That bloated code can slow your site down, create security vulnerabilities, and make customisation a nightmare later.
Pre-made templates are built to look good, which means they might not be optimised for you. They come loaded with features you might never use.
Every extra plugin, every unused script, every redundant stylesheet adds weight to your site. That weight directly impacts page speed.
Page speed is a ranking factor. A sluggish site doesn’t just frustrate visitors; it hurts your site’s ability to rank, or stay ranked.
A clean, custom build carries only what your website needs, which helps it:
- Rank higher
- Load faster
And, it is easier to maintain in the long run.
Question 6: “How Do You Ensure the Site is Fast and Mobile-Responsive?”
Google evaluates websites using a set of performance metrics called Core Web Vitals.
These measure things like how fast your main content loads, how stable your layout is as the page loads, and how quickly your site responds to user interaction.
According to Google’s own documentation, these signals directly influence how your site ranks in search results.
Mobile-first isn’t optional these days; it’s the baseline. More than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. Importantly, Google indexes the mobile version of your site first.
And if a designer treats mobile-first as an afterthought (Resizing a desktop design to fit the smaller screen), they’re not doing their job right.
Ask to see examples of their work on mobile. Ask for PageSpeed Insights scores on past projects. The numbers do not lie.
Section III: The Partnership & Ethics
Question 7: “Do I Own 100% of the Site, or Am I Renting It From You?”
This question matters more than you may realise, and it often does not come up until it’s too late.
A designer or agency may build your site and retain ownership of the account. If you ever want to leave, move hosts, or bring in another developer, you’re often locked out.
You can’t take your site with you. You’re essentially stuck with the designer and renting your online presence.
The solution? Own your website! The domain, the hosting account, the content; all of it.
A professional designer hands over the keys at the end of the project and makes sure you have full access to everything.
If a designer can’t agree to that straight away, you might want to walk away from them.
Question 8: “What Is Your Process for Ongoing Security, Hosting, and Support?”
A website might be a one-time purchase, but it’s your living digital asset that needs maintenance. It needs to stay up to date and safe.
WordPress is a popular content management system; it powers a large portion of the web. This makes it a popular target.
Outdated plugins, weak passwords, and cheap shared hosting are among the most common entry points for attacks.
For professionals like healthcare advisors, a hacked website is not just an inconvenience; it can damage your reputation.
The solution? Ask what hosting environment they recommend and why. Ask how they handle plugin updates and website backups.
Ask what happens if something breaks. If the designer has a clear answer to these questions, they’re more likely to take your site seriously as a long-term asset.
Question 9: “What Website Qualities Does Google Actually Care About?”
Here is a simple litmus test. Ask your potential designer what LCP and CLS mean.
LCP stands for Largest Contentful Paint (How fast your main content loads). CLS stands for Cumulative Layout Shift (How much your page jumps around while it loads).
Both are Core Web Vitals metrics that Google uses to assess your site’s quality.
Designers who understand these terms and can address them in their builds are professionals.
Those who don’t know these terms typically aren’t worth your investment, regardless of how good their portfolio looks. The technical quality of your website isn’t optional in this day and age.
Read More: How to Get Found on Google
Question 10: “Can I Manage This Strategy Without Spending Five Hours a Week in Meetings?”
Your time is priceless. A good web design process should give you time back; not fill your calendar with endless check-ins, revision calls, and status updates.
The asynchronous model solves this. Rather than scheduling multiple meetings throughout the project, a well-structured and collaborative workspace lets you review work, give feedback, and make decisions on your own time.
This way, you stay fully informed and in control. You don’t get pulled into unnecessary meetings when the job can be done with a simple shared document.
If a designer’s process requires constant hand-holding and weekly calls just to keep things moving, that’s a workflow problem. And before you know it, it can turn into a constant headache.
The “Price Trap” — And What to Ask Instead
Now, back to the all-important question: “How much does it cost?” Price is not irrelevant. But it is the wrong starting point. Here is why.
A website that costs $3k and generates no new clients for you is expensive. A website that costs $8k and brings in three high-ticket clients a month pays for itself in weeks, and keeps paying in the long run.
So, the real question isn’t “How much does this cost?” It’s “What’s this going to return?”
Think about it this way: If your average client pays you $500, and a well-built, well-optimised website brings in just three extra clients per month, that’s $1500 in additional revenue per month.
Over a year, that’s $18k with a site that may have cost a small portion of that.
A designer who charges less but does not understand SEO, conversion, or user intent may build you something that looks good. But it’s less likely to do anything for your business.
You may pay again in 18 months when you realise it’s not working. Then you might pay again to fix or rebuild it from scratch.
Invest in the right person once. Ask the right questions upfront. Get a site that actually works.
To take the first step, fill out the intake form so I can get to know your situation.
Conclusion: Skip the Meetings. Get the Strategy.
You now have 10 questions to ask a designer before working with them. These will help you tell a strategic web designer from a decorator before you spend a single dollar.
The right web designer will welcome every single one of these questions. And they’ll have clear, confident answers, because they know what they’re doing already.
What should your website actually contain?
Strategic websites aren’t built on guesswork. They are built on a proven structure.
If you want a visual breakdown of the elements that drive results and achieve business outcomes, grab a copy of my guide: The Anatomy of a High-Performing Service Website. It’s a one-page blueprint for business owners who value strategy over fluff.