How to hire a web designer
Hiring a designer is mostly a procurement problem, not a taste problem. Get the process right and the taste part looks after itself.
Most bad web projects do not fail because the designer lacked skill. They fail because nobody wrote down what was being bought. These six steps fix that.
1. Write down what the site is for
One sentence. "Get more enquiries from local homeowners" is a brief. "Look modern" is not. Everything downstream depends on this.
2. Decide what you are supplying
Copy, photos, logo. If you do not have them, that is fine, but it changes the price and the timeline. Decide before you ask for quotes, not after.
3. Shortlist three, not ten
Look at live sites they have built, not mockups. Visit those sites on a phone. Check they load quickly.
4. Send all three the same brief
Different briefs produce incomparable quotes. Same brief, same questions, same deadline.
5. Compare exclusions, not prices
The cheapest quote usually excludes the most. Ask each what is not included.
6. Get it in writing before paying
Fixed price, launch date, revision rounds, and who owns the finished work.
Where to actually look
Referrals from businesses like yours are the highest-quality source, because someone has already taken the risk. After that:
- Sites you admire. Scroll to the footer, or ask the business owner who built it. Most are happy to say.
- Directories and marketplaces. Fast and cheap, but you are buying on price signals rather than fit. Read where to hire before committing.
- Local business networks. Slower, but you get to meet people and see their work in context.
Wherever you find them, the evaluation is the same: live work, clear answers, and a willingness to put terms in writing.
Common questions
01How long should hiring take?
Allow two to three weeks from writing the brief to signing. Rushing it is where most mistakes happen — usually agreeing scope verbally to save time, then discovering in week four that both sides remembered it differently.
02Should I meet them in person?
Not necessary. Plenty of good work is done entirely by email. What matters more is whether they answer questions clearly and put things in writing, which you can assess without meeting.
03What if I do not like the design?
This is what revision rounds are for, and why agreeing a concept before the full build matters. If you approve a homepage design and only then does the rest get built, you find out early rather than at the end.
Get a fixed quote in writing
Answer five questions and we come back with one number, inside a day. You are not committing to anything by asking.
Or email contact@hire-web-designer.com