I am from Monte Alto, a small city in the interior of São Paulo state, Brazil, and I build websites. So it is worth saying right at the start: this post is not meant to convince you to hire me. It is what I would look at if I were on the other side, choosing someone to build my company's website — whether that person is local, from the region or from anywhere else. The examples come from here, but the criteria work in any small city.
I also work remotely, for clients here and abroad. So I know being nearby helps with some things, but on its own it is not a quality criterion.
Before you start looking, know what you need
Comparing proposals gets much easier when you can answer three questions:
- What is the site for? Getting inquiries over WhatsApp, showing your work, explaining services, selling online.
- Who will write the copy and provide the photos? You, the professional or a third person.
- Who will update it later? If you want to edit it yourself, that changes the tool and the budget.
If you are still deciding between a single page and a full website, this post on business websites helps.
What to ask
A few questions quickly separate people who have a process from people who improvise:
- Can I see live websites you have built? Open them on your phone. Check whether they load fast, whether the text is readable, whether the contact button works.
- Who does what? Design, development, copy. Working alone or with partners is normal; what matters is that you know who does each part.
- Whose name will the domain, hosting and code be in? The right answer is: yours.
- How do the stages and approvals work? How many rounds of revisions are included?
- What happens after launch? Is there a period for adjustments? Is maintenance optional or mandatory, and what does it include?
- Does the site launch with basic SEO? Titles, descriptions, sitemap, structured data, a link to your Google Business Profile.
Someone who works with a process answers all of this calmly, and in writing.
Red flags
None of these proves bad faith, but all of them deserve a second conversation:
- A promise of the number one spot on Google. Google itself warns that nobody can guarantee that.
- The domain registered in the professional's name, or hosting you have no access to. The day the relationship ends, the site goes with it.
- A price without a written scope. "I'll build your site for X" without saying how many pages, what is included and what is not.
- A portfolio made only of images, without a single live site link.
- A ready-made template sold as exclusive. Using a template is not a problem; hiding it is.
- Pressure to close today, with a discount that expires tomorrow.
- No contract.
What a good proposal contains
A good proposal is a little boring to read, in a good way: it leaves little to interpret later.
| Item | What should be in writing |
|---|---|
| Scope | pages, sections and features included |
| Out of scope | what is not included and how it would be billed separately |
| Timeline | weeks or dates per stage, and what depends on you |
| Price and payment | total, installments and what triggers each payment |
| Revisions | how many rounds of changes per stage |
| Ownership | domain, hosting, code and access in your name |
| After launch | adjustment period, support and maintenance |
| Recurring costs | domain renewal, hosting, email |
As a timeline reference, the ones I usually work with are: landing page in 5 to 10 business days, a business website in 2 to 4 weeks and a site with a blog or content area in 4 to 6 weeks. The exact timeline for each project goes in the proposal. Much shorter or much longer timelines are not necessarily wrong, but it is worth asking why.
If you want to see how a project usually moves from briefing to launch, I described the stages in the website creation process.
Local or remote?
Hiring someone from your own city has real advantages: they know the region, understand how local customers search and can sit down with you to talk. For many people, that is worth a lot.
Remote work goes well when the process is written down: briefing, proposal, a contract signed digitally, previews by link and approvals by message. That is how I work, asynchronously and without mandatory meetings — I do a call when it genuinely helps. If you prefer frequent in-person meetings, another kind of professional will probably suit you better, and that is fine.
What does not change in either case: the site needs to be found. Whoever builds yours should understand at least the basics of local SEO — Business Profile, consistent details, schema — or, at the very least, not break what already exists.
One last criterion
After talking to two or three people, ask yourself: with whom did I best understand what I am going to get? Clarity before the contract is usually a good sign of clarity during the project.
If you received a proposal and would like a second opinion, even if you are not going to hire me, you can send it through the contact page.
References
- Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO? — questions to ask before hiring and promises to be wary of.
- Nielsen Norman Group: Trustworthiness in Web Design — what makes a website credible.
- web.dev: Web Vitals — the metrics to check whether a site loads and responds well.