How to Choose a Web Designer in Edinburgh
Most guides like this are written to sell you something. This one is written to help you ask better questions, including the ones that would rule me out.
There are a lot of web designers in Edinburgh. Some are agencies with account managers. Some are freelancers working evenings. Some are offshore studios with a local phone number. They all say the same things about being professional, affordable and results driven, which makes it almost impossible to tell them apart from a website alone.
So here is what actually separates them, and the questions that expose the difference.
01 — Start with the brief
Work out what you actually need first
Most people start by comparing designers. Start by comparing briefs instead, because the right choice for a five page brochure site is the wrong choice for a booking platform.
Websites fall into a few honest brackets. They are genuinely different jobs, not the same job at different prices.
A single page site
One well built page. Your services, your proof, a way to get in touch. Right for a new business that needs to exist online properly and start taking enquiries. Built and live in days, not months. It is not a lesser website. It is a focused one.
A small business site
Home, services, about, contact, and room to grow. Right for an established local business that needs to explain a few things properly and be found in local search.
A growth site
Bookings, payments, customer accounts, staff scheduling, integrations with the tools you already use. Right when your website has to do a job, not just describe one.
E-commerce or bespoke
Full online selling, custom functionality, or something that does not exist off the shelf. This is a project measured in months, with discovery, planning and proper testing.
If a designer quotes you before understanding which of these you need, that tells you something.
02 — Design quality
Design quality, and how to judge it
Every designer shows you a portfolio of nice looking sites. Nice looking is the easy part.
Ask to see a site they built two years ago that is still live and still working. Anyone can make a launch day screenshot look good.
01
Does the site load fast?
Open their portfolio work on your phone, on mobile data, not office wifi. A beautiful site that takes six seconds to appear has already lost most of its visitors.
02
Can you tell what the business does within three seconds?
Clarity beats cleverness. If you have to hunt for it, so will their customers.
03
Is there an obvious next step on every screen?
Design with a purpose moves people towards an enquiry. Design as decoration just sits there.
04
Do the sites still look right on a phone?
Not shrunk down. Actually built for it. Most people will meet your business on a phone, in a queue, half distracted.
03 — SEO claims
SEO claims, and how to test them
This is where most of the nonsense lives. Almost every web designer in Edinburgh says their sites are SEO ready. Very few can tell you what that means. Here are fair questions to ask.
“What exactly do you do on-page?”
A real answer covers page titles, headings, structure, internal links, image handling and page speed. A vague answer about “SEO optimisation” means nothing.
“Will you connect Search Console, Analytics and Bing at launch?”
These are free, they take minutes, and they are how anyone knows whether the site is working. Skipping them is common and it leaves you blind.
“Can you show me a client who ranks?”
Not a screenshot of a keyword report. An actual business, in an actual competitive search, that you can go and check yourself right now.
“Do you use schema markup, and what for?”
If they know what this is, they are ahead of most. If they can explain why it matters for how AI tools and search engines understand your business, they are ahead of nearly everyone.
And the honest one nobody volunteers: a new website does not rank on its own. Anyone promising page one by launch day is guessing.
04 — After launch
Ongoing support, the part people find out about too late
This is the difference that shows up six months after launch, and it is the one worth interrogating hardest. More on what a care plan should cover in website maintenance.
Who actually answers when you email?
With an agency it is often an account manager who passes it on to a designer. That is a handoff, and handoffs are where things get lost in translation. Ask who you will be speaking to in month eight.
What counts as an update, and what counts as a new job?
Get this straight before you sign. Changing your opening hours should not generate an invoice and a two week wait.
What happens if you want to leave?
Ask who owns the domain, who owns the content, and what you walk away with. If the answer is uncomfortable, that is the answer.
How quickly do they respond?
Ask for a straight number, then ask a past client whether it is true.