Hiring a web designer is a bit like hiring an employee. You're trusting someone with your brand, your time, and a meaningful chunk of your budget. Choose well and the site pays for itself. Choose poorly and you'll be back here in a year, paying for a rebuild.
If you're looking for a web designer in Columbus, Ohio, this guide covers what to look for and the questions to ask before you sign anything. It applies whether you hire an agency, a studio, or a freelancer like me.
1. Look at the work, not just the words
A portfolio is the fastest way to judge a designer. Don't just scroll the pretty thumbnails. Actually visit a few of the sites and ask yourself:
- Does the site load quickly and work well on a phone?
- Is the copy clear, or is the design doing all the talking?
- Is it a template with different colors, or is it genuinely custom?
- Do the projects look like businesses similar to yours?
If the portfolio is only marketing mockups with no live sites, or only logos with no websites, that's a signal the design chops may not translate to functional websites.
2. Ask about process, not just price
Good designers have a process. They can tell you what happens in week one, how you review design, when you give feedback, and how changes are handled. Vague answers like "we'll figure it out as we go" usually mean chaos and scope creep on your invoice.
A sane process covers discovery, content and structure, design, build, and launch. If you want to see what that looks like, I wrote a step-by-step breakdown of the website design process.
3. Check who actually builds it
Ask directly: does the person who designs the site also build it? Some designers hand designs to a separate developer, which adds cost and can lose fidelity in the translation. A designer-developer (a "hybrid") does both, so what you approve in design is what goes live. That's the model I work with, and it's one of the main reasons my sites stay true to the design.
4. Push on the technical stuff
The visual layer is only half a website. Ask about:
- Responsive design: is mobile built in from the start, or bolted on at the end?
- Performance: what's the expected load time, and is the site scored for speed?
- SEO: are page titles, meta descriptions, and structured data set up at launch?
- Accessibility: is the site usable by people using screen readers or keyboard navigation?
- Content management: can your team edit pages after launch, or do you pay per change?
You don't need a designer who can recite the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines from memory. But they should treat these as part of the job, not as extras. These are core parts of my performance and accessibility service.
5. Get a real contract and a real timeline
Make sure you know what's included in the quote, what's not, how many rounds of revision you get, who owns the design and code at the end, and what happens after launch. A written scope protects you both.
Questions to ask before you commit
- Can you show me live sites similar to mine, not just design mockups?
- Who writes the content, and is that included?
- Will I be able to edit the site myself after launch?
- What does support look like after the site goes live?
- How do you handle changes and additions to scope?
If you're comparing designers in Columbus, Ohio, or working with someone remotely, take your time. The right fit, someone who treats your website as a business tool rather than a deliverable, is worth the search. When you're ready to talk, reach out and we can figure out whether I'm the right fit for your project.