Most people ask a web designer two questions: how much, and how long. Those are the easy ones. The nine below are the ones that decide whether you end up with a website you can actually use, or one that quietly becomes somebody else’s problem in eighteen months.
You don’t need to ask all nine in one go, and you certainly don’t need to sound like you’re interrogating anyone. But if you’re speaking to two or three designers in Edinburgh and their quotes look confusingly different, these are the questions that will explain why.
Each one below comes with what a good answer actually sounds like, so you can tell a real answer from a reassuring one.
The single most useful question you can ask, and the one most quotes leave vague. A good answer is specific and unprompted: number of pages, how many rounds of changes, whether content and images are included, what happens after launch. If the answer is a paragraph of adjectives rather than a list, ask again.
This is usually the biggest hidden cost in a website project and almost nobody asks about it. A good answer tells you plainly which of you is writing, and if it’s you, roughly how much they need and by when. A designer who says “just send over your content” without saying what that means is setting you both up for a delay.
A good answer distinguishes between stock images, photos you already have, and a photographer they’d recommend. If they’re planning to use stock images throughout, that’s not automatically wrong, but you should know it now rather than at the design review.
Two to three rounds is normal. What matters more is the definition. A good answer explains that a round means you collect all your feedback and send it once, rather than twenty separate emails, and says what happens if you need more. Unlimited changes usually means the price already assumes you won’t use them.
You should finish the project with your own administrator login to your own website, so you can sign in whenever you like and change things without asking permission. On a WordPress site that means editing text, swapping a photo, updating your prices or your opening hours, and adding a blog post, all without going back to anybody.
Ask what gets handed over and how. A good answer includes a proper handover, whether that’s a session or a short recording you can rewatch, and a clear line between what you can safely change yourself and what is better left alone. A designer who is vague here may be quietly assuming you’ll come back, and pay, for every small edit.
One thing worth confirming in the same breath: your domain name should be registered in your name or your business’s name. That is your address and usually your email as well.
You’re not testing their technical knowledge here, you’re testing whether they have a reason or a default. A good answer connects the platform to something about your situation: how often you’ll update it, whether you need bookings, what you might want in three years. “It’s what we always use” is an answer, but it’s not a reason.
For a five page site, four to six weeks is a normal answer. The important half is the second half. A good answer names the points where the project sits waiting for your content, your photos or your sign off, because that is where almost every overrunning project actually overruns.
A good answer includes the unglamorous things: checking the forms actually send, submitting the site to Google, setting up basic tracking, and being available when something odd turns up in week two. A quote that ends the moment the site goes live is a cheaper quote, and this is exactly why.
You want a number, not a shrug. Somewhere around £400 to £1,200 a year is normal for a small business site once you include the domain, hosting and someone keeping it maintained. We have written up what a WordPress site costs to run each year and what that money buys, and our guide to what a website costs in Edinburgh covers the build side. A designer who has never thought about your second year is telling you something.
Three is the useful number. One gives you no comparison, two makes you pick a side, and beyond three the quotes start blurring together. Ask all three the same questions so the answers are actually comparable.
Yes, and it’s a reasonable thing to expect at any budget. A proposal that puts the scope in writing protects both of you. If someone will only quote a figure by phone or text, you have nothing to compare and nothing to fall back on.
Not remotely. Any designer worth hiring will be pleased you asked, because it means you’ll be an organised client. The ones who bristle are the ones you needed to ask.
Not in itself. It’s a common arrangement and it usually means someone competent is keeping the updates and backups consistent, so you never have to deal with a hosting company’s support desk. What matters is that you still have your own login to the site, and that your domain is in your name.
That is useful information, not a dead end. There’s a difference between “I’d need to look into that for your situation” and avoiding the question. The first is honest, the second tells you what working together would be like.
No. Most people don’t, and working that out is part of the job you’re paying for. You need to be able to describe what your business does and who you want to hear from. The rest is the designer’s problem to draw out of you.
Send me these questions with a line about what your business does, and I’ll answer every one of them in writing, for your situation, before you commit to anything. No call required unless you want one. If the answers point you somewhere other than working with me, I’ll tell you that too.
That’s the kind of work I do at BrandCrafter, here in Edinburgh, and I read every message myself.
WordPress Running Costs UK: What a Year Really Costs (2026) says:
[…] The build is a one off, the running cost is annual, and they are separate conversations that often get muddled in a quote. Our guide to what a website costs in Edinburgh covers the build side, and it is worth asking any designer for both numbers before you decide. It is one of the nine questions worth asking before you hire anyone. […]