Most "how to choose a web designer" advice is written for companies with a budget and a procurement process. You're a hardware store, a clinic, a contractor. Different problem. Here's the short checklist that actually predicts whether you'll be glad you hired them.
1. They'll tell you the price
The single best filter. If you can't get a number, or a clear range tied to what's included, before a sales call, walk away. Vague pricing is how small jobs become big invoices. Good people tell you what things cost because they're not afraid of the answer. Ours is on the pricing page in plain numbers for exactly this reason.
2. Ownership, answered in writing
Ask it directly, and make them answer in writing: "Who owns the domain, the data, and the project itself, and on what date?"
Two of those three are never negotiable. Your domain and your customer data must be in your name, in your accounts, on day one, on any plan, from anybody. A studio that holds either one is holding you, and no discount is worth it.
The project itself is a commercial choice, and this is the part most people get talked past. Pay for the build up front and you should own it outright on completion, with the source files listed as a deliverable. Pay nothing up front and somebody is carrying the build cost for you, so it is normal for them to keep the project until it is paid off. That is not automatically a bad deal. It only becomes one when nobody will say it out loud.
So the real test is not "do I own it." It is: can they tell you exactly who owns the project today, exactly what it costs to own it outright, whether that price falls as you pay, and exactly what happens to the site if you cancel. A straight answer to all four is the whole ballgame. Hesitation on any of them is the tell.
We hold ourselves to that. Buy a project from us once and it is yours on completion. Subscribe with nothing down and we own and run it until you buy it out, the buyout falls every month until it reaches zero, and if you cancel before then it comes down, because it is still ours. Your domain and your data are yours the entire time either way. See owner-of-record for the long version.
3. They've built small, real sites, not just big mockups
A portfolio of glossy enterprise concepts tells you nothing about whether they can make a five-page site for a feed store load fast and rank locally. Look for actual small-business work that's live, and open it on your phone. Small and real is a different skill than big and pretty, and it's the one you need.
4. They tell you when you need less
The best signal of someone you can trust with money: they talk you out of spend. If you ask for ten pages and you need three, a good designer says so. Anyone who upsells a small business into a package it doesn't need has shown you who they are. We'd rather sell you the smallest thing that solves the problem and earn the next job.
5. One human, reachable, who writes back
For a business your size, the agency org chart is a liability, not a feature. You want one person who knows your project, replies in plain language, and is still reachable after launch. Email them before you hire them and notice how, and whether, they respond. That's a preview of the whole relationship.
6. Speed and SEO are included, not "phase two"
A site that loads slowly or can't be found is decoration. Basic performance and SEO, fast pages, real titles and meta, schema, a sitemap, should be part of the build, not an upsell. If those are extra, the base thing isn't finished.
What doesn't matter as much as you think
Their town. Their size. Whether they use the trendiest tools. A good remote studio that does honest work beats a mediocre local one, and a small team that ships beats a big one that manages. Judge the work, the ownership terms, and how they treat you when there's no money on the table yet.
If you want to run this checklist on us specifically, that's fair, email info@mule-digital.com or send the brief at /project and watch how we answer. The answers are the audition.