Website Design Questionnaire: 43 Questions + Free Template

Most website design questionnaires online are written for designers to send to their clients. This one is the other way round: a questionnaire you fill in before you hire anyone, so every designer you contact quotes the same job and nothing important gets forgotten until after the deposit.

It is written for HVAC, roofing, plumbing and electrical companies and dental practices. Fill it in once, send the same copy to every designer, and compare quotes line by line.

Why answer the questions yourself first

When an owner asks three designers for “a new website,” each one guesses at the scope. One prices 5 pages, one prices 15, one assumes you will write the copy. The quotes then differ by thousands and none of them can be compared. Our line-item HVAC website cost guide shows how far apart the same “website” can be depending on what is included.

A completed questionnaire fixes three things:

• Scope. Every designer prices the same pages, integrations and content work.
• Access. You find out now whether you actually control your domain, hosting and Google listing, before a designer needs them.
• Decisions. Budget, deadline and who signs off are settled before work starts, which is where most delays come from.

The full copy-paste template is further down. First, what each section is for and where owners usually get caught out.

Goals: what the site has to do and how you’ll know

“Look more professional” is not a goal anyone can be held to. Pick the one or two outcomes that matter (more phone calls, more estimate requests, more booked appointments, better job applicants) and decide how you will count them. If you cannot measure calls and form submissions today, say so; setting that up should be part of the quote.

Also list the work you want more of, and the work you do not want leads for. An HVAC company that wants replacement jobs, not $89 diagnostic calls, needs a different homepage from one that wants volume.

Access and ownership: the section people skip

This is the section that causes the most trouble, so do not leave it blank.

Domain. Find out which registrar holds your domain and whose name is on it. Under ICANN’s Transfer Policy, the Registered Name Holder and the administrative contact are the only parties with authority to approve or deny a transfer, and the Registered Name Holder’s decision wins if they disagree. If a past web person registered the domain in their own name, they control it, not you. The same policy also puts a 60-day lock on moving registrars after a change of registrant unless you opt out beforehand, so start this early.

Google Business Profile. Check who the owners and managers are. Google’s help page on owners and managers explains that a profile can have several owners but only one primary owner, and that managers can do most things except add or remove users or delete the profile. Give your designer manager access, not ownership, and make sure you are the primary owner. Google also notes that newly added users have to wait 7 days before they can remove other users or transfer primary ownership, so do not leave this until launch week.

Hosting, DNS and email. Note who hosts the current site and who controls DNS. If your business email runs on the same domain, a careless DNS change at launch can break it.

Existing pages that work. If you are redesigning rather than starting fresh, list the pages that bring in calls today. Google’s guidance on site moves with URL changes recommends mapping each old URL to its new one and using server-side permanent redirects such as 301s, kept in place for at least a year. Ask every designer how they will handle that map.

Pages, content and photos

List your services as separate items, not “heating and cooling.” Google can only rank a page that exists, so the page list is the biggest driver of scope and price. Then list the towns or counties you serve and mark the 3 to 5 that matter most.

Be honest about content. Who writes the words: you, or the designer? What real photos do you have of your crew, trucks, finished jobs or office? Which certifications, awards or review profiles can you show? If you need a photographer or a copywriter, that belongs in the quote, not in a change order later.

Look and feel: sites you like

Give designers three websites you like and one sentence on why (“phone number always visible”). They do not have to be in your trade. If you want a starting point, our roundups of the best roofing websites and the best dental websites break down the patterns that make real sites easy to call from. Add your brand assets: logo files (ideally vector), colors, and anything already on your trucks or signs.

Trade-specific questions (HVAC, roofing, plumbing, electrical)

These are the details generic questionnaires miss, and they change both the design and the page list:

• Emergency and after-hours work. Do you take 24/7 calls? Which number rings after hours? This decides whether the header carries an emergency banner.
• License and insurance. Which license numbers and insurance details do you want shown, and on which pages?
• Financing. Which lender, and do you want an apply-online link or just an explanation?
• Maintenance or service plans. Price, what is included, and whether people can sign up on the site.
• Warranties. Manufacturer and workmanship warranties you want explained.
• Roofing: storm and insurance work. If you help with storm damage or insurance claims, that usually needs its own page and careful wording.
• Brands and certifications. Which equipment or material brands you install and any manufacturer programs you belong to.
• Pricing. Whether you publish a service-call fee or starting prices, or prefer to explain what drives cost.

Dental-specific questions

For a practice, the website is partly a front desk, so the questions are operational:

• Insurance and payment. Which plans you are in network with, whether you file out of network, and any in-house membership plan.
• New-patient forms and intake. Do patients fill in forms online, and in which system? Anything that collects health information is a compliance question, so ask each designer how forms are handled, where submissions are stored and whether the form vendor will sign a business associate agreement. Confirm the answer with whoever handles your HIPAA compliance.
• Online booking. Which booking or practice management system you use, and whether patients can book directly or only request a time.
• Provider bios. Each dentist and hygienist you want featured, with credentials and a real photo.
• Services to lead with. Implants, clear aligners, emergency visits, pediatric care: whatever you want more of.

Our dental website design page shows how we structure these for a practice.

Integrations, tracking and budget

Name the software you already use: a CRM or field-service tool such as Jobber, ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro, a booking system, call tracking, chat or review widgets. Then say where a new lead should land. “Email the office” and “create a job in our field-service software” are very different builds.

Finally, give a budget range for the build and for any monthly cost. Designers are not trying to take all of it; without a number they cannot tell you whether a 5-page site or a 15-page site fits. For reference, our own builds start from $1,490 (Launch) and $2,990 (Growth), with an optional Care & Grow plan at $399/month, and most local business sites we see quoted land between $1,500 and $6,000. Add your deadline and the reason for it (before cooling season, before a second location opens), and who has final sign-off.

The template: copy, paste and fill in

Copy everything below into an email or a document. Skip the section that does not apply to you, and write “not sure” instead of leaving anything blank.

Business and goals

1. Business name, main phone number and address (or “service-area business, no storefront”).
2. What is the single most important thing the website should get people to do: call, request an estimate, or book an appointment?
3. How will you measure success: calls per month, form submissions, booked jobs or appointments?
4. Which services or jobs do you want more of?
5. Which services do you not want leads for?

Access and ownership

6. What is your domain name, which registrar is it with, and whose name is it registered under?
7. Who hosts your current website, and do you have the login?
8. Who controls your DNS, and does your business email run on this domain?
9. Who is the primary owner of your Google Business Profile, and who else has access?
10. Do you have Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and who has access?
11. If you have a site now, which pages bring in calls or traffic (list the URLs)?

Pages and content

12. List every service you want its own page for.
13. List the cities, towns or counties you serve, and mark the 3 to 5 most important.
14. Who will write the page copy: you, the designer, or a mix?
15. What real photos do you have (team, trucks, office, finished jobs)?
16. Which reviews, certifications, awards or memberships can you show?
17. What brand assets do you have: logo files, colors, fonts, truck or sign designs?

Look and feel

18. Name three websites you like and say why.
19. Name any websites or styles you do not want.

Trades (HVAC, roofing, plumbing, electrical)

20. Do you take emergency or 24/7 calls, and which number rings after hours?
21. Which license numbers and insurance details should be displayed?
22. Do you offer financing, and through which lender?
23. Do you sell maintenance or service plans, and should people be able to sign up online?
24. Which manufacturer and workmanship warranties should be explained?
25. Roofing only: do you handle storm damage or insurance claim work?
26. Which brands do you install, and which manufacturer certifications do you hold?
27. Do you want to publish any prices, such as a service-call fee or starting prices?

Dental practices

28. Which insurance plans are you in network with, and do you offer a membership plan?
29. Should new patients complete forms online, and in which system?
30. Which online booking or practice management system do you use?
31. Which providers should have a bio, and do you have credentials and photos for each?
32. Which services do you most want to promote?
33. Which languages do your team speak, and what accessibility or parking details should patients know?

Integrations and tracking

34. Which CRM, field-service or practice software do you use (for example Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro)?
35. Where should a new form lead go: email, text, or straight into that software?
36. Do you use call tracking now, or want it set up?
37. Which other tools must keep working (chat, review widgets, payment links)?
38. Are you running Google Ads, Local Services Ads or other paid ads now or soon?

Budget, timeline and decisions

39. What is your budget range for the build, and for monthly costs after launch?
40. When do you need the site live, and why that date?
41. Who gives final sign-off, and how many people review drafts?
42. Who will edit the site after launch, and how often?
43. What must the contract guarantee (ownership of domain, content and files; ability to leave without a buyout fee)?

How to use your answers when comparing quotes

Send the same completed questionnaire to every designer, then ask each one to reply with:

• A page list that matches your answers to questions 12 and 13, not “up to X pages.”
• Who writes the copy and who supplies photos, in writing.
• How each integration is handled: questions 34 to 38, item by item.
• What happens to your existing URLs if you answered question 11.
• Build price and monthly price as separate lines, plus what the monthly fee includes.
• Ownership terms that answer question 43 directly.

Then put the replies side by side. If one quote is far cheaper, check which lines it dropped. If one is far more expensive, check what it added and whether you asked for it. Our Squarespace vs custom website cost comparison shows how to run three-year totals once you have the numbers.

Red-flag answers from designers

• “We’ll register the domain for you” with no mention of putting it in your name.
• “We need to be owner of your Google profile.” Manager access is enough to do the work.
• “Don’t worry about the old URLs.” On a redesign, that is how rankings and calls get lost.
• “We’ll generate a page for every city.” Google’s spam policies list pages targeted at specific cities that funnel users to one page as doorway abuse.
• “Hosting is included, you can’t move it.” That is a lease, not a website you own.
• No answer on forms and patient data for a dental practice.
• One number, no breakdown, after you sent them 43 specific answers.

Bottom line

Fill in the template once, send the same copy to every designer, and insist on written answers that map back to it. You will get quotes you can compare honestly, you will find access problems before they delay launch, and you will know what you are paying for.

If you run an HVAC, roofing, plumbing or electrical company, our HVAC website design page shows how we turn these answers into a page list. Or message us on WhatsApp with your completed questionnaire and we will reply with an itemised page list and a fixed price.