5 Mistakes Small Businesses Make When Choosing a Web Designer
Choosing a web designer should be straightforward, but most small business owners make it harder than it needs to be. I’ve seen the same mistakes come up over and over again, and they usually end with wasted money, a rubbish website, or both.
Here are the five biggest mistakes I see, and how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: Choosing Based on Price Alone
I get it. You’re watching every penny. But the cheapest option is almost never the best option when it comes to web design.
I’ve had clients come to me after paying someone on Fiverr £50 for a website. The site looked terrible, didn’t work on mobile, had no SEO setup, and was built on a dodgy platform they couldn’t even log into. They ended up paying twice, once for the bad site and once for me to build them a proper one.
That doesn’t mean you need to spend thousands either. There’s a sweet spot where you get genuine quality at a fair price. For most small businesses, that’s somewhere between £400 and £1,500.
The question isn’t “how little can I spend?” It’s “what am I actually getting for my money?”
Mistake 2: Not Checking the Portfolio Properly
Most people glance at a designer’s portfolio and think “yeah, that looks nice.” But you need to dig deeper.
Visit the actual live websites in their portfolio. Not just the screenshots. Screenshots can be faked or heavily edited. Live sites tell the truth.
When you visit those sites, check:
- Does it load quickly or do you have to wait?
- Does it look good on your phone?
- Is the content clear and easy to read?
- Can you find the contact information easily?
- Does it feel professional and trustworthy?
If the answer to any of those is no, keep looking.
Mistake 3: Ignoring Mobile
This one shocks me every time. In 2026, over 60% of website traffic in the UK comes from mobile devices. If your website doesn’t work perfectly on a phone, you’re losing more than half your potential customers.
Some designers still treat mobile as an afterthought. They build a beautiful desktop site and then squash it down to fit a phone screen. That’s not good enough.
Your web designer should be building mobile-first, or at the very least testing thoroughly on mobile devices before launch. Ask them about this specifically. If they’re vague about it, that’s a bad sign.
Mistake 4: Not Getting Full Ownership
This is the one that really gets me. I’ve spoken to business owners who paid £2,000+ for a website only to discover they don’t actually own it.
Some designers and agencies build your site on their hosting, using their accounts, with their logins. If you want to leave, you either have to start from scratch or pay them a hefty “transfer fee.”
Before you sign anything, make sure you will get:
- Full admin access to your website
- Your own hosting account (not theirs)
- Your own domain registration
- All login credentials
- The ability to move your site to another host if you want to
WordPress makes all of this easy. It’s one of the many reasons I build everything on WordPress. You own your site, full stop.
Mistake 5: Overthinking the Design
I see this a lot. Business owners spend weeks agonising over font choices, colour shades, and animation effects. Meanwhile, their business doesn’t have a website at all and potential customers are going to competitors who do.
Your website doesn’t need to win design awards. It needs to:
- Look professional and trustworthy
- Load fast
- Tell visitors what you do
- Make it easy to get in touch
That’s it. A clean, clear website that does those four things will outperform a flashy, over-designed site every single time.
Don’t let perfectionism delay your launch. Get a solid site live, start getting enquiries, and refine it over time based on what actually works.
The Simple Approach That Works
Here’s what I recommend to every small business owner:
- Find a designer with a clear portfolio and fixed pricing
- Make sure they build on WordPress (or another open-source platform you own)
- Give them your content and let them do their job
- Get the site live within 2 weeks
- Focus on getting customers, not on tweaking pixels
It really doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
Need a Website Without the Drama?
I build professional WordPress websites for £400. Fixed price, fast turnaround, and you own everything. If you want to skip the mistakes and just get a great website, let’s have a chat.