Web Design in Garden Grove

One page: what the business does, the site's single main goal (calls, bookings, orders), the pages you need, 2-3 example sites you like and why, your content status (ready or needed), deadline, and budget range. Sharing your real budget gets you an honest proposal instead of a guessing game.

If you take fewer than a handful of orders a week, a brochure site with a contact/order form or a payment link costs half as much and launches faster. Move to full e-commerce (cart, inventory, shipping rules) when order volume makes manual handling the bottleneck.

You should. Insist that the domain is registered in YOUR name (not the designer's), you hold the hosting account credentials, and the contract transfers full rights to the design and code on final payment. Designer-owned domains are the single most common lock-in trap in this industry.

Morally yes, legally increasingly so — several markets now enforce accessibility standards (WCAG) for business websites, and lawsuits and fines are real in some countries. Practically: proper headings, alt text, keyboard navigation and color contrast cost little at build time and a lot to retrofit. Ask your designer to build to WCAG 2.1 AA.

No contract, no portfolio of live sites, registering the domain in their own name, 'free' websites with mandatory monthly fees, 100% payment up front, and guaranteed #1 Google rankings. The domain-ownership trap is the costliest — walking away can mean losing your web address.

Fixed price for a defined scope (a 5-page site with listed features) protects both sides; hourly suits ongoing work and vague scopes. Standard payment structure is 30-50% deposit, remainder on launch — never pay 100% up front, and be wary of anyone who asks.

Typically $50-150/hr, with basic custom sites at $500-5,000 and small-business projects commonly landing at $2,000-10,000. Agencies start around $5,000-15,000 for comparable scope with more process and strategy.

Consumer-facing businesses — restaurants, retail, medical, services — are the main targets of serial plaintiffs, and settlements typically cost more than building accessibly would have. Ask for WCAG 2.1 AA and keep an accessibility statement page.