You will see trade websites advertised from a few hundred dollars. Some of those are good value. Some of them are a lease dressed up as a purchase, and you find out which when you try to leave.
These are the five questions I would ask anyone quoting you, me included.
1. Whose name is the domain registered in?
The domain is the most valuable thing in the whole arrangement. It is your address and what your email hangs off, and it is the one asset that carries years of accumulated search history.
If it is registered in your web person’s name, or their company’s, you do not own it. You are relying on their goodwill, and if the relationship goes cold (they get busy, go quiet or stop trading) you end up negotiating for your own business name.
The answer you want: registered in your name or your business’s name, with you listed as the registrant, and you can see that on the register.
I buy and maintain the domains for my clients because it is one less thing on their desk, but they are registered to them and they can take them anywhere.
2. What happens to the site if I stop paying you?
Ask it exactly like that, and listen carefully.
There is a difference between “you keep the site and move it wherever you like” and “the site goes offline”. A monthly fee that covers hosting and maintenance is completely reasonable. A monthly fee that is the only thing keeping your site alive, on a platform you cannot export from, is a different product.
The answer you want: the site is yours, you can export it, and stopping the monthly plan means you move hosting rather than lose the site.
3. Can I get the actual files?
Meaning the site itself: the code, the content and the images. A PDF of the design does not count.
Some platforms cannot do this, by design; it is their business model. That is not fraud, and plenty of people are happy with it, but you should know before you sign rather than two years in, when you want a different look and discover the whole thing has to be rebuilt from scratch.
The answer you want: yes, on request, without a fee.
4. Who controls the Google Business Profile?
This one catches people out because it feels like a small thing.
Your Google Business Profile is often where customers land before they ever reach your website. If someone set it up under their own Google account and never transferred ownership, then your reviews, your photos and your hours are sitting in an account you cannot get into.
The answer you want: it is owned by your Google account, and anyone helping you is added as a manager. Managers can be removed. Owners cannot, easily.
5. Is there a contract term, and what is the exit?
There usually is a contract, and that is fine. What matters is whether there is a term, and what leaving costs.
A fixed build price with an optional monthly plan you can cancel is one thing. A low build price attached to a 24- or 36-month agreement is another, and the total is often more than the quote you turned down.
The answer you want: you can leave with reasonable notice and nothing is held hostage on the way out.
Why I put this in writing
It is the thing I am most confident about, and these questions are worth asking whoever you hire.
Everything I build is owned outright by the client: the site, the domain and the content. The Care Plan covers hosting, the domain and updates from $49 a month and it is what I recommend, but it is optional, there is no term, and leaving means moving hosting rather than losing anything. The prices are published rather than hidden behind a sales call.
If you already have a site and you are not sure which of the five answers you would get, send me the link. I will tell you what I can see from the outside (registrar, platform, whether the profile matches) and you can take it from there. There is no charge for the look.