Choosing a designer.
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.
Questions worth asking.
- Who will actually build it?
- Will you still be here after launch?
- Do I own it, or am I renting it?
- Can I change it myself?
- Who writes the words?
- What happens when something breaks?
- Can I take it somewhere else?
- What's in the price, and what isn't?
- Will anybody find it on Google?
- What would rule you out?
Ask me all ten. If an answer is vague, that is the answer.
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 is why telling a freelance designer worth hiring from one who isn't comes down to what you ask rather than what they claim.
So here's what actually separates them, and the questions that expose the difference.
Step one.
01. 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're 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. The affordable way to start properly. It isn't a lesser website, it's 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, and the tools you already use connected up. Right when your website has to do a job, not just describe one.
Online selling or bespoke.
Full online selling, custom functionality, or something that doesn't exist off the shelf. This is a project measured in months, with proper planning and testing.
If a designer quotes you before understanding which of these you need, that tells you something. There's more on what each of these costs on the web design page.
Step two.
02. 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's still live and still working. Anyone can make a launch day screenshot look good.
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.
Can you tell what the business does within three seconds?
Clarity beats cleverness. If you have to hunt for it, so will their customers.
Is there an obvious next step on every screen?
Design with a purpose moves people towards an enquiry. Design as decoration just sits there.
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.
Step three.
03. 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 the page?"
A real answer covers page titles, headings, structure, internal links, image handling and page speed. A vague answer about optimisation means nothing.
"Will you connect Search Console, Analytics and Bing at launch?"
These are free, they take minutes, and they're how anyone knows whether the site is working. Skipping them is common and it leaves you blind.
"Will my business appear in the map results?"
That's local SEO, and it's mostly driven by your Google Business Profile, your listings and your reviews, not by your website design. If they treat the two as the same thing, they don't do local SEO.
"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're ahead of most. If they can explain why it matters for how AI tools and search engines understand your business, they're ahead of nearly everyone.
And the honest one nobody volunteers: a new website doesn't rank on its own. Anyone promising page one by launch day is guessing.
Step four.
04. Ongoing support, the part people find out about too late.
This is the difference that shows up six months after launch, and it's the one worth interrogating hardest.
There's more on what a care plan should cover on the website maintenance page.
Who actually answers when you email?
With an agency it's often an account manager who passes it on to a designer. That's a handoff, and handoffs are where things get lost. Ask who you'll 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 shouldn't 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's the answer.
How quickly do they respond?
Ask for a straight number, then ask a past client whether it's true.
Ask me all of it.
Half an hour on a call, and you can put every question on this page to me. If the answer rules me out, that's a useful half hour too.
Working out the budget first? The Edinburgh pricing guide sets out what moves a quote.