Web design
How to choose a web designer (from the people who rebuild bad ones)
Published May 31, 2026 · 4 min read
We rebuild websites for a living, and the same site keeps landing on our desk. Good-looking. About a year old. Has not produced a single call. The owner paid four or five figures for a brochure. Before you hire anyone, here is what is almost always wrong with that site, so you do not buy the same thing twice.
What the site that never rings the phone has in common
- The homepage talks about the company, not the customer. "Welcome, we are passionate about quality." Nobody hires a vibe. They hire the business that clearly solves their problem in the first five seconds.
- On a phone, the number is not tappable. Most of your visitors are on mobile, and they will not copy and paste a phone number. They leave.
- There is no single page built to rank for the one thing people actually search. The site exists and is still invisible on Google for "your service, your city."
- It loads slowly on a phone. A few seconds in, half the traffic is gone, and Google noticed too.
None of that is about looks. A site can be beautiful and do every one of these. That is the trap, and it is the one most quotes are happy to sell you.
The 7 questions that expose a weak web designer
Ask these. The good answer and the walk-away answer are usually obvious the second they open their mouth.
1. What is this site supposed to make happen?
Good answer: A number. Calls, quote requests, booked jobs.
Walk-away answer: "A modern, professional online presence."
2. Can I see sites you built that are live and ranking today?
Good answer: Real URLs you can open and Google yourself.
Walk-away answer: A gallery of screenshots, or links that 404.
3. Who owns the domain, hosting, and code when we are done?
Good answer: You do, all of it.
Walk-away answer: They keep the domain "for convenience." That is a hostage, not a convenience.
4. Is it built to be found on Google, or only to look good?
Good answer: They can name the search terms they are building you to rank for.
Walk-away answer: "SEO" floated as a vague upsell with no specifics.
5. How fast will it load on a phone, and is the number tappable?
Good answer: They treat the mobile version as the real one, because it is.
Walk-away answer: They show you the desktop mockup and never mention phones.
6. What happens after launch?
Good answer: A clear plan for edits and support.
Walk-away answer: A fee for every word you want changed.
7. What is not included?
Good answer: A straight list (copy, photos, revisions).
Walk-away answer: A rock-bottom price with the expensive parts quietly missing. Cheap sites are cheap because the parts that earn are the parts left out.
Why this is the team we built
We built and scaled our own businesses before we built a site for anyone else, including a brand we took from 14 thousand to over a million in revenue. We shoot the photo and video in house through our studio, Arc Creative. So we do not hand you a brochure and walk away. We build the thing that books work, because we have run the businesses that depend on it.
If your current site looks fine and does nothing, that is the exact problem we fix.
Want a site that books work?
That is exactly what we build. See how we do it, or tell us about your business.
Common questions
How much should a small business website cost?+
It depends on what the site has to do, but watch the cheapest quote. The parts that bring in work (copy that sells, a page built to rank, real tracking) are usually the parts a cheap build leaves out.
How long should a good website take?+
For most local businesses, weeks. A build dragging past a few months is usually a scope or communication problem, not a design one.
Does my web designer need to be local?+
It helps. We are in London, Ontario, so we can sit across the table from you and we know the market you sell to. We also work with clients across Canada and the US.