How to Choose a Web Designer in South Florida (A Vetting Checklist)

Every week a South Florida business owner hires the wrong web designer, and six months later I meet the aftermath: a site they do not own, on a platform they cannot leave, that has never once ranked for their own city. Here is the checklist I would hand my own family before they hired anyone, including before they hired me. Make whoever you talk to pass it.

Look at the portfolio like a detective

• Do their sites look like each other? Open three past projects. If they share the same bones with different colors, you are buying a template with a markup.
• Do the sites fit the businesses? A golf academy, an author, and a diesel mechanic should not feel like siblings. The design should come from the business, not from the designer's comfort zone.
• Are the sites still alive? Click through. Dead links and broken images on a designer's own portfolio pieces tell you what maintenance looks like after the invoice clears.
• Open them on your phone. Most of your customers will. Slow loads and pinch-zooming on a portfolio site are disqualifying.

The ownership questions

Ask these exactly, and write down the answers.

• When this is done, do I own the code, the domain, and the content? The only acceptable answer is yes, unqualified.
• If we part ways in a year, what do I walk away with? You should walk away with everything.
• Is my domain registered in my name and my account? Designers who register your domain under their own account are taking a hostage, whether they mean to or not.

The SEO questions

You do not need jargon. These three separate builders from decorators.

• What will my page titles be? Blank stare means they have never thought about how Google reads a site.
• Will the site have schema markup? A builder who knows what this is builds sites that are legible to Google and AI search from day one.
• Will you set up Google Search Console at launch? It is free, takes minutes, and skipping it means flying blind. There is no good reason to skip it.

The money questions

• Flat quote or hourly? For a defined small business site, flat protects you. Hourly on a vague scope is how $1,500 becomes $4,000.
• What is included, in writing? Mobile build, SEO structure, launch checks. The cheap quote that excludes all three is the expensive quote.
• What are the ongoing costs? Hosting, domain, and any platform fees, itemized. Surprise monthly fees are the oldest trick in this trade.

Red flags that end the conversation

• Guaranteed Google rankings baked into the pitch.
• They cannot show you a site they built for a business like yours in size, not necessarily in industry.
• You cannot figure out who will actually do the work.
• Pressure to sign today for a discount that expires tonight.

A fair disclosure

I run a one-person studio in this market, so I have a horse in this race. That is exactly why everything above is verifiable rather than a matter of taste: check the portfolio sites are live and different from each other, get the ownership answers in writing, and make every candidate, including me, pass the same checklist.

Vetting me is easy: the work is on the site, and the quote is flat. Start whenever you are ready.