What is the full cost, including renewals?
Ask for the build charge, billing schedule, required subscriptions, and optional care to be shown separately. Compare the first year with a normal renewal year: a promotion can make those totals different.
DVS's business website packages currently list $299.95, $499.95, and $950.95 for different page counts; stores are quoted separately. The domain offer is one year with our hosting. Confirm hosting after the included period, domain renewal, email, and any apps before deciding.
Which pages and tasks are actually included?
A page count does not explain the whole job. List the pages, design work, content responsibilities, product uploads, forms, integrations, revisions, and testing. Ask which items are exclusions or separately quoted work.
For a store, confirm product and variant counts. For a service business, identify whether people need to request a quote, book an appointment, or simply find contact information.
Who owns the domain, site, and accounts?
Ask whose name the domain is registered in, who owns the website or store account, and who controls billing. Confirm access to your content and assets, the relevant licenses, and any conditions for transfer or handoff.
Do not assume that owning a domain means every part of a platform-built website can be exported unchanged. Ask what can move, what would need rebuilding, and what happens if you change providers. Get the actual arrangement in writing.
How will I update the website?
Discuss the changes your team expects to make: opening hours, service pages, projects, products, prices, or blog posts. Ask for a demonstration of the editing workflow and what training or documentation is included.
Find out which changes you can make yourself, which require a developer, and how future work is priced. The cheapest setup is not necessarily the easiest one for your team to manage.
What does the SEO work cover?
Ask for specific deliverables, such as page titles, headings, internal links, crawlable content, redirects where needed, and mobile checks. Separate those launch foundations from an ongoing content or local-search campaign.
Agree on what will be measured and who can access the reports. Be cautious about promises of guaranteed rankings, traffic, or sales: a website quote should describe work, not claim control over every search result.
What could change the launch date?
DVS's typical estimate is 2-4 weeks depending on complexity, not a guaranteed deadline for every project. Content readiness, catalog data, integrations, and feedback affect the schedule.
Agree on who provides copy and photos, when approvals are needed, and which tasks must be completed before launch. A written milestone list is more useful than an optimistic date without dependencies.
Can I inspect relevant work?
Look at actual websites on desktop and phone. Follow the navigation, inspect the content, and consider how a visitor would contact the business or choose a product. Ask what the designer's role was and which constraints shaped the work.
Our project archive includes business websites and storefronts. The Canario Detailing project shows a service inquiry journey; CARBON.DEPT shows a product-led store. A visual preview is evidence of presentation, not proof of a revenue increase.
What happens after launch?
Confirm account invitations, billing ownership, documentation, training, backups where applicable, and the process for reporting a problem. Ask what is covered by maintenance and how out-of-scope changes are handled.
Keep a record of the agreed scope and access arrangements. Use appropriate account invitations for project access instead of sending passwords by email. For an existing site, discuss the redesign and launch checklist before replacing it.
Before you approve a proposal
Keep the scope, required costs, ownership arrangements, launch responsibilities, and post-launch work together in writing. For a product-led project, review our Shopify website design service. For a business website, start with the published packages and discuss any additional requirements.
