How Do You Compare Web Design Proposals?

By Ryan Goering, founder and CEO of BaaDigi. Last updated: September 2026.

What should you bring to the first conversation?

Bring the current website, your actual services and coverage, the most important customer questions and the contact process. Show a problem if you can: a difficult mobile form, an unclear service menu or a page the office regularly has to explain. Keep style references separate from requirements so a visual preference does not become an unsupported business claim.

List existing accounts and content that must be preserved. Identify who can approve prices, credentials, project images and customer quotations. A designer should not fill gaps by inventing completed work or interpreting a qualification your team has not verified.

Which deliverables need an explicit line in the scope?

Ask how additions are priced and approved. “Unlimited support” is not useful if neither side defines a support request. A custom build does not automatically include all future features, copy changes or software subscriptions.

When is a focused repair enough?

Compare the proposed rebuild with fixing the demonstrated problem. A broken contact route may need a repair and a delivery test. Confusing service information may need a content and navigation revision. Ask what the current platform prevents before assuming it must be replaced.

The conversion-focused design guide provides a repair-versus-rebuild comparison. The website platform guides can help identify requirements, but platform names are not certificates of speed, usability or security.

What should be tested on mobile and with a keyboard?

Test the tasks a customer needs: find a service, confirm coverage, read the offer and contact the business. Check menu behavior, readable text, form labels, error messages and a usable recovery path. Follow W3C’s form guidance and verify the actual implementation; a mockup cannot prove a request is delivered.

Responsive and fast are separate tests. In the same audit set, 82.0% of sites were mobile responsive, yet 22.1% still scored under 50 on mobile PageSpeed; ask each proposal which pages it will measure and what score it commits to on a phone.

Measure important pages rather than promising a universal load time. Core Web Vitals describe loading, responsiveness and layout stability. Ask which measurements come from real visitors and which come from controlled tests. A laboratory score and a measured increase in qualified inquiries are different evidence.

How should existing search value be handled?

Inventory the old URLs before a migration. Retain useful addresses where practical, map necessary changes to relevant destinations and update internal links. Review priority pages and their current search records. Do not remove an article simply because it looks old or redirect unrelated material to the homepage.

The SEO audit checklist explains the evidence behind keep, improve and retire decisions. Ask who handles those decisions and who verifies the live result. Search work should be part of the agreed scope rather than an assumed side effect of new design.

What does BaaDigi publish about price?

The Stability Engine is $497 per month plus $995 setup, ad spend separate, with up to $1,600 per month of Google spend managed within it. That is an ongoing program, not a one-time custom website quote, so get a written scope for any extra integrations or development.

For any provider, list initial work, recurring hosting, maintenance, software licenses and optional services separately. Confirm which payments continue if marketing work stops and what is required to move the site. A clearer price comparison is more useful than an invented industry average.

What should happen at handoff?

Receive the agreed access, page inventory, migration record, support instructions and outstanding-issue list. Have the office verify the inquiry path under a labeled test procedure. Confirm that test events are excluded from business reporting and that someone owns issues discovered after launch.

Review qualified inquiries using the same definitions before and after the change. Account for traffic-source and seasonal differences. The measurement guide explains why more clicks or a better-looking site alone cannot establish a return.