What questions should I ask a web designer before hiring

Ask eight things before you hire a web designer: who owns the domain and code, which stack they will ship, what CMS you get, how you will edit it, how SEO and AEO will be handled, who hosts and pays, what is in scope, and what happens if they disappear. A reel on a laptop is not diligence. Logins, billing, and a written exit are. This spoke sits under Websites That Feel Like Films. I have shipped hundreds of production sites; the expensive hire is the one who looks expensive and leaves you renting the result.

The short answer

• Ownership first. You are the domain registrant and the account owner. They get invited. They do not keep the keys.
• Stack is an exit, not a fashion choice. Framer, Webflow, WordPress, or custom only matters if you can leave it.
• CMS is who publishes next Tuesday. If that person cannot complete a real edit, you bought a hostage.
• SEO and AEO are HTML, Search Console, and citeable answers — not a line item that says “optimization.”
• Scope and vanish plans go in writing. A sales call is not a handoff.

Cluster	The question that actually matters	Fail if they say
Ownership	Whose registrar login, whose GitHub org, whose Google account?	“You own everything” with no account list
Stack	What ships, and how do I export or transfer it?	“We’ll pick the best tool once we start”
CMS	Who edits, which fields, which pages are locked?	“It’s easy, we’ll train you later”
Edits	Show me changing a headline and a project image	“Just email us copy forever” with no rate or SLA
SEO / AEO	Who verifies Search Console? Where do answers live in HTML?	“We do SEO” with no property, no schema, no redirects
Hosting	Whose card, whose team, whose DNS?	Their personal Netlify / Vercel / Webflow workspace
Scope	What is in v1, and what is a change request?	“Unlimited revisions” with no page list
Disappear	If you go silent, what do I still control this week?	“That never happens”

If a proposal cannot fill that table, do not sign it. You are still shopping.

Who owns the domain, code, and accounts?

You do. From day one, if you can swing it. “You always own the site” is a sales sentence. Ownership is a list of accounts and artifacts sitting under your email, your card, your org.

ICANN’s holder-facing transfer note is blunt: you generally cannot move a gTLD to a new registrar within the first 60 days after initial registration, or the first 60 days after a prior transfer (Inter-Registrar Transfer Information). “We’ll transfer the domain later” often lands inside that lock, a redemption window, or an inbox nobody monitors.

Ask these out loud on the call:

1. Who is the registered name holder on the domain today?
2. Which registrar, and whose email receives renewal notices?
3. Who owns the GitHub org / Webflow workspace / Framer team — me, or you?
4. Who is the Google account that will hold Search Console and GA4?
5. On what calendar day do those seats transfer if they are not mine at kickoff?

Asset	You should control	Designer should have
Domain	Registrant + registrar login	DNS edit access you can revoke
Repo / project	Org owner	Collaborator, not personal repo
CMS	Admin seat on your workspace	Editor / designer seat
Analytics	GA4 property in your Google account	Access, not ownership
Search Console	Verified property you control	User access
Forms	Destination inbox you own	Build + test
Fonts / stock	License in your name	Production files

• Domain WHOIS / registrar shows your org or your name
• GitHub / GitLab org is yours; they are a member
• Webflow or Framer workspace is yours, or a dated transfer is in the SOW
• Google account is a company inbox, not their Gmail
• Password manager shared vault exists; it is not “we’ll send a ZIP if you ask”

Verify it this week, not after the launch party:

1. Search the domain on ICANN Lookup and read the registrar name.
2. Log into that registrar with your email. If you cannot, you do not own the name yet.
3. Confirm 2FA is on an authenticator you control, not only theirs.
4. Open GitHub (or GitLab) and check whether the org owner is you.
5. Open Google with the company inbox and confirm Search Console and GA4 properties exist — or schedule the day they will.

ICANN also imposes a 60-day lock after a change of registrant on contracted gTLDs (Change of Registrant). Some registrars let you opt out before the contact change; many do not. Do not “fix the WHOIS later” in the same week you might need to move registrars.

A contract clause without logins is a paper win. Recovering a domain after a ghosting is slower than asking this before kickoff.

What stack are you shipping — and can I leave it?

Do not let them pick a stack because last month’s reel looked good. Pick the constraint that will still be true in twelve months: who edits, how much motion, how you leave. Fashion expires. Editors and exit paths do not.

Ask:

1. What is the production stack — builder, custom shell, or hybrid?
2. Why that stack for this site, not for a generic “premium brand”?
3. What is the export or transfer path if we part ways?
4. What dies if we leave — CMS, forms, membership, animations, CMS bindings?
5. Who is qualified to maintain it if you are gone?

Constraint	Lean toward	Leave question
Designer iterates daily; marketing pages are the product	Framer	Can the project move to a workspace I own?
Non-developers edit collections weekly	Webflow	Can you transfer the site to my Workspace? (Webflow’s transfer article exists because agencies ship from their workspace)
HTML-first fold, tiny JS, long life	Custom / Astro	Is the repo mine, with a documented deploy?
Local trade, phone-first, rare edits	Tight Webflow or a small custom shell	Can I change a phone number without a developer?
Artist identity that cannot look like a link tree	Custom or heavily rebuilt Framer	Can tour dates update without you?

Webflow’s own help is specific: transferring a site with an active Site plan is built for Freelancer and Agency workspaces handing a site to a client Workspace. If they cannot describe that transfer — or they shrug at Framer team ownership — you will pay for a rebuild later. Stack choice is also a money question; when a custom website is worth it is the decision spoke. This post is the interview that happens before you buy either path.

• Stack named in the proposal, not “TBD in discovery”
• Exit named: transfer, git export, CSV/CMS export, or rebuild
• Plugins, apps, and paid widgets listed with who pays
• Motion library named (CSS, GSAP, Framer Motion, Webflow GSAP) and who maintains it
• A successor developer could find the source in one afternoon

If they will not name the stack until after you pay, they are selling a vibe. Walk.

Ask one extra question that sorts hobbyists from operators: who has shipped a handoff on this stack in the last year? Not a launch. A handoff. Launch is a party. Handoff is whether you still have a site when the party ends.

Stack claim	Prove it with	Fake-out
“Custom React”	Repo URL pattern, host, island vs SPA	A create-react-app marketing site that hydrates the fold
“Webflow CMS”	Collection list + locked fields	Designer-only canvas the client never opens
“Framer”	Team seat for you + CMS collections if needed	A personal draft link
“WordPress”	Admin role for you + backup host named	“We use a special plugin stack” they cannot list

What CMS do I get, and who can actually edit it?

A CMS nobody opens is dead weight. A CMS that can break the homepage in one afternoon is a costume, not a system. Ask who publishes, how often, and which surfaces are locked.

The useful split is not “WordPress vs Webflow vs a headless CMS.” It is fields the client will fill versus a page builder that can become anything.

Rhythm	CMS shape that fits	Question to ask
Rare copy tweaks	Locked pages, a few fields	“Which fields can I touch without you?”
Weekly projects / dates / locations	One collection, required fields	“Show me adding a project from a blank item.”
Campaign landing pages	One recipe you duplicate	“Do I get a new design system per campaign?”
Developer is the only editor	Markdown in a repo	“Why are you selling me a client CMS I will never open?”

Watch them do this live, on a similar project, not in a slide:

1. Log in as the role you will have — not as Super Admin.
2. Change a headline on an interior page.
3. Replace one image and fill alt text.
4. Publish, then show the live URL.
5. Show what they locked on purpose (type sizes, CTA style, homepage section order).

• Named editor: you, an assistant, or the studio on retainer
• Named approval path: who hits publish
• Alt text is a required field, not a later chore
• Homepage is not a freeform “add any section” canvas
• Preview exists; production publish is a named person
• Training is a one-page guide plus a recorded walkthrough, dated in the SOW

If they refuse a live CMS demo, assume the demo would fail. You are hiring the Tuesday-morning edit, not the Figma file.

How do copy and image edits work after launch?

Launch is not the end of content. Tour dates move. Offers change. A press quote lands. If every comma requires a designer, you did not buy a site. You bought a ticket queue.

Ask the mechanical questions:

• What can I change without you?
• What still requires you, and at what response window?
• Is post-launch editing a retainer, a ticket pack, or “email us and we’ll see”?
• Where do new landing pages come from — a recipe, or a new design every time?

Edit type	You should be able to do	Studio should still own
Headline / body / CTA label	Yes, in the CMS	Tone pass only if you pay for it
Swap a project still (same ratio)	Yes	Art direction if the crop language breaks
Add a CMS item (show, project, location)	Yes, required fields	New collection types
New page that needs a new layout	No — that is a change request	New recipe
Type, color, motion, nav IA	No	Design system
Redirects, DNS, production deploys	Maybe with a runbook	Until you have a technical owner

Procedure to force an honest answer:

1. Pick one real edit you will need in the first 30 days (a date, a price band you already publish, a new work still).
2. Ask them to point at the exact field that will hold it.
3. Ask who can publish it at 9pm on a Sunday.
4. Ask what happens if that person is on vacation.
5. Write the answer into the SOW as a sentence, not a vibe.

• 30-day edit list exists before kickoff
• After-hours path is named (or explicitly “none”)
• Image ratio rules are written so uploads cannot explode the fold
• You know whether “small copy tweaks” are included for 14 / 30 / 90 days
• You are not depending on their personal laptop as the CMS

Unlimited “we’ll just hop in” is how studios go quiet. Finite, named access is how sites stay alive.

How do you handle SEO and AEO on this build?

“We do SEO” is not an answer. Neither is “we’ll add the AI stuff.” Google’s public bar for generative features on Search is still boring: the page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, meeting ordinary Search technical requirements — AI features and your website. Google’s AI optimization guide says the crawl work did not get a second door. There is no secret schema that buys an AI Overview.

Ask:

1. Who creates and verifies the Search Console property — in my Google account?
2. What is the URL inventory, and which URLs keep equity from the old site?
3. Where does the primary answer live — in visible HTML, or in a PDF / canvas / client-only render?
4. What structured data will you ship, and does it match the visible page?
5. How will we know if AI Overviews or chat answers cite us wrong?

Job	SEO version	AEO version	Question that catches fluff
Crawl	Indexable HTML, sane robots, canonicals	Same — no extra file required by Google	“Are key pages screenshot-only or JS-gated?”
Property	Search Console + sitemap	Same property; later, generative AI reports if Google shows them	“Whose Search Console is this?”
Snippet	Title, meta, H1, first paragraph	First 60–80 words a model can lift	“Read me the answer without scrolling.”
Proof	Redirect map, Core Web Vitals	Citeable facts that match the About / offer pages	“What number are you willing to put in HTML?”
Measurement	Queries, pages, conversions	Frozen prompt panel: cited, mentioned, skipped, wrong	“How do we know ChatGPT or Perplexity named us?”

Google’s FAQ structured data docs still require the Q&A to be visible on the page. Schema that does not match the HTML is a bug, not a ranking cheat. Core Web Vitals remain the shared performance language — LCP, INP, CLS — because a film-grade hero that paints in four seconds will not get cited or clicked.

• Search Console verified to your account before launch (Search Console verification)
• Redirect map for every URL that had equity — not “Google will figure it out”
• Title, H1, and lead answer agree
• FAQ / offer facts in HTML, not only in a designer canvas
• llms.txt or extra AI files, if proposed, are optional extras — not sold as Google’s requirement
• Old analytics property is not abandoned without a cutover note

If they pitch “AEO packages” that skip indexation and Search Console, they are selling a label. Keep walking.

Run this on a URL they already shipped — not on a slide:

1. View source. Is the offer in HTML, or only after JavaScript paints?
2. Check robots.txt and the page’s indexability.
3. Read the first 80 words. Could a model quote them without hallucinating a price you never published?
4. Ask who clicked “Verify” in Search Console.
5. Ask for the redirect spreadsheet from their last rebuild. If they never kept one, believe that.

I will not invent citation rates for a studio hire. If they quote a guaranteed AI Overview, they are selling a lottery ticket. Eligibility is public. Inclusion is not.

Who hosts, who pays, and who holds the keys?

Hosting is where ghosting becomes an outage. If the site lives on their personal Netlify team, their Vercel hobby account, or a Webflow workspace billed to their card, your uptime is their subscription.

Ask:

1. Which host, which plan tier (name it), whose payment method?
2. Who owns DNS — registrar, Cloudflare, or the host?
3. Who gets billed when the plan renews in twelve months?
4. What is the rollback path if a deploy breaks the fold?
5. Where do form submissions go if their Zap / inbox dies?

Hosting pattern	Fine when	Danger
Client Netlify / Vercel team, studio as collaborator	Custom / git-based sites	Studio-only team, your site as a sub-project
Client Webflow Workspace, studio as guest	Marketing CMS sites	Site stuck on their Agency workspace with no transfer date
Client Framer project in your team	Design-led marketing	Personal Framer draft with no team seat for you
Client WordPress on a host you pay	You have admin + backups	“Managed WordPress” they refuse to name
Studio umbrella hosting, billed through them	Short staging only	Production forever, invoice mystery

• You can log into the host today, or a dated transfer is in the SOW
• Card on file is yours
• DNS access is yours; TTL and rollback are named
• Staging URL and production URL are both listed
• Form endpoint is not their personal Gmail
• Backups: where, how often, who can restore

Netlify, Vercel, Webflow, and Framer all have team and transfer models. The question is not “do they host.” It is “whose billing email gets the failure notice at 2am.”

DNS is its own trap. The registrar, Cloudflare, and the host can each look like “where the site lives.” Ask which one actually answers yourdomain.com. If they cannot draw that in one sentence — registrar points to Cloudflare, Cloudflare CNAME to the host, host serves the build — they should not own production DNS.

• You can open DNS and see the records without asking them to screenshot
• TTL is named so a rollback is not a 48-hour wait you discovered during an outage
• Staging is not using the production domain as a science experiment

What is in scope versus a change request?

Unlimited revisions is how both sides get burned. You think it means “keep going until I love it.” They think it means “three rounds on the pages we listed.” Write the page list, the round count, and the out-of-scope pile before anyone opens Figma.

Ask:

• Which URLs ship in v1?
• How many design rounds per template, and what is a round?
• What assets must I deliver, and by when?
• What happens if I add a shop, a blog, or a second language mid-build?
• What is explicitly not in this proposal?

In v1 (example shape)	Change request	Not this year unless scoped
Home, Work, Offer, About, Contact	Extra unique landing layouts	Full ecommerce
One collection (projects or dates)	Second collection with new fields	Membership / gated content
One fold composition + one motion budget	Extra pinned scroll scene	WebGL prelude
Redirects for listed legacy URLs	New URL strategy after launch	Multilingual
CMS training for named editors	Ongoing weekly content ops	Always-on ad landing factory

A round is a named checkpoint, not a feeling:

1. Round 0 — written brief: audience, primary action, proof, out of scope.
2. Round 1 — structure: page map and fold job, still mostly type and grey boxes.
3. Round 2 — visual system on the homepage only.
4. Round 3 — interior templates and CMS fields.
5. Launch candidate — content in, QA, not “one more hero variant.”

If they skip Round 0, you will spend Round 3 arguing about who the site is for. That is not a designer problem. That is a brief problem wearing a taste argument.

Scope also decides whether you needed a sprint or a rebuild. A conversion leak on a stack that still works is a different buy than a CMS you cannot leave. Do not mix look, URLs, CMS, and tracking into one vague “redesign” — that is how conversions dropped after a redesign becomes a mystery instead of a diagnosis.

What happens if you disappear next Tuesday?

This is the question people skip because it feels rude. Skip it and you will pay for rudeness later. Ghosting, burnout, a studio acquisition, a contractor who took a full-time job — I have seen all of them. The site does not care why the Slack channel went quiet.

Ask them to narrate a week where they do not reply:

1. I log into the registrar. What do I see?
2. I log into hosting. Can I roll back last night’s deploy?
3. I log into the CMS. Can I publish a banner that the tour is cancelled?
4. I open the repo. Is there a README with the deploy command?
5. I open Search Console. Is it still verifying?
6. Forms: do leads still hit an inbox I control?
7. Fonts and stock: are licenses in my name, or will type vanish when their Adobe seat dies?
8. Who else on their side has admin, and what is the escalation email that is not a personal Gmail?

Failure	What breaks	What you needed in the drawer
Their card fails	Hosting suspends	Your billing, your team
Their Google account is recovered/lost	Analytics and Search Console vanish	Property you verified
Their laptop is the only CMS	You cannot publish	Your admin seat + runbook
Domain auto-renews to their email	You find out when the site 404s	Your registrar login + 2FA
Personal repo, no org	No source	Git org + deploy keys you control
Forms to their Zap	Leads go to /dev/null	Form provider on your account

• Break-glass document: URLs for registrar, host, CMS, analytics, DNS
• 2FA recovery codes stored by you, not only by them
• Named backup human at the studio (or a written “solo, here is the exit”)
• Source in an org you own, or a dated platform transfer
• License list: fonts, plugins, stock, Apple/Google developer accounts if any

If they take this personally, that is data. Adults who ship production sites can talk about bus numbers without drama. Bravery is not a restore strategy.

How do I compare two proposals without a beauty contest?

Do not pick the prettier PDF. Score the same eight clusters. A junior with a clean ownership plan will beat a famous reel that lives on their laptop.

Use one grid. Fill it in the room. Do not fill it from memory a week later.

Score 1–5	Designer A	Designer B	Notes
Ownership (accounts named)
Stack + exit
CMS demo (you watched it)
Edit path after launch
SEO/AEO (Search Console, redirects, HTML answers)
Hosting/billing
Scope (page list + rounds)
Vanish plan
Conversion path on a phone
Fit for your audience this quarter

Procedure:

1. Send both studios the same eight-cluster list before the call.
2. Require written answers, not “we’ll cover it live.”
3. On the call, pick one live CMS edit and one URL they shipped that you can load on your phone.
4. Open that URL with the mouse unplugged. Can you name the offer and complete the ask?
5. Ask who did the last handoff, and what broke.
6. Sleep on it. The studio that only wins in the meeting usually loses in month four.

• Same brief went to both
• You saw a phone-sized conversion path, not only a desktop reel
• You know who will actually do the work (principal vs junior bench)
• You know timezone, overlap hours, and what “async” means for them
• You have not already emotionally bought the mood-board

Taste still matters. Taste without the table is how you hire a trailer with no distribution.

The failure mode: you hired a reel, then rented a site

Here is the pattern I see when this interview gets skipped.

A brand watches a 4K showreel. The fold looks like a film. They sign. Six months later: the domain renews on the designer’s Gmail, Webflow lives in the studio workspace, the client cannot change a tour date, Search Console was never verified, and the “SEO package” was three meta tags. The designer takes a staff job. The site stays up until a card expires. Then it does not.

That is not a design failure. That is an ownership failure that looked like a design win. Lindgaard’s work, as Nielsen Norman Group frames it, says people form a visual-appeal judgment in as little as 50 milliseconds. Designers know that. Buyers feel it. The halo is real — and it is a terrible due-diligence process.

What you thought you bought	What you actually bought	Cost shape (not a studio rate)
A film-grade site	A look you cannot edit	Rebuild or ransom-by-retainer
“We handle SEO”	No Search Console, no redirects	Equity left on old URLs
Unlimited polish	No page list	Scope fight in week six
Hosting included	Their card, their team	Outage when they churn
A partner	A personal account	Recovery archaeology

What to do instead, if you already signed and the answers are mush:

1. Freeze new design work.
2. Collect every login you can. Screenshot what you cannot collect.
3. Start transfers: registrar, host, workspace, Google properties.
4. Expect ICANN lock windows if the domain just moved or just changed registrant.
5. Rebuild only after you know whether the leak is fold, CMS, or platform lock.

Pretty that you cannot operate will starve the calendar as surely as an ugly site nobody trusts. Hire the operator, then enjoy the cinema.

The 45-minute interview script you can actually run

You do not need a procurement department. You need a timer and this sequence. Send the questions the day before so they cannot hide behind “great question.”

Minutes 0–5 — fit. Who is this for in the next 90 days? What is the one action that makes the site worth the money? If they pitch a 20-page brochure for a phone-first trade, or a tap-to-call homepage for a studio that sells sprints, they did not hear you.

Minutes 5–15 — ownership and hosting. Walk the asset table. Demand names of platforms, not adjectives. Write down emails.

Minutes 15–25 — stack, CMS, edits. Named stack. Live CMS demo. One Sunday-night edit story.

Minutes 25–35 — SEO/AEO and conversion. Search Console owner. Redirects. Where the answer lives in HTML. Then: open a shipped URL on your phone. Say the offer out loud. Complete the ask.

Minutes 35–45 — scope and vanish. Page list, rounds, out of scope. Then the disappear narration. End on “what will you put in the SOW this week?”

Clock	You ask	You write down
0–5	Audience, one action, what “done” means	One sentence you can repeat
5–15	Domain, repo, Google, host, card	Account list
15–25	Stack, CMS role, live edit	Tool + editor name
25–35	Search Console, redirects, phone path	Property owner + one shipped URL
35–45	Pages, rounds, vanish	SOW promises

Do not spend the 45 minutes on typefaces. Typefaces are Round 2. If they steer the whole call toward mood, they are avoiding the table.

Answers that should end the call early:

They say	What it usually means
“You own everything, don’t worry.”	They have not listed accounts
“SEO is included.”	No Search Console plan
“Unlimited revisions.”	No page list
“Hosting is on us.”	Their card, your downtime
“We’ll pick the stack in discovery.”	You are paying for indecision
“The nephew can edit WordPress, it’s easy.”	No CMS demo, no locked fields
“We’ve never had a client leave.”	No vanish plan, or they trap people

Write the line down when you hear it. Do not argue in the room. The follow-up email is where you ask them to convert the slogan into a named account.

What to get in writing before you sign

If it is not in the statement of work, it was a vibe. Convert the interview into artifacts.

• Account list: registrar, DNS, host, CMS, repo, analytics, Search Console, form provider, font licenses
• Kickoff ownership: already yours, or transfer date
• Stack, including plugins and who pays the seats
• CMS: roles, locked surfaces, training deliverable
• Post-launch edit window and what is excluded
• SEO/AEO: Search Console in your account, redirect map, indexable HTML answers, schema that matches the page
• Hosting: payer, plan name, rollback
• v1 URL list, round definition, change-request process
• Vanish / termination: access continues, source delivered, workspace transferred
• Launch: production URL, HTTPS, form test on cellular, 404, Open Graph still

Map each cluster to a sentence in the SOW so it cannot evaporate into “we talked about that”:

Cluster	SOW sentence shape
Ownership	“Client is registrant and org owner; studio is collaborator on [list]. Transfer of any remaining seats by [date].”
Stack	“Production stack is [name]. Exit is [transfer / git / export].”
CMS	“Client admin seat included. Locked: [homepage sections, type, CTA]. Training: [artifact].”
Edits	“Client can change [fields] without studio. Studio tickets cover [list] for [N] days.”
SEO / AEO	“Search Console property in client Google account. Redirect map for listed URLs. Visible HTML answers on [pages]. Schema matches visible FAQ/offer.”
Hosting	“Host [name], payer [client], DNS [where], rollback [how].”
Scope	“v1 URLs: [list]. Rounds: [definition]. Out of scope: [list].”
Vanish	“On termination or 14 days of silence: workspace transfer, repo access, password vault, and license list delivered.”

Send that table as the last email before you sign. The studio that completes it is hireable. The studio that says “we’ll handle the legal stuff later” is telling you how the handoff will feel.

You are not being difficult. You are refusing to rent a website that looks like a film.

FAQ

What questions should I ask a web designer before hiring?

Ask who owns the domain, code, CMS, and hosting; which stack they will ship and how you leave it; how you will edit after launch; how SEO and AEO will be handled; what is in v1 versus a change request; and what you still control if they disappear. Get those answers in writing, then watch a live CMS edit and a phone-sized conversion path. A reel is not a substitute for that list.

How do I measure whether these hiring questions are working?

They are working if, before kickoff, you can log into the accounts that matter or you have a dated transfer in the SOW. After launch, the scoreboard is: you published something without them, Search Console is yours, forms hit your inbox, and a rollback does not require their laptop. If any of those fail, the interview was theater.

What usually fails first when teams try this?

Ownership of domain and hosting. The design looks done while the registrar still lists the designer, the host still bills their card, and Search Console was never verified to you. CMS access fails next: you can comment in Figma and cannot publish a date change. SEO/AEO theater fails third — meta tags without a redirect map or indexable answers.

How long does this take to show results?

The interview itself is one 45-minute call plus a written SOW pass, usually inside a week if both sides answer in documents. The results of hiring well show up at handoff and at the first real edit, not on launch day applause. If you already hired poorly, account recovery can take days to weeks, and ICANN lock windows can add 60 days to a registrar move.

What should I skip if I only have a week?

Skip the beauty contest and the extra discovery workshops. Keep the eight-cluster table, one live CMS demo, one phone test of a shipped URL, and the vanish narration. Skip arguing about type until ownership, stack, scope, and hosting are in writing. A week is enough to refuse a bad hire. It is not enough to fake a full RFP.

When is this not worth doing yet?

If you are still proving the offer on a DIY builder and the site is a confirmation page, do not run a five-figure hiring process. Stay on the builder until the site has to earn customers. This interview is for when you are actually hiring. It is also wasted if you have already decided to keep a nephew on Squarespace and you are only collecting quotes you will ignore.

CTA

If you want a site you can still operate after the premiere, hire on the eight clusters — then make the fold feel like a film.

Explore /websites or book a Website sprint at /contact?intent=websites-sprint.