What to Look for Before You Hire a Web Designer for Your Practice
Most health and wellness providers were never taught what to ask when hiring a web designer. They only find out something went wrong when they’re stuck—locked out of their own site, paying monthly fees for nothing, waiting weeks for basic updates that should take ten minutes
This post is about what to watch for before you sign anything, and what a good arrangement should look like.
The ownership question is the biggest one
You should own your website. Not your designer. Not their agency. You.
That sounds obvious, but it isn’t how many projects are structured. Some designers build on platforms they control, with accounts in their name. If you want to leave, you can’t take the site with you. Some agencies bundle ongoing fees that aren’t really tied to specific services, so it’s worth asking what you’re actually paying for.
A good arrangement: the site is built on a platform where you’re the account holder. The designer may hold the account during the build for practical reasons, but ownership transfers to you when the project is complete and you’ve paid your final invoice. After that, you can keep working with the same designer, hire someone else, or manage the site yourself. The choice is yours.
For my own projects, that's how I do it. I hold the account during the build, transfer it to you at final payment, and you're free to continue with me or not. I can stay on as an admin so you don't have to re-add me later, but I'm an admin on your account, not the account holder.
Watch for ongoing fees that don't make sense
Hosting has a real cost. Squarespace's Core plan, which is good for most of my clients, is around $275 per year. That’s the actual hosting cost, paid directly to Squarespace.
What’s worth questioning is when designers bundle ongoing monthly fees on top of that—fees not tied to specific services and not including design, SEO, or maintenance. If you’re paying $200 a month to keep your site online and can’t say what you’re getting, you may be paying for lock-in rather than service.
A retainer can make sense if you want ongoing support, monthly updates, content additions, or SEO work. That should be your choice. A retainer required just to keep your site running is different.
Make sure you can manage basic updates yourself
Whether you plan to or not, you should be able to log in and update simple things: your hours, a staff bio, a photo, pricing. These shouldn’t require a request to your designer and a two-week wait.
If a designer builds your site so they’re needed for every small change, that’s a problem. Not because involvement is bad, but because the site isn’t set up to work for your practice long-term. Things change in your business and you need to be able to keep up with them.
A good handoff means you leave with the ability to manage what was built: tutorials, documentation, enough context that you’re not calling your designer every time you need to swap a headshot.
Be cautious of guaranteed outcomes
Anyone who promises specific search rankings, traffic numbers, or client volume is either misleading you or using techniques that will eventually cause problems. There are too many variables outside any designer’s control—Google’s algorithm, your local market, your reputation, the patient experience after people find you—for those guarantees to be real.
What a good designer can promise is what they can control: a well-built site, clear copy, technical SEO foundations, accessibility, image optimization, analytics setup. They can tell you what they’re doing and why. They can’t tell you exactly how Google will respond or how many patients will book in your first month.
Honesty about that distinction is a feature, not a flaw.
Know what's included before you sign
Before you commit, you should be able to get clear answers about what’s in scope and what isn’t. Feel free to ask questions about: what’s included in the project fee, what’s separate (like hosting or a Squarespace plan), what you’re actually getting, including page count and revisions, what handoff includes, and what happens if you need changes during the project.
If a designer can’t answer those questions clearly before the project starts, that’s a setup for surprises. Clear scope upfront protects both of you.
A good arrangement
You own your website once the project is complete
You can manage basic updates yourself
There are no ongoing fees you can’t justify
Scope is clear before you sign
The designer is honest about what they can and can’t promise
When the project ends, it ends—unless you choose to keep working together
That’s not a high bar. It’s the baseline. If a designer you’re considering doesn’t meet it, that’s information worth considering.
If you're looking for someone who works this way
If you’re looking for someone who treats your website as your asset, not theirs, you’re in the right place. You can start here to see what working together looks like.
