7 questions before hiring someone to build your site
Ask these seven: whose name is the domain in?, what happens if we stop working together tomorrow?, who writes the copy?, who shoots the photos?, what do I own when you finish?, how do I measure whether it worked?, and what does the quote NOT include? The answers to the first and the last predict almost everything else.
1. Whose name is the domain in?
It must be in your name, in your account, on your card. If it sits under whoever builds your site, the day you fall out or they disappear, you lose the address everyone knows you by.
Correct answer: "in your name, I just configure it." Anything else is a signal.
2. What happens if we stop working together tomorrow?
Ask who holds the access, where the site lives, and what you take with you. A site only the person who built it can touch is not yours: it is a rental.
Correct answer: they hand over access, explain where it is hosted, and the site keeps running without them.
3. Who writes the copy?
If nobody spells it out, the answer is "you", and you will find out when the design is ready and the project is on hold waiting for you to write.
There is no single right answer, but it must be stated in the quote.
4. Who shoots and organizes the photos?
Same as the copy, and more work than it looks. Curating a hundred job photos down to the fifty that work takes hours.
If the answer is "send me whatever you have", ask what happens if what you have is not enough.
5. What do I own when you finish?
A site built on a closed tool dies if that tool shuts down or raises its price. One built from files you can take anywhere does not.
You do not need to understand the technology: ask "if next month I want to change providers, what do I take?"
6. How do I measure whether it worked?
A site looking good is not a metric. Enquiries received, calls, completed forms: those are.
Correct answer: they set up measurement from day one and show you where to look. If nobody measures, nobody can claim it worked.
7. What does the quote NOT include?
The most useful question of all and the least asked. Every quote has an edge; the problem is discovering it mid-project.
Someone who answers this quickly and in detail has worked enough to know where projects break.
Frequent questions
Should I pay everything up front?
No. The norm is part at the start and the rest on delivery, or in stages. A hundred percent deposit leaves you with no leverage if the project stalls.
What if one quote is far cheaper than the rest?
Ask question 7. The difference is almost never margin: it is what that quote leaves out and the other includes. It can be perfectly valid, but you need to know what you are comparing.