What to Expect From Your Web Designer, Stage by Stage

A good web designer takes you through a clear set of stages: a consultation, a written contract, planning, design, build, testing, launch and support. At each stage you should know what is happening, what they need from you and when you will review the work. Your part is to share your goals, supply content, give feedback on time and keep your domain and accounts in your own name.

The stages of a web design project

1. Consultation. You talk about your business, your customers and your goals.
2. Contract. Scope, price, timeline and ownership go in writing.
3. Planning. Pages, content and the path visitors take get mapped out.
4. Design. You see mockups before anything is built.
5. Build. The approved design becomes a working site.
6. Testing. Browsers, devices, forms and links get checked on a private staging copy of the site.
7. Launch and handoff. The site goes live and you learn how to run it.
8. Support. Updates, security and improvements continue after launch.

When a project goes wrong, it is usually because a stage was skipped or poorly communicated.

The consultation

Your first meeting should be a conversation, not a sales pitch. A good designer spends most of it asking about your business, your customers and what the site needs to do. If they mostly talk about themselves, take note.

You do not need a finished brief. It helps to bring examples of sites you like, a sense of who your customers are and the one thing you most want visitors to do. Before the meeting ends, ask:

• Have you built sites for businesses like mine? Direct experience means fewer surprises around your audience, your competitors and any rules your industry follows.
• What platform will you use, and why? The platform affects speed, how easily you can make updates and what maintenance costs later.
• How do revisions work? Find out how many rounds are included and what counts as a round.
• Who will actually work on my site? At larger firms, the person in the meeting is often not the person doing the work.
• What does handoff look like? Ask about training and what support they offer after launch.

Our guide to hiring a web designer has a longer list of questions.

The contract

A professional designer works under a written contract. It protects you as much as it protects them. Check that it includes:

• Total project cost and payment schedule
• A specific scope, including what is not included
• Number of revision rounds and how extra revisions are priced
• Timeline with milestones and delivery dates
• What happens if either side causes a delay
• Who owns the finished site, the code and the assets
• Cancellation terms

If a designer does not offer a contract, treat it as a serious red flag. Without one there are no agreed expectations, and disputes are hard to settle.

Planning: goals, customers and the buying path

Good planning makes every later stage faster. Expect your designer to ask about three things.

Goals you can measure

"More leads" is a wish. "More contact form requests this quarter than the same quarter last year" is a goal you can check. Set targets that are specific, measurable and tied to a date, so you know whether the site is working.

Who your customers are

Write short profiles of your main customer types. Who buys from you, why they buy and what worries them before they call. Then build each page with those people in mind, not your own taste.

Where visitors are in the buying process

People arrive at different stages, and your calls to action should match each one.

• Awareness. They know they have a problem. Explain it simply, without jargon.
• Consideration. They are comparing options. Give them the detail they need: services, process, pricing guidance and answers to common questions.
• Decision. They are ready to choose. Make it easy to call, book or buy.

This planning turns into a sitemap and wireframes, which are simple layouts that show what goes on each page before design starts.

Content: plan it early so it does not hold up launch

Designers can build pages quickly. Filling them takes longer. Copy that needs sign-off from several people, photos nobody has taken and a homepage headline no one can agree on will stall a finished design. Treat content as its own track with its own deadlines.

• Make a content schedule. Set dates for drafts, revisions and final approval. Work backward from your launch date and any fixed events, like a product launch or a busy season.
• Share content with your designer early. Layout depends on content. If product descriptions come in three times longer than the design allowed for, the layout breaks. Rough drafts beat surprises.
• Write a short style guide. Cover tone, voice, key terms, formatting and image style, so every page sounds like one business.
• Write for the reader. Talk about the visitor's problem and how you solve it, not only about your company.
• Get expert review where accuracy matters. Health, legal and financial content should be checked by someone qualified before it goes live.
• Collect real reviews and photos. Customer reviews and photos build trust faster than anything you write about yourself. Ask permission before you use them.

Ask your designer which content management system the site will use and whether your team can update it without calling a developer. The best system is the one your team will actually use.

Design and build

This stage has two parts. Design covers mockups and layout decisions. Development turns the approved design into a working site. Expect at least one design presentation before development starts. That is the cheapest time to catch big problems. Major structural changes after the build cost more time and money.

You do not need to be a designer to judge a mockup. Check four things:

• Layout. Content sits on a consistent grid, with even spacing and margins. Nothing feels crammed.
• Navigation. The menu leads to the actions customers most often take, in a logical order. If a feature makes the site harder to use, cut it.
• Brand. Colors, fonts and images follow your brand guide and match your logo, signs and printed materials.
• Mobile. On a phone, content stacks in a single column, buttons are easy to tap and forms are short.

Expect regular updates during the build. If your designer goes more than two weeks without a meaningful update, ask for a status check. That is a fair request.

Testing before launch

Before the site goes live, your designer should test it on a staging copy the public cannot see:

• Browsers. Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.
• Devices. Phones, tablets and desktops at different screen sizes.
• Functions. Forms submit and arrive, buttons work and links go where they should.

A problem found on staging is a quick fix. The same problem found after launch costs you credibility. Our website launch checklist covers the full list.

Launch and handoff

When the site is ready, your designer should walk you through it, not just send a link. A proper handoff includes:

• Redirects from old page addresses to the new ones, so bookmarks and search results still work
• A walkthrough of how to make basic content updates
• Written notes on who to contact for technical help
• A clear list of the maintenance the site needs

What should stay in your name

• Your domain. Register it in your own name through a reputable registrar. If the relationship ends, you do not want to chase it.
• Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Set them up under a company email you control, then add your designer as a user. If the designer owns the accounts and you part ways, you lose your traffic history.
• Hosting. Know where the site is hosted and keep your own login.

Red flags to watch for

• No contract offered
• Fast replies before the deposit and slow replies after it
• Vague answers to direct questions about time, scope or ownership
• No questions about your business before design starts
• Portfolio sites that are the same template in different colors
• Your domain or hosting registered in the designer's name

After launch

A website is never finished. Plan for content updates, security patches, platform updates and regular reviews of how the site performs. Sites left alone after launch slowly slip in search and start to look neglected. Before the project ends, ask what support looks like, whether that is a monthly plan, a support email or a service agreement.

What does it cost?

Price depends on the number of pages, custom features, whether you sell online and how much help you want after launch. At Skratch Creative, website builds run $3,500 to $10,000, and there is also a $249 per month website plan. Our guide to how much a website costs explains what moves the price.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to build a website?

It depends on the number of pages, the features and how fast content and feedback come back. Ask for a timeline with milestones in the contract, and block time on your calendar for reviews.

What is the difference between a web designer and a web developer?

A designer shapes the layout, the look and the user experience. A developer writes the code that makes it work. Many small business sites are built in visual site builders, which cuts down the separate development work.

Who owns my website after it is built?

You should. The finished site, files and content should transfer to you when the project ends. Make sure the contract says so. Some designers keep rights to reusable code or template parts, which is normal, but the site and its content should be yours.

Planning a new site?

Skratch Creative was founded in 2016 and builds websites for businesses in The Woodlands and nearby towns. Call (281) 400-6893 or send us a message and we will walk you through the process.