What to Ask Before Hiring a Web Design Studio (And What the Answers Should Tell You)
If you've ever sat through a web proposal and felt like you needed a translator, you're not alone.
Someone says "we're recommending a headless CMS" or "the static build will improve your Core Web Vitals" and suddenly you're the one responsible for deciding whether that's right for your business. You don't know if the price is fair. You don't know what to push back on. You're signing off on something you don't fully understand because the people who built the proposal wrote it for each other, not for you.
That's a problem with how most web design and development work gets sold and delivered. It shouldn't work that way.
A good creative partner doesn't make you learn the language. They speak it so you don't have to.
Your CMS Choice Is a Strategy Decision
CMS stands for Content Management System. It's the platform that lets your team update the website without calling a developer every time you need to change a headline. WordPress, Drupal, and Sanity are the ones you'll see named in proposals most often.
The differences between them matter. A lot. But what matters more is whether the recommendation matches how your team actually works, what your site needs to do, and what your budget can sustain long-term. That's a strategic conversation, not a technical one. Your partner should come to you with a clear recommendation and a plain-language reason for it. Not a comparison chart that leaves the decision up to you.
If you're being handed options instead of a recommendation, ask why. A studio that's done this before knows which platform fits your situation. They should tell you.
Hosting Isn't Your Problem to Solve
Where your website lives affects how fast it loads, how secure it is, and what it costs to maintain. Modern platforms like Vercel and Netlify are the right call for most marketing sites. They're fast, they integrate cleanly with the way good studios build, and they're a fraction of the cost of enterprise hosting setups that most marketing sites don't need.
You shouldn't have to know any of that. Your web design partner should recommend the right hosting setup, explain what it costs, and own the rationale. If a proposal includes a hosting line item with no explanation, ask for one. "We use this because it's right for how we're building your site" is a full answer. "It depends" is not.
The same goes for security. A WAF (Web Application Firewall) is a layer that filters malicious traffic before it reaches your site. It's standard on any well-built production site. Your studio should include it. You shouldn't have to ask.
Performance and SEO Are the Same Conversation
A slow website doesn't just frustrate visitors. It hurts your search rankings. Google uses page speed as a direct ranking signal, and every extra second of load time costs you conversions. (Google's own documentation on Core Web Vitals makes this clear, and it's been part of their ranking algorithm since 2021.)
Good web design builds performance in from the start. Image compression, clean code, proper caching: this isn't extra credit. It's part of what you're paying for. A site that looks great but loads slowly is a site that isn't working.
Basic SEO should also be included in any web build without being sold as an add-on. Proper page titles, meta descriptions, mobile optimization, a sitemap: that's table stakes. If a proposal lists "basic SEO" as a separate line item, clarify what's actually included in the base build and what you're being asked to pay extra for.
If your partner can't show you Google Lighthouse performance scores from past work, that tells you something.
Accessibility Is a Requirement, Not an Add-On
Web accessibility is a legal consideration and a business one. ADA-based web accessibility lawsuits reached over 4,600 cases in 2023, a 14% increase from the previous year, according to accessibility research firm UsableNet. The standard most legal requirements reference is WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Your web build should meet it, and your partner should confirm that before launch, not after.
If you want to go deeper on what accessibility actually means, what the standards cover, and why it matters beyond compliance, we wrote a full breakdown: Accessibility Basics for Non-Technical Leaders. The short version for this context: if accessibility isn't in the proposal, ask about it before you sign.
Analytics Done Right From Day One Saves You Months of Pain Later
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the current analytics platform, and it's a meaningful departure from how older analytics worked. If it's not set up correctly from the start, you'll be cleaning up bad data for months.
Google Tag Manager is the tool that lets your marketing team add tracking, set up conversion events, and deploy pixels without pulling in a developer every time. It should be part of any standard web build.
Ask your partner how they handle analytics setup. "We'll hand that off to your marketing team" is not a sufficient answer. The setup should be done correctly before the site goes live, full stop.
What CRM Integration Actually Involves
Connecting your website's contact forms to HubSpot, Salesforce, or whatever platform your sales team uses sounds simple. It usually isn't.
Field mapping, duplicate record handling, API rate limits: the implementation is messier than it looks. A studio that's done it before will know where the complications live and how to handle them. Make sure the proposal specifies how data flows, not just that integration "will be included."
Quick Answers
Do I need to know what static vs. dynamic means?
No. Your studio should recommend the right architecture for your site and explain the reasoning in plain language. For most marketing sites, a static or hybrid build is faster, more secure, and cheaper to host. If your site doesn't need real-time data or a logged-in user experience, push back on proposals that default to fully dynamic architecture.
What should I actually ask when reviewing a web proposal?
Ask for Lighthouse performance scores from past work. Ask how accessibility is handled and when. Ask what's included in the base build versus what's an add-on. Ask for a clear recommendation on CMS and hosting with the reason behind it. If answers are vague, that's your signal.
How do I know if a web partner is actually senior-led?
Ask who will be making the architectural decisions and who owns QA before anything goes live. If the answer involves a rotation of contractors with no clear creative lead owning the final output, keep looking.
What's a reasonable hosting cost?
For a static marketing site: $0 to $50 per month on Netlify or Vercel.
For a WordPress site with moderate traffic: $30 to $100 per month on a managed host.
If a proposal is significantly higher than that for a standard marketing site, ask what's driving the cost.
The Takeaway
You don't need to become a developer to make good decisions about your website. You need a partner who's already made those decisions and can tell you clearly what they chose and why.
The best web design partners don't hand you options and wait for you to decide. They come with a recommendation, a rationale, and a clear scope. They own the technical decisions. They own quality control. And they don't disappear after launch.
If a proposal is written to impress rather than inform, trust that instinct. The right studio makes you feel confident, not confused. That's what the work is supposed to feel like from day one.
FifthHouse is a Nashville-based creative studio offering web design, brand identity, and fractional creative services to founders and marketing directors who are done managing the details themselves. Book a creative audit to see where your brand stands.
