8 questions to ask before you hire someone to build your website
I’ve met a lot of shop and restaurant owners who only realized the catch after the website was built: when the contract ended they lost the domain, changing one price meant messaging the old team and waiting, and renewal next year came with a surprise bill. Most of that is avoidable — you just have to ask the right questions in that first conversation. Here are 8 I’d ask before you sign, with what a good answer sounds like.
What’s in the quote, and who really owns the website?
These are the two most important questions, so I’ve grouped them. A number like “a website for 5 million” tells you almost nothing until you know what it covers. Ask plainly: the domain (your web address), hosting (where the site lives so it stays online), the design, the writing, and later maintenance — what’s included, what’s billed separately.
Say a noodle shop agrees on 4 million, then at handover learns the domain and hosting cost another 1.5 million next year, and swapping a food photo is 200k a time. They didn’t cheat you — you just didn’t ask, so you couldn’t plan. A good answer is a plain list: what’s included, what’s extra, and how much per year to keep the site alive.
Right alongside price: once it’s done, do I fully own it? The domain must be registered in your name, not theirs. The source files, the hosting account, the admin login — you hold them. I once saw a homestay that wanted to switch to a new team, but the domain they’d used for three years had been registered by the old provider, who wouldn’t hand it over — they lost the address their guests already knew. If you hear “the site sits on our system, you can’t take it with you if you cancel,” pause and think.
How long will it take, and what are the milestones?
“About one or two weeks” sounds nice but slips easily. Ask for concrete milestones: when the design is ready for you to approve, when the content goes in, when it goes live. With milestones you know where things stand instead of texting “done yet?” every day.
Say a spa needs the site ready for an opening on the 20th. If both sides agree clearly — design locked on the 10th, content and photos done on the 15th, test run on the 18th — you have a few spare days if something breaks. But if all you got was “don’t worry, it’ll make it,” and the 19th comes with nothing to show, there’s no time to fix it. A good answer is a short dated schedule, and it spells out which parts need you to send things (photos, info) before they can continue.
Does it load fast and look good on a phone?
Most of your customers open the site on a phone — over coffee, lying in bed — not on a computer. So these two aren’t “nice to have,” they’re required: the page must show quickly, and on a small screen the text must stay readable and the buttons easy to tap.
Picture an online shop: a customer sees an ad, taps in, and the page spins for three or four seconds before anything appears. Most of them leave before they even see the product. Or a homestay with a site that looks great on a computer but on a phone the photos spill off the edge and the phone number is too tiny to tap. Ask: can I open the finished site on my own phone, and if it’s slow, will you fix it? A serious builder will show you on a phone right away, no dodging.
Ask these clearly up front and you spare yourself the frustration later.
Who writes the content, and who prepares the photos?
This is where misunderstandings and surprise costs happen most. You assume the web team handles all the words and images; they assume you’ll send them. Near the finish you discover the site is empty, each side waiting on the other. Ask up front: the about section, the service descriptions, the price list — who writes them? The food shots, room photos, before-and-after spa pictures — do you shoot them or do they help?
Say a noodle shop has phone photos that are dark and crooked, and they look unappetizing on the site. If you agree beforehand that the team will brighten and crop them, or coach you on how to shoot, the result is night and day. A good answer splits the work clearly: what’s on you, what’s on them, and if you need to hire a writer or photographer, how much that costs — said up front so you can decide.
After handover, how are edits charged, and can I update it myself?
A website isn’t something you build once and leave forever. You’ll want to change prices, add new items, post a seasonal promotion. So ask ahead: how is a small change charged, and how long is support free after handover? Some cover a month, some bill per edit — knowing first means no surprises.
Just as important: can you edit the content yourself, or does every little thing go back through them? A homestay that changes room prices by season is stuck if each change means messaging the team and waiting half a day. Ask whether there’s a simple admin page where you can change prices, swap photos, post news — and whether they’ll show you how to use it. A good answer is that you can handle the small daily things yourself, and only call them in for bigger changes.
Got a project in my industry I can look at?
Finally, don’t be shy about asking to see their past work. A real builder will have a few links ready for you to click through and view in full, not just a couple of polished screenshots. Best of all is seeing a project close to your line of business — if they’ve done a restaurant, a spa, or a homestay before, they understand what your customers need.
Say you’re opening a spa and they show you a spa site they built — you’ll see right away whether they know how to lay out a service menu, a booking button, tidy before-and-after photos. If they’ve only done a construction company’s site and never touched small services like yours, it’s not that they can’t — but you should ask more about how they picture your page.