Ownership: what will I own when we are done?
Start here, because these answers are the hardest to fix later. A good answer is yes to all three, written into the contract. Under ICANN's transfer policy the listed registrant controls a domain transfer, and the U.S. Copyright Office says a copyright transfer generally has to be in writing and signed by the owner. A friendly promise on a sales call covers neither.
- Will the domain be registered to my business, in an account I control?
- Will you assign the copyright in the design and code to my business once I have paid?
- Will I be the owner or administrator on hosting, Google Analytics, Search Console and my Business Profile?
Platform and speed: how will this site do on a phone?
Test their past work yourself; it takes about a minute per site. For context, the HTTP Archive's 2025 Web Almanac reported median mobile Lighthouse scores of 41 for WordPress sites and 64 for Wix sites, so a designer whose sites score well on phones is doing something deliberate. Be wary of anyone who promises a perfect 100, which Lighthouse's own documentation says is not expected.
- What do you build on, and why is that right for my business?
- Can I see three live sites you built, so I can test them in PageSpeed Insights on mobile?
- What speed target will you commit to, and will it be measured with lab data or real-visitor data?
Scope and content: what exactly am I buying?
Pin content down in writing. A quote that says custom website without a page list leaves the biggest part of the job undefined, and the text and photos are often the slowest part of the project.
- Which pages are included, and can I see the list?
- Who writes the text, and who supplies the photos?
- How many rounds of revisions are included?
- Will you redirect my old site's pages so I keep the search traffic they earn?
Leads and measurement: how will I know it works?
A designer focused on your business will ask how customers contact you and what a good lead looks like. Google gives similar advice about hiring an SEO: a good provider should want to know what makes your business unique and how your customers find you.
- Will phone taps and form submissions be tracked as key events in Google Analytics?
- Will you test every form and confirm the leads arrive before launch?
- If I run Google Ads, will the account be able to count those leads?
After launch: what happens next?
The launch is the start of the site's working life, so ask how that life is handled:
- Who makes changes after launch, and what do they cost?
- Who applies software updates, and how often?
- If I leave, what do I receive, in what format, and how quickly?
Red flags
Any one of these is reason to slow down. For our part, Modern Apex hand codes each site, the client owns the site and the domain, and Nick, who founded the agency, takes every strategy call himself and sends an itemized quote within 24 hours.
- Promises of a top Google ranking. Google says no one can promise a first-place ranking, and warns about anyone claiming a special relationship with Google.
- Cold emails claiming your site is missing from search engines. Google tells owners to treat these with the same skepticism as other spam.
- Secrecy about what they will do or which tools they use.
- A contract where the designer owns the domain or the site by default.
- A builder or proprietary system you cannot leave without a rebuild, presented as custom work.
Related questions
Should I hire a freelancer or an agency to build my website?
Either can do great work. Judge both on the same questions: ownership terms, how their past sites perform on phones, how they handle content and tracking, and who supports the site after launch. Ask who will actually do the work day to day.
How do I check a web designer's past work?
Ask for live sites they built, then run each one through PageSpeed Insights on mobile, tap the phone links and look at how the contact forms are set up. Call one or two of their clients. Portfolio screenshots tell you little about speed or lead handling.
Is it a red flag if a designer will not give me admin access?
Yes. You should hold the top level of access to your own domain, hosting, analytics, Search Console and Business Profile, then grant the designer what they need. A designer who insists on holding the keys makes leaving expensive.
What should a web design contract include?
The page list and who supplies content, the platform, ownership of the domain and a copyright assignment, access to every account, how leads will be tracked, revision rounds, post-launch support and costs, and what you receive if the relationship ends.