There is no shortage of people offering to build you a website. Search for a web designer in Manchester and you will find city-centre agencies, one-person studios working from a spare room in Chorlton, and marketing companies that added websites to their list last year. Most of them can show you something attractive. Far fewer will build something that brings you enquiries and is still easy to live with two years from now.
This guide is the checklist we would give a friend. It applies whether you end up working with us or with someone else.
Start with what the website has to do
Before you compare anyone, write down the job the website has. “Look professional” is not a job. “Get landlords in South Manchester to ring us for a boiler quote” is. So is “let customers book a table without phoning” or “stop people asking the same six questions by email”.
A clear purpose changes the conversations you have. A good designer will ask about it in the first few minutes. If nobody asks what you want visitors to do, you are being sold a layout rather than a working website.
Judge their past work properly
Portfolios are chosen to flatter. Screenshots tell you very little, so open the live websites and test them the way a customer would.
- Use your phone, not your laptop. Most local searches happen on a phone. Is the text readable without zooming? Can you tap the phone number? Does the menu behave?
- Notice how quickly it loads. If a site in their own portfolio makes you wait, yours will too.
- Look for businesses like yours. A designer who has built for trades, shops or service firms similar to yours already understands what your customers look for.
- Check the site still exists. Websites that were quietly replaced a year later are worth asking about.
Then ask what they actually did on each project. Design only? The build as well? The wording? Some portfolios include work where the agency supplied a logo and nothing else.
Check who you would really be dealing with
You are about to hand over money and, in many cases, control of your domain name. Five minutes of checking is reasonable.
- If they trade as a limited company, look them up on the Companies House register. It is free and shows how long the company has existed and whether its filings are up to date.
- Look for a real address and a phone number that someone answers.
- Ask who will do the work. Plenty of firms sell locally and send the build elsewhere. That is not automatically a problem, but you should know who to speak to when something needs changing.
- Ask to speak to a past client, or find one of their clients yourself and ring them.
Questions to ask before you accept a quote
These questions separate a careful web designer from a careless one. None of them needs technical knowledge to ask, and the answers should come in plain English.
- Who will own the domain name and the website? The answer should be you, with the domain registered in your name and logins handed over at launch.
- What is it built on, and can I edit it myself? You should be able to change text, prices and photos without paying for every small edit.
- What exactly is included? Number of pages, rounds of revisions, contact forms, basic search engine set-up, and who writes the text.
- What will I pay every year after launch? Hosting, domain renewal, licences and any support plan. Ask for the yearly running costs in writing.
- How long will it take, and what do you need from me? Most delays come from missing content, so agree who supplies what and by when.
- What happens if I want to leave? A fair supplier lets you take the website and domain with you.
- Who do I contact when something breaks? And how quickly should you expect a reply?
Vague or irritated answers to any of these tell you how the relationship will feel six months in.
Compare quotes like for like
Three quotes for “a website” can differ by thousands of pounds because they describe three different things. Line them up against the same list before you look at the totals.
| What to compare | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Number of pages and who writes them | Copywriting is often left out, then becomes your evening job. |
| Custom design or an adapted template | Both can work. You should simply know which one you are paying for. |
| Revisions included | Unlimited changes sound generous; a set number keeps a project moving. |
| Yearly costs after launch | A cheap build with expensive hosting can cost more by year two. |
| Ownership and handover | Decides whether you can ever move to another supplier. |
| Support after launch | Someone has to apply updates and fix problems. |
The cheapest quote is sometimes the best value and the most expensive is sometimes padding. You can only tell once the columns match. If it helps to see what a published, fixed price looks like, our website packages list exactly what is included at each level.
Does your designer need to be local?
Honestly, no. A website can be built well from anywhere, and we work with businesses far from Manchester ourselves. Being nearby does have real advantages, though. You can meet in person if you prefer to talk things through across a table. A local designer knows the difference between Didsbury and Denton, which matters when your site needs to speak to customers in particular parts of the city. And you are dealing with a business that depends on its reputation in the same place you do.
Treat location as a tiebreaker, not the deciding factor. A careful designer two hundred miles away is a better choice than a careless one round the corner.
Warning signs worth walking away from
- Promises of a first-page Google position. Nobody controls Google’s results, and honest suppliers say so.
- A domain registered in the designer’s name “to keep things simple”.
- No written list of what is included.
- Pressure to pay everything up front before you have seen a design.
- A monthly contract you cannot leave without losing the website.
- No questions about your business, your customers or your competitors.
A short checklist to take with you
Know the job your website has to do. Test past work on your phone. Confirm who you are dealing with. Ask the seven questions and get the answers in writing. Compare quotes line by line, and keep ownership of your domain.
If you would like to put us through the same test, please do. EyeDevelop is based in Manchester, you can read who we are and how we work, and our website design service comes with fixed prices agreed before any work starts. If your business is local, our web design in Manchester page explains how we work with businesses across the city.