Free Resource · Buyer's Guide
How to Choose the Right Web Designer:
A Due Diligence Checklist
Most businesses trying to figure out how to choose a web designer Amarillo business owners can actually trust end up hiring the same way they'd hire a contractor they found on a flyer — based on a website, a few testimonials, and a price that seemed reasonable. This guide exists to change that. Every question here is designed to surface information vendors rarely volunteer, and every verification step tells you where to go to confirm what you've been told.
The digital marketing space has a structural information problem: vendors control their own narrative almost entirely. Their website, their testimonials, their case studies, their claimed credentials — all of it is self-published editorial content, written to persuade rather than inform. That doesn't make it false, but it does mean the buyer's job is to verify rather than simply read.
The questions below are organized into four categories that mirror how a rigorous evaluation should actually proceed: establishing identity first, then technical capability, then business practices, and finally the relationship terms. Work through them in order. The answers — and the vendor's willingness to provide them — will tell you more than any pitch deck.
Before you begin: Run the vendor's own website through Google PageSpeed Insights before your first meeting. A web design firm that scores below 70 on mobile performance for its own site is demonstrating its standards in the most direct way possible. This single step takes 60 seconds and is the fastest due diligence available.
The 12 Questions
Category 1 — Identity & Legitimacy
Who owns and operates this business — and can you verify it?
Many web design firms present a polished brand without making ownership easy to identify. You should be able to find the owner's name, a physical business address, and verifiable professional history before engaging. Anonymous or vague ownership is a meaningful transparency gap.
How to verify
Search the Texas Secretary of State's business lookup at sos.state.tx.us. Cross-reference the registered agent name with the owner's LinkedIn profile. If the business has no registered entity or uses a P.O. box as its only address, ask why.
⚠ Red flag: No named owner, no verifiable physical addressIs this business BBB accredited, and what does its rating history show?
BBB accreditation is not a guarantee of quality, but it does require businesses to agree to standards of transparency and commit to resolving disputes. A business that has chosen not to seek accreditation isn't automatically disqualified — but it's worth understanding why, particularly if the business has been operating for several years.
How to verify
Search bbb.org directly. Look not just at the rating but at the complaints section — specifically whether complaints were resolved or ignored. A business with a lower rating but a history of resolving complaints can be more trustworthy than one with a high rating but no complaint history simply because it lacks enough volume to be evaluated.
⚠ Red flag: Complaints closed without resolution, or no BBB record at all for a long-established businessAre their reviews specific, recent, and independently verifiable?
Review volume is far less meaningful than review quality. Ten detailed reviews describing specific projects and outcomes are worth more than fifty generic five-star ratings. Equally important: when were the reviews written? A cluster of reviews from several years ago with nothing recent is a signal worth noting.
How to verify
Cross-reference reviews across Google, BBB, Clutch, and UpCity. On Google, click through to individual reviewers' profiles — if they have no other review history, or if multiple reviewers joined Google the same month, that pattern warrants skepticism. On Clutch, reviews are client-verified by the platform before publishing, making them generally more reliable than unverified Google reviews.
⚠ Red flag: Reviews with no specifics, all posted within a short window, or reviewers with no other activityCategory 2 — Technical Capability
Can they share PageSpeed Insights scores for three recently completed client sites?
This is the single most revealing technical question you can ask. Google PageSpeed Insights is a free, public tool that measures how fast and well-built a website is on both mobile and desktop. A web designer's portfolio sites are the most direct evidence of the technical quality they deliver. Any professional who builds to a strong standard should be able to produce these numbers without hesitation.
How to verify
Run the URLs yourself at pagespeed.web.dev. Focus on the mobile score and the three Core Web Vitals: LCP (loading speed, target under 2.5s), INP (interactivity, target under 200ms), and CLS (visual stability, target under 0.1). A portfolio of sites consistently scoring below 70 on mobile is a meaningful indicator of build quality.
⚠ Red flag: Vendor is unfamiliar with PageSpeed Insights, or declines to share scoresIs the portfolio work genuinely custom, or are purchased themes being presented as original design?
Template-based web design is not inherently wrong — but it becomes a problem when presented as custom work, or when clients are charged custom design prices for a theme anyone can purchase for $49. The practice is more common in the local market than most buyers realize, and it significantly affects the value of what you're paying for.
How to verify
Take three portfolio sites and search their visual style or layout description on ThemeForest.net or ElegantThemes.com. You can also right-click any portfolio site, view page source, and search for theme identifiers like "theme-name" or generator meta tags. Tools like BuiltWith.com can reveal the theme and platform used.
⚠ Red flag: Multiple portfolio sites share identical layouts or structures, or vendor cannot explain the design rationale for each projectIs SEO built into the site from the beginning, or is it an optional add-on after launch?
Search engine optimization that is architected into a website from the ground up performs fundamentally differently from SEO applied as a layer on top of a completed build. Technical SEO decisions — site structure, URL schema, heading hierarchy, page speed, schema markup, internal linking — are made during development. Retrofitting them is possible but more costly and less effective.
How to verify
Ask the vendor to walk you through how SEO is incorporated into their development process — specifically at what stage keyword research, title tag strategy, and technical structure are addressed. A vendor who treats SEO as a separate deliverable or a monthly service add-on rather than a foundational build consideration is telling you something important about their methodology.
⚠ Red flag: "We can add SEO after launch" or SEO is presented only as a recurring upsellWho actually builds the site — in-house staff or offshore subcontractors?
Subcontracting is not inherently problematic, but undisclosed subcontracting is. If the person who takes your money and the person who builds your website are different people operating in different countries with different standards expectations and no direct accountability to you, your ability to address quality issues, request changes, or maintain continuity is materially affected.
How to verify
Ask directly: "Who will be writing the code and building the design for my project? Are they employees of your firm or independent contractors? Are they based in the US?" A straightforward answer given without hesitation is itself a positive signal. Vague responses about "our team" or "our partners" warrant follow-up.
⚠ Red flag: Evasive answer, or inability to name the individuals who will work on your projectCategory 3 — Business Practices
Will you own your domain, hosting account, and CMS credentials outright?
This question protects you against one of the most common and damaging dynamics in the web design industry: a business owner who cannot access, move, or control their own website because the vendor retains ownership of core accounts. It is not unusual for businesses to discover — only after a relationship ends badly — that they do not legally control the digital property their vendor built.
How to verify
Before signing anything, confirm in writing that: (1) your domain is registered in your name with you as the registrant; (2) hosting is billed to and controlled by an account in your name; (3) your CMS (WordPress, etc.) has an admin account with credentials that belong to you. If a vendor registers these on your behalf, insist the accounts be transferred to you before the project begins.
⚠ Red flag: Vendor insists on holding domain or hosting accounts "for simplicity"What does post-launch support actually look like — and what does it cost?
The launch date is where many vendor relationships begin to deteriorate. A website requires ongoing maintenance: security updates, plugin or CMS version patches, content changes, performance monitoring, and occasional troubleshooting. Understanding exactly what is included, what triggers an additional charge, and what the response time commitment is before you sign is far easier than negotiating it after a problem has occurred.
How to verify
Ask for the support terms in writing, specifically: What is the response time for a site outage? What is included in any maintenance retainer? What happens if I need changes that fall outside the retainer scope? Ask a current client of the vendor whether the post-launch support experience matched what was promised.
⚠ Red flag: Vague post-launch terms, no written support agreement, or "we'll figure it out as we go"What are the contract exit terms if the relationship doesn't work out?
Every vendor relationship has the potential to end before either party expects. Understanding the exit terms before you sign is not pessimistic — it is the same due diligence you would apply to any significant business contract. The terms that matter most are data portability (can you take your content and files?), contract termination notice periods, and what happens to your site if you stop paying a monthly fee.
How to verify
Request the full contract before signing and review specifically: termination clause, data export provisions, and any language about IP ownership. If the vendor uses a hosted platform (rather than self-hosted WordPress), understand what "taking your site with you" actually means on that platform — some do not support migration at all.
⚠ Red flag: No written contract, or contract language that gives the vendor ownership of your content or design assetsCategory 4 — References & Final Verification
Can you provide two or three clients I can contact directly — not just written testimonials?
Testimonials on a vendor's website are curated by the vendor. They represent the best possible version of client feedback, selected specifically because they are positive. A live reference conversation with a current or recent client — one you contact yourself rather than one the vendor arranges — is categorically more valuable. What a client says when they're not being quoted is often the most useful information available.
How to verify
Ask for three references and contact all three. Useful questions: How long did the project actually take versus what was estimated? Were there unexpected costs? How was communication during the build? What has post-launch support been like? Would you hire them again, and if so, what would you do differently?
⚠ Red flag: Vendor cannot provide live references, or references are clearly unprepared for your callHow does the vendor's own digital presence hold up to the same standards they're selling you?
A vendor's own website and online presence is the most freely available portfolio piece they have — and the one they have the most control over. If a web design firm's own site loads slowly, has inconsistent mobile rendering, lacks basic SEO structure, or presents inaccurate business information across platforms, that observable evidence matters more than any pitch about the quality of work they promise to deliver for you.
How to verify
Run their website through Google PageSpeed Insights. Check their Google Business Profile for completeness, photo recency, and review response pattern. Search their business name on BBB. Run their URL through BuiltWith.com to understand what technology their own site uses. A vendor who maintains their own presence well is demonstrating care — and one who does not is demonstrating something equally telling.
⚠ Red flag: Mobile score below 70, outdated or incomplete Google Business Profile, or own site built on a basic templateSave or Print This Checklist
Take this into any vendor meeting. Print it, save the page, or return here anytime.
🖶 Print Checklist ← Back to RankingsThe questions above are not intended to make hiring a web designer feel adversarial. Most vendors in this market are operating in good faith. The goal of this checklist is to give you a framework for telling the difference between a vendor who can substantiate their claims and one who cannot — before you've signed a contract and written a check.
The Online Trust Index publishes independent evaluations of web design companies in the Texas Panhandle region. Our ranked list for Amarillo — which includes PageSpeed audit data, BBB records, and honest assessments of each firm's limitations — is available at onlinetrustindex.com.
Published by the Online Trust Index · W.R. Merritt, Director of Evaluation · April 2026 · onlinetrustindex.com