Give each designer the same starting brief
Do you have the photographs and copy, or does someone need to create them? Those answers make it much easier to compare what each designer is offering.
A useful proposal should connect the finished website to the work needed to produce it. You should be able to see who will write the pages, create the images, build the site and help you take ownership of it.
Two quotes are hard to compare when one includes photography and copy while the other assumes you will supply both.
Write a short brief before requesting proposals. Include what your business does, who needs to find it, the services the site must explain and the work you can use as evidence. List any existing pages, accounts and assets that need to carry across.
Then ask each designer to make their scope clear:
- Pages: which pages are included and what each needs to explain.
- Copy: who writes it, who checks it and what you need to supply.
- Photography and video: whether a shoot is included and what existing material can be used.
- Build: who designs, develops, tests and launches the website.
- Changes: how revisions are handled and what happens if the scope changes.
- Ongoing work: which costs and responsibilities continue after launch.
A clear scope helps you understand the price. It also exposes unfinished decisions early, while there is still time to resolve them.
Look through relevant finished projects
A homepage image shows one part of a project. Open the website and look at how it explains the business across its service, work and about pages.
Can you understand what the company does? Is there real work to examine? Are the images useful, and do they belong to that business? Read a few pages on your phone as well as your computer.
Ask what the designer actually delivered. A portfolio may include work where one person designed the pages and someone else supplied the photography, writing or development. That is useful context when deciding whether the team can handle your scope.
For example, our HR Homestyle Projects case study describes a combined brand, photography, video and website project. The client is a renovation and landscaping business in Clyde North. The case study shows the starting point and the work involved, giving you more to assess than a finished screen alone.
Look for relevant evidence rather than expecting a designer to have worked with an identical business. A team that can explain its decisions and show the resulting work gives you something concrete to discuss.
Work out where the content will come from
The pages need something specific to say and show. Before a build starts, establish whether your existing content is ready to use or whether someone needs to produce it.
Useful website photographs might include your team, premises, products, finished projects or people doing the work. The right selection depends on what your business needs to explain. A construction project and a hospitality business will not need the same shot list.
Ask who will turn that material into page content. Who checks that the service descriptions are accurate? Who selects the project images? Who makes sure an important service does not end up with only a sentence and a generic picture?
At Visual State, website design, photography and video are planned together. The shoot gives the design real material to work with. When comparing providers, establish how each team handles that relationship and which parts you will need to organise yourself.
If content is outside the website quote, allow for the time and cost of producing it. A design cannot resolve missing project information or create permission to use an image on your behalf.
Understand ownership and ongoing access
Ask what you will receive when the site launches and which accounts will sit in your business’s name.
Ask about the domain, hosting and analytics accounts. Establish which website files and management access you will receive. If the project includes photography or video, ask for the permitted uses and delivery details in writing.
You should also understand what happens if you change providers. Which parts can another team take over? Are there ongoing licences or platform fees? Is maintenance included, optional or handled separately?
Different arrangements can suit different businesses. The useful thing is to understand the arrangement before choosing it, including what you can access and what you will continue paying for.
Our published standards set out how we handle the files, website and accounts. The guide to domain and account ownership explains the account questions in more detail.
Ask how the website will become discoverable
A finished website needs clear content and working search foundations. Ask the designer how the main service pages will be described, linked and made available to search engines.
Useful questions include:
- Will each main service have a clear, useful page?
- Will the titles and headings describe the actual services and locations?
- Can search engines access the page content and follow its internal links?
- Will the site have a sitemap and a way to inspect indexing after launch?
- Will you have access to the search and traffic reports?
Separate completing those foundations from promising a particular ranking. Submitting a page for crawling does not guarantee that Google will index it or place it in a particular position. Google’s recrawl guidance explains that distinction.
Ask what will be checked after launch as well. You need to know whether the right pages are indexed and which searches are beginning to show them. That gives the next round of content work a starting point based on evidence.
Compare the proposals side by side
Once the proposals are in, compare scope, relevant work, content responsibilities, ownership and search foundations side by side. You should be able to explain why a provider fits your project in terms more specific than liking the design.
Use these prompts to record the answer from each provider. Mark anything still unresolved before making the choice.
- Scope: what is included, and what is excluded?
- Relevant work: which finished project shows the team can deliver this scope?
- Content: who supplies, creates and checks the words, photographs and video?
- Ownership and access: which files and accounts will the business receive?
- Ongoing responsibilities: what continues after launch, who handles it and what does it cost?
- Search foundations: what will be set up and checked, and who can see the reports?
To see how we bring those parts together, explore our website service and published work.
Before you book
How can we compare quotes with different inclusions?
Give each designer the same starting brief, then ask them to identify the included pages, content, build, revisions and ongoing responsibilities. Record the differences and resolve missing items before treating the prices as equivalent.
Does a crawl request guarantee that a new website will appear in Google?
No. A request asks Google to consider crawling the page. It does not guarantee indexing or a particular position. Ask the provider how indexing will be checked after launch and who will have access to those reports.
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