Red Flags When Hiring a Web Designer (From Someone Who Fixes the Aftermath)

I've rebuilt more websites than I can count where the conversation starts the same way: "My last designer disappeared." Or took the money and delivered something unusable. Or built the whole thing on a platform the business owner can't access.

Hiring a web designer shouldn't feel like a gamble. But for a lot of small business owners, it does, because the industry has a low barrier to entry and almost zero accountability. Anyone with a Canva account and a Squarespace login can call themselves a web designer.

Here's how to spot the ones who will waste your time and money before you've signed anything.

They Won't Show You a Portfolio (Or It's All Templates)

This is the most basic check, and it's the one people skip. If a designer can't show you 5-10 sites they've actually built, that's your answer. Move on.

But even when they do have a portfolio, look closer. Open the sites. Are they all clearly the same template with different colors? Do they all look like they came from the same WordPress theme or Squarespace layout? That tells you the designer is a reskinning service, not a designer.

There's nothing inherently wrong with templates if the designer is upfront about it. The red flag is when someone charges custom prices for template work. A custom-designed, hand-coded website and a $29 Squarespace template with swapped-out photos are two completely different products at two completely different price points.

What to do: Right-click on their portfolio sites. View the page source. If you see references to themes like Divi, Avada, or Elementor, you're looking at a template site. That's fine if the price reflects it. It's a problem if they're charging $5,000+ and calling it custom.

They Don't Ask About Your Business

A designer whose first question is "what colors do you want?" is designing a brochure, not a business tool.

Before any design work starts, a good designer should be asking: Who are your customers? What do you want them to do on the site? What's your main source of leads right now? What are your competitors doing? Where does your business operate?

If the conversation jumps straight to fonts and layouts, the finished product will look fine and accomplish nothing. I've seen plenty of beautiful websites that don't rank on Google, don't have clear calls to action, and don't convert a single visitor into a phone call.

Your website exists to bring in business. If your designer doesn't understand your business, they can't build a site that supports it.

They Can't Explain Who Owns What

This is the one that burns people the worst. You pay $3,000 for a website, then two years later you want to switch designers and find out: your old designer owns the domain. Or the hosting is tied to their account. Or the site was built on a proprietary platform you can't export from.

Before you hire anyone, get clear answers to these questions:

• Who registers the domain, and whose name is on the registration?
• Where is the site hosted, and can I move it?
• Will I get the source code files when the project is done?
• If we part ways, what happens to my website?

The right answers: You own the domain (registered under your name and email). Hosting should be transferable. You should get all source files. And if you leave, your site comes with you.

If a designer gets cagey about any of this, they're building a dependency, not a website. You'll be paying them forever because you can't leave.

They Won't Put Anything in Writing

"We'll figure it out as we go" sounds flexible. In practice, it means you'll be three months in with nothing to show for it and no recourse.

A professional web designer should provide:

• A written contract or agreement
• A defined scope of work (what pages, what features, what's included)
• A timeline with milestones
• A clear payment schedule (usually a deposit upfront, then milestone payments)

Without these, you have no way to hold anyone accountable. I've heard from business owners who paid 100% upfront with no contract and then watched their designer go silent for months. There's no legal ground to stand on. The money is gone.

A reasonable deposit is 25-50% upfront. If someone wants the full amount before starting, that's a red flag. If they won't put the scope in writing, that's a bigger one.

Their Own Website Is Bad

This sounds obvious, but people overlook it constantly. If a web designer's own site is slow, looks outdated, has broken links, or doesn't work well on mobile, what are they going to build for you?

Test their site:

• Load it on your phone. Does it work?
• Run it through Google PageSpeed Insights. Is it scoring above 80?
• Click around. Are there broken pages or dead links?
• Read the copy. Is it clear, or is it full of jargon and buzzwords?

A designer's own website is their best pitch. If they can't be bothered to make it good, they won't be bothered to make yours good either.

Hiring a Web Designer Who Promises Page-One Rankings

"We'll get you to the first page of Google" is the oldest trick in the book. Anyone who guarantees search rankings is either lying or doesn't understand how search engines work.

Google's algorithm considers hundreds of factors. No one controls all of them. A good designer should build your site with solid technical SEO: clean code, fast load times, proper meta tags, mobile-friendly design, and structured data. That gives you the best foundation for ranking well.

But guaranteeing a specific position? That's not how it works. SEO is an ongoing effort that depends on your content, your competition, your domain age, your backlinks, and dozens of other variables.

What a good designer should promise: a technically sound website that follows SEO best practices. What they should not promise: "You'll rank #1 for [keyword]."

If you're interested in what real SEO work looks like for a small business, I've written a plain-English SEO guide that breaks down what actually moves the needle.

They Disappear After Launch

This is the red flag you can't spot until it's too late, so you have to ask about it upfront.

What happens after the site goes live? A lot of designers treat launch day as the finish line. Site's up, invoice paid, goodbye. But websites need ongoing maintenance: security updates, content changes, performance monitoring, backup management.

Ask your designer:

• Do you offer a maintenance plan?
• What does post-launch support look like?
• How quickly do you respond to requests after launch?
• What's your hourly rate for changes after the project is done?

If the answer is "we don't do maintenance," that's not necessarily a red flag on its own. Some designers only do design. But you need a plan for who handles the ongoing work. Launching a website and walking away from it is like buying a car and never changing the oil. It works great until it doesn't. We've covered what goes into keeping a site running in our website maintenance checklist.

Hiring a Web Designer Based on Price Alone

A 5-page small business website for $200 should make you nervous. So should a $15,000 quote with no explanation of what you're getting.

The low end usually means one of two things: the designer is brand new and undercharging to get clients, or they're using a cookie-cutter process that won't give you anything useful. Either way, you're the one taking the risk.

The high end isn't automatically bad, but it should come with a detailed scope. What exactly costs $15,000? How many pages? Custom functionality? E-commerce? Ongoing support? If the proposal is just a number with no breakdown, ask for one.

For reference, a custom small business website typically runs $2,000-$8,000 depending on complexity. Ongoing maintenance costs run $50-$300/month depending on what's included.

How Red Rock Handles This Differently

I'll be straightforward: I'm about to pitch you. But I think transparency is more convincing than a sales page, so here's exactly how we work.

Every site I build is custom-coded from scratch. You get the source code, you own your domain, and if you ever want to leave, everything comes with you. I skip WordPress and page builders entirely because custom-coded sites are faster, more secure, and don't need the constant plugin updates that eat up maintenance hours.

Pricing is $150/month, and that covers hosting, SSL, maintenance, security monitoring, and content updates. Direct access to me when you need changes. You text me directly when you need something, and I respond the same day.

When I'm not the right fit: If you need a large e-commerce store, a web application, or a site with 50+ pages, a solo developer isn't the right call. You'd want an agency with a team. If you need something live in under two weeks, my timeline is usually 4-6 weeks for a new site. And if you want WordPress specifically, I'm not your guy.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I verify that a web designer is legitimate?

Check their portfolio for real, live websites you can visit. Look them up on Google. Read reviews if they have them. Ask for references from past clients. Check if they have a business license or LLC. Run their own website through PageSpeed Insights. And most importantly: ask them detailed questions about their process. A professional will have clear, confident answers. Someone winging it will get vague fast.

Should I hire a freelancer or an agency for my website?

Both can deliver great work. Freelancers tend to cost less and offer more direct communication. You're working with the person who actually builds your site, not an account manager who relays messages. Agencies bring a team (designer, developer, copywriter, project manager) which makes sense for larger projects. For a small business website with 5-10 pages, a freelancer or small studio is usually the better value.

What should a web design contract include?

At minimum: the scope of work (what pages and features are being built), the total cost and payment schedule, the timeline with milestones, who owns the finished product and source code, what happens if either party wants to cancel, and what post-launch support is included. If a contract is missing any of these, ask for them to be added before signing.

How much should I pay upfront for a website?

A standard deposit is 25-50% of the total project cost. This protects the designer (they're committing time to your project) and protects you (you're not paying everything before seeing results). Avoid paying 100% upfront unless you're working with someone you deeply trust and have a solid contract. Milestone-based payments, where you pay at defined checkpoints, are the safest structure for both sides.

What if my current web designer won't hand over my website files?

First, check your contract. If it says you own the deliverables, you have legal standing. If there's no contract, it gets complicated. Try a direct, professional request first. If that fails, you may need to consult a lawyer, though for most small business sites the cost of legal action outweighs just rebuilding. The lesson: get ownership terms in writing before the project starts, not after things go sideways.

The Bottom Line

Hiring a web designer is one of those decisions where a little due diligence saves you thousands of dollars and months of frustration. Ask the hard questions upfront. Get everything in writing. Verify the portfolio. And trust your gut when something feels off.

If you're looking for a designer who'll give you straight answers to all of these questions, let's talk.