What to Ask a Web Designer Before You Hire One for a Cafe
Short answer: before you hire anyone to build or redesign your cafe's website, get clear answers on who owns the domain, who has admin access to the platform, whether you can edit your own menu and hours without calling anyone, what a vague quote of SEO included actually includes, and what you get handed at the end of the project.
Most owners going into this hire are focused on portfolio and style, which matters, but it is not where the real risk sits. The real risk is a good looking website you cannot touch, built on an account you do not own, with SEO included meaning nothing more specific than a checkbox on a pitch deck. A designer can be talented and still leave you in that position, not out of dishonesty, just because ownership and handoff details are easy to skip past in a first conversation focused on design.
This is a checklist you can run on a thirty minute call with any candidate, organized into three groups: questions to ask before you hire, terms to get in writing in the contract, and items due at handoff when the project wraps. Mark each answer clear or vague as you go. A designer who answers these plainly, without hedging, is telling you something good about how they run their business, independent of whether their portfolio is the flashiest one you have seen.
None of this is about being adversarial with a designer before the relationship even starts. Most designers, freelance or small agency, are genuinely good at what they do and have no interest in locking a client into anything long term. The reason these questions still matter is that ownership and access details are easy to skip past in a conversation naturally focused on design direction and style, not because designers are commonly trying to withhold anything from a client. A short, plain checklist just makes sure the parts of the project that are easy to forget get covered before you sign anything at all.
Before You Hire: The Questions to Ask on the Call
Who owns the domain name, and in whose name will it be registered. The correct answer is you, the business owner, registered under your name or your business's name with your own contact information on file, not the designer's account. Domain registration information is public through ICANN's registrant data policies, and it is worth checking after registration that your business, not the designer, appears as the listed registrant on record.
Will I have full admin access to the platform, not just an editor role. The correct answer is yes, immediately, with your own login credentials, not shared credentials and not a promise to send access later. On Wix this typically means being added under Settings, Roles and Permissions, on Squarespace under Settings, Permissions, and on Shopify under Settings, Users, though exact menu names shift as platforms update their interfaces, so confirm the current path on the platform you are using rather than assuming these exact labels never change.
Can I edit my own menu, hours, and photos without contacting you. This is one of the most important questions on the entire list, because a beautiful site that requires a support ticket every time your hours change during a holiday is a site that will quietly go stale. A clear answer describes exactly which fields you can edit yourself and points to where in the dashboard you would do it, live, on the call if possible.
What does SEO included mean, listed as specific items. A vague answer says something like we handle all the SEO for you. A clear answer lists specific deliverables: page titles and meta descriptions written for each page, structured data or schema markup added, a sitemap submitted to Search Console, image files named and described properly, and a stated plan for what search performance monitoring, if any, continues after launch.
What happens if I want to switch designers or bring the work in house later. This question matters even if you have no plans to do that right now, because the answer tells you how portable your own website is. A clear answer confirms that since the domain, platform account, and analytics access all belong to you from the start, switching later is simply a matter of finding someone new to work within an account you already own, not a migration project of its own requiring extra time and effort.
Get It in Writing: Contract Terms to Look For
This post is not legal advice, and any contract worth signing is worth having reviewed by someone qualified to review it. That said, there are specific terms worth confirming are present in writing before you sign anything, because these are the terms most likely to be assumed rather than stated, and assumptions are exactly what cause disputes later.
The domain registrant should be named explicitly as you or your business, not the designer or their agency, with a stated timeline for when that registration transfers if the designer initially registers it on your behalf during setup. Platform account ownership should be stated the same way: the account itself, not just a user role within it, should belong to you.
The SEO included language, if used anywhere in the quote or contract, should be replaced with or accompanied by the specific list of deliverables discussed on the call. A generic promise with no list behind it is not something you can hold anyone accountable to later, since there is nothing specific to check the work against.
A redirect plan should be addressed if this is a redesign or a platform move rather than a brand new site, specifically what happens to your existing page addresses so that any existing search visibility and any external links pointing to your old pages are not simply broken when the new site goes live. And analytics access should be named specifically: your own named login to whatever analytics or search console tooling gets set up, not a shared or designer owned account you would lose access to if the relationship ends.
It is also reasonable to ask for a stated timeline in the contract, not just for the initial build, but for specific milestones along the way: when the domain transfer happens, when your admin access gets activated, and when the final walkthrough is scheduled. A contract with no dates attached to these specific items tends to let them slip quietly toward the very end of the project, or get forgotten once the site is live and everyone has moved on to the next thing entirely.
At Handoff: What Should Land in Your Hands
When the project wraps, a proper handoff includes your own admin login to the platform, confirmed working, not promised. It includes confirmation that the domain registrant is you or your business, checkable through the domain's public registrant information. It includes a walkthrough, live or recorded, of how to edit the fields you are most likely to need to change yourself: hours, menu items, photos, and any seasonal messaging.
It includes your own named access to whatever analytics or search console tooling was set up during the build, tested by you logging in yourself before the designer's engagement formally ends, not a screenshot or a promise that access exists somewhere. And if this was a redesign or migration, it includes confirmation that the redirect plan discussed earlier went live and is working, checked by visiting a handful of old page addresses yourself and confirming they land somewhere sensible rather than showing an error.
A designer who is confident in their own work will not hesitate to hand over a checklist like this and walk through it with you point by point. A vague or defensive reaction to a straightforward handoff request is itself useful information, regardless of how good the design work looks.
It is worth building a small amount of buffer time into the project timeline specifically for handoff, rather than treating it as something that happens automatically in the final hour of the engagement. Walking through admin access, testing analytics logins, and confirming redirects all take real time to do properly, and rushing through them at the very end of a project is exactly how small gaps slip through unnoticed, only to surface weeks later when you need to make a change yourself.
A Worked Example: Turning a Vague Quote Into a Clear Scope
A common vague quote line reads something like: full website design and build, mobile friendly, SEO included, fast turnaround. It sounds complete. It commits to almost nothing specific and leaves every important detail, ownership, access, and what SEO covers, unaddressed.
Rewritten as a clear scope, the same project might read: homepage, menu page, about page, and contact page designed and built on an agreed platform; domain registered in the business owner's name with registrant information confirmed at launch; owner granted full admin access with credentials tested before final payment; menu, hours, and photo fields editable by the owner without contacting the designer; page titles and meta descriptions written for each page; schema markup added for the business address and hours; sitemap submitted to Search Console under an account owned by the business; redirect plan for any existing page addresses if this replaces a prior site; and a recorded walkthrough of the admin dashboard delivered at handoff.
That is roughly ten specific, checkable deliverables instead of one vague sentence. It is not a longer commitment in terms of actual work, in most cases it describes exactly the same project a competent designer intended to deliver all along. It is simply written down clearly enough that both sides can check it against the finished result rather than relying on differing memories of what full website design and SEO included was supposed to mean, months later, when the details have faded for everyone involved.
What This Is Not: A Rebuild Might Not Be the Answer
Before you start interviewing designers at all, it is worth confirming a full rebuild is the right move. Plenty of cafe websites do not need to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch. They need the site that already exists made to work, updated content, working contact information, a menu that reflects what is served, basic technical fixes. A skilled designer, asked directly, should be willing to tell you honestly if a rebuild is not what your situation calls for, even though that answer costs them the larger project.
If a full rebuild genuinely is the right call, the questions in this post are what protect you through that process. If it is not, you have just saved yourself the entire hiring process by asking the right first question before any of the rest of this list becomes relevant.
There is no shame in either answer. Plenty of cafes do need a full rebuild, because the existing site sits on an unsupported platform, was never mobile friendly to begin with, or has accumulated enough small problems that a fresh start is faster than untangling what already exists. The point of asking the question first is simply making sure the decision to rebuild is a deliberate one, made with a clear reason attached to it, rather than a default assumption that a new website is always the answer to whatever is going wrong.
Related Reading
More from Hillcane on this topic, plus the pages on the site that sit next to the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the single most important question to ask a web designer before hiring them?
Whether you will have full admin access to the platform under your own login, confirmed working before final payment, not promised for later. Domain ownership and SEO scope both matter, but a site you cannot log into or edit yourself is the outcome that causes the most ongoing frustration, since it means every small change requires going back through the designer indefinitely.
Who should own the domain name for my cafe's website?
You, registered under your own name or your business's name, with your own email and contact information on the account. Ask the registrar for access in your own login, and after registration confirm through the registrar dashboard or an ICANN lookup that your business is the registrant rather than the designer or their agency, particularly if the designer set it up on your behalf.
What does SEO included mean in a typical web design quote?
It should mean a specific, listed set of deliverables: page titles and meta descriptions written for each page, structured data or schema markup added, a sitemap submitted to Search Console, image files properly named and described, and a stated plan for any ongoing monitoring. A quote that uses the phrase without listing what it covers is not something you can hold anyone accountable to later.
Should I be able to edit my own menu and hours without calling my designer?
Yes, this should be a baseline expectation for most cafe websites. Ask specifically which fields you can edit yourself and have the designer show you where in the dashboard that happens, ideally live on the call. A site that requires a support request for every hours change during a holiday season is a site that will quietly fall out of date.
What platforms are most cafes built on?
Across the more than 1,000 independent shops in Hillcane's own census, checked September 21, 2026, Shopify accounted for 318 sites, Squarespace 267, Square Online 131, WordPress 122, and Wix 97. That spread means you are reasonably likely to be discussing one of these platforms specifically, and it is worth confirming on the call exactly where admin access and permissions settings live on whichever platform your designer proposes.
Do I need a lawyer to review a web design contract?
This post is not legal advice, and any contract worth signing is worth having reviewed by someone qualified to review it, particularly for a larger project. At minimum, confirm the specific terms covered in this post are addressed in writing: domain ownership, platform account ownership, a listed SEO scope, a redirect plan if applicable, and named analytics access.
What should a proper website handoff include?
Five things, each tested rather than promised: your own admin login to the platform, confirmed domain registrant information showing you or your business as owner, a live walkthrough of how to edit hours, menu and photos, your own named analytics or Search Console access that you log into yourself, and, for a redesign, proof that the redirect plan is working on the old page addresses.
What is a redirect plan and when do I need one?
A redirect plan addresses what happens to your existing page addresses when you redesign or move platforms, so that any search visibility built up on your old pages, and any outside links pointing to them, are not simply broken when the new site launches. It matters for a redesign or migration; a brand new site with no prior pages does not need one.
How do I know if my cafe needs a full website rebuild?
Ask a candidate designer directly and see whether they answer honestly, even when a smaller fix costs them the bigger project. Many cafe sites need updated content, accurate hours and menu information, and basic technical fixes rather than a full teardown and rebuild. Confirming this before hiring can save the entire process if a rebuild is not the right call.
What is a red flag answer during a designer interview call?
A vague or defensive response to a direct question about access, ownership, or handoff. A confident designer will walk through exactly how admin access, domain registration, and handoff work without hesitation, because none of these are unusual or unreasonable requests. Hedging on these specific points is worth weighing seriously, regardless of how strong the portfolio looks.
Work with Hillcane
A designer can have great taste and still leave you unable to change your own hours. The questions that actually protect a cafe owner are about ownership, access, and handoff, not design style.
If you want a second set of eyes on a quote or a handoff before you sign anything, reach Hillcane at hillcane.co/contact or call (256) 384-2449.
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