Whether you choose FORM & FRAME or somebody else, these eight questions will help you find a designer who does right by your business — and spot the ones who won't before you've paid a deposit.
1. Look at real work, on your phone
Open their portfolio on your phone, not just a laptop. Does it look good, load quickly, and feel considered? Most of your own customers will meet your new website on a phone too — if a designer's own portfolio is slow or awkward on mobile, that's a preview of what you'll get.
2. Check they design mobile-first
Ask directly: "do you design for mobile first, or desktop first?" Mobile-first isn't a buzzword — it changes how navigation, forms and images are built from the ground up.
3. Ask who owns what
You should own your domain outright, registered in your name. Ownership of the design and code you've paid for should be agreed in writing before work starts. Walk away from anything verbal here — this is the single most common source of disputes after launch.
4. Get a clear quote, in rand
A proper quote spells out the scope, the timeline, and — just as importantly — what is not included. A vague one-line price is a red flag for scope disagreements later.
5. Ask about SEO and speed
A good designer builds technical SEO foundations and page speed in from the start, rather than treating them as an afterthought you'll have to pay to fix later. Ask specifically what's included: page titles and meta descriptions, image compression, a sitemap, basic schema markup.
6. Understand how you'll actually communicate
Who will you speak to, how often, and on what channel? WhatsApp, email and scheduled calls all work — what matters is that it's agreed upfront, not discovered three weeks in when you can't get a response.
7. Find out what happens after launch
Launch day isn't the finish line. Ask: who fixes things if something breaks? Who updates content? Who looks after hosting, backups and security? If the answer is vague, budget for finding someone else within the year.
8. Be wary of guarantees
Nobody can honestly promise you "number one on Google" or a specific number of sales — not us, not anyone. A designer who builds the real foundations (speed, structure, local SEO basics) gives you the best realistic chance; a designer who guarantees rankings is telling you something that isn't true.