An honest walkthrough of the process — from first conversation to launch day.

Hiring a web designer for the first time is a little like hiring a contractor to renovate your kitchen. You know roughly what you want, you have a budget in mind, and you’re trusting someone you just met to do work you couldn’t do yourself — inside your business, which is basically your home.

Done well, it’s one of the best investments you’ll make. Done badly, it’s months of frustration, a site you don’t love, and a bill you’re still annoyed about.

The difference, most of the time, isn’t luck. It’s knowing what the process should look like — so you can tell when something’s off.

Here’s what a legitimate web design engagement looks like, start to finish.

Stage 1: The discovery call (and why it matters more than you think)

A good designer doesn’t start with “what do you want the site to look like?” They start with questions about your business. Who are your clients? What do they need to believe before they hire you? What’s your main goal for the site — leads, bookings, credibility? What’s working now, what isn’t?

This isn’t small talk. It’s the foundation everything else is built on. A site that looks beautiful but isn’t designed around your actual business goals is just expensive decoration.

What to watch for: A designer who jumps straight to aesthetics — colors, fonts, vibe — without asking about your business first. That’s a sign they’re designing for their portfolio, not your customers.

What to ask: “How do you approach the strategy side before you start designing?” If they can’t give you a clear answer, keep looking.

Stage 2: The proposal and contract

After the discovery conversation, you should receive a written proposal that outlines the scope of work, timeline, deliverables, and cost. Read it carefully — not to find loopholes, but to make sure you both actually agree on what’s being built.

Pay attention to:

What’s included — and what isn’t. Does the price include copywriting or just design? How many rounds of revisions are covered? What happens if you need more pages than originally scoped? These aren’t trick questions, but they’re worth asking before you sign.

The payment structure. Most designers work on a deposit-plus-balance model: typically 50% upfront, 50% on completion. Some break it into thirds for larger projects. Be wary of anyone who asks for full payment before starting — or, on the other end, anyone who says you pay nothing until you’re happy. Both are red flags for different reasons.

Revision rounds. “Unlimited revisions” sounds great and is almost always a problem in practice. Good designers build in two or three rounds of structured feedback, not an open-ended loop of changes. You want clarity, not false promises.

What happens if things go sideways. Does the contract address what happens if the project stalls on your end? If you need to pause? If you’re genuinely unhappy with the work? A solid contract protects both of you.

What to watch for: Vague scope, no revision limits, and no kill fee clause. These aren’t just amateur mistakes — they’re setups for conflict.

Stage 3: The content and feedback phase

Here’s where most projects slow down — and where most clients are surprised.

Your designer can’t build your site without content: your copy, your photos, your logo, your brand colors, testimonials, service descriptions. Collecting and preparing that content is largely your job, and how quickly you do it has a direct effect on when your site launches.

Most designers will give you a content template or a checklist. Fill it out before the design phase starts if you can. Showing up to a design review with half your copy still unwritten is a bit like hiring a builder and not having decided where you want the walls.

A note on copywriting: Many designers don’t write copy — they design around whatever text you give them. If writing isn’t your strong suit (and for most people it isn’t), ask whether your designer offers copywriting as an add-on, or whether they can recommend a copywriter. Good copy is at least as important as good design. Often more.

On photos: Stock photos are fine as placeholders. Real photos of you, your work, and your team almost always convert better. If budget allows, a half-day with a photographer is worth it.

Stage 4: Design review and revisions

This is the part people imagine when they think about working with a designer — but it’s actually later in the process than most people expect. By the time you’re looking at design mockups, the strategy conversation is done, the contract is signed, and your content is (hopefully) ready.

A designer will typically present one to three design directions for your feedback. You’re not looking for perfection at this stage — you’re looking for the right direction. Give clear, specific feedback. “I don’t love it” doesn’t help anyone. “The header feels too corporate for my audience, can we try something warmer?” does.

Expect two to three rounds of revisions before the design is locked. Then the approved design gets built out into a working website, which you’ll review again before launch.

What to watch for: Designers who can’t handle direct feedback, or who treat every small change as a new invoice. Equally, clients (you!) who keep changing their minds about fundamental things after the design is locked. Revision rounds are for refining, not reimagining.

Stage 5: Launch — and what comes after

Before anything goes live, you should be doing a proper review: checking every page on both desktop and mobile, testing every link and button, reviewing every form submission, proofreading everything one more time. Your designer should be doing this too, but don’t assume — ask for a pre-launch checklist and go through it together.

Once the site is live, you’ll typically need a few things sorted:

Domain and hosting. If your designer is handling your hosting, make sure you understand what that costs annually and what happens if you ever want to move the site elsewhere. You should always own your own domain — never let it be registered in someone else’s name.

Access and ownership. You should have full admin access to your website, your hosting account, and any other tools involved. Not “I’ll make changes for you when you need them” — actual login credentials that you control.

Basic training. A good designer will show you how to make simple updates yourself. Change a price, swap out a photo, update your hours. You shouldn’t need to file a support ticket every time something small changes.

Ongoing support. Find out what support looks like after launch. Some designers offer monthly maintenance packages. Others hand the site off and that’s that. Neither is wrong, but you should know what you’re signing up for.

The green flags to look for in a designer

• They ask about your business before they talk about design
• They have a clear process they can walk you through
• They’re honest about what they don’t do (and point you to someone who does)
• They communicate consistently — you don’t have to chase them for updates
• They seem genuinely interested in whether the site works, not just whether it looks good

The red flags to walk away from

• No contract, or a contract that’s just a few lines in an email
• Pressure to decide quickly or to pay a large amount upfront
• No real questions about your business before diving into aesthetics
• Vague answers when you ask about process, timelines, or revisions
• “I’ll take care of everything, don’t worry about it” — with no paper trail

One last thing

A good web designer isn’t just someone who makes things look nice. They’re a business partner for the duration of the project. You should feel like they understand your business, your clients, and what success actually looks like for you — not just what the site looks like on launch day.

The best client-designer relationships are built on clear communication, honest expectations, and a shared understanding of what you’re building and why. Everything in this post is in service of that.

If you get into a conversation with a designer and something feels off — trust that instinct. There are good people doing this work. You deserve one of them.

We work with small businesses and solopreneurs who want a site that actually does something. If you’d like to talk through your project — no pitch, just a conversation — we’d love to hear from you.