How to Find a Web Designer in Mallorca (And What to Actually Look For)

Hiring a web designer is not like buying a product. You're paying for someone's judgement as much as their execution. The decisions they make about structure, content, speed, and search visibility will affect whether your site actually works - not just whether it looks good in a presentation.

Here's what that means in practice when you're comparing options in Mallorca.

Questions to Ask Before You Hire

These aren't trick questions. They're the things any competent designer should be able to answer clearly.

Can I see websites you've built that are live? Not mockups, not case studies with nice screenshots. Live URLs you can visit, test on your phone, and see in Google search. If someone can't point you to live work, that's a problem.

Will the site appear on Google for searches related to my business? A surprising number of web designers build sites without thinking about search visibility. Ask specifically what they do to make a site findable - page titles, heading structure, local signals, page speed. If the answer is vague or they say 'we can do SEO as an add-on', treat that as a flag.

What is included in the price? Pages, revisions, content, hosting, domain - what's in and what's extra? Fixed-price projects with a clear scope are much easier to manage than open-ended quotes that grow during the project.

What happens after launch? If something breaks, who fixes it? If you want to make changes, how do you do that? Is there a CMS, or does everything go through the designer? Understanding the ongoing relationship matters as much as the build itself.

What do you need from me, and when? A designer who doesn't ask about your content, your brand, your customers, and your goals before giving you a price is either very experienced (unlikely) or not thinking carefully about your specific situation (likely).

What a Fixed-Price Project Should Include

Fixed-price projects are common in web design and they're generally better than day-rate or open-ended quotes. But 'fixed price' doesn't mean all fixed-price projects are the same.

A well-structured fixed-price project should include a clear number of pages, a defined revision process, explicit terms for what happens if scope changes, and a timeline with checkpoints. It should be clear who owns the site at the end, where it's hosted and at what cost, and what the handover process looks like.

Watch for:

• Projects priced by the hour with no ceiling
• 'Revisions on request' with no limit on how many
• Hosting locked into the designer's own infrastructure with no clear exit
• Vague timelines with no milestones

None of these are automatically deal-breakers, but they're worth understanding before you sign anything.

Template vs Custom Build: When Each Makes Sense

A template site uses a pre-built design - usually WordPress or a Squarespace or Wix template - with your content dropped in. It's faster and cheaper. The trade-offs are performance (templates carry a lot of code you don't use), flexibility (you're limited by the template's structure), and differentiation (your site looks like other sites built on the same template).

A custom-built site is designed and coded specifically for your business. It's faster to load, easier to maintain over time, and built around your actual needs rather than a template's assumptions. It costs more upfront.

For a Mallorca business that is ready to grow and wants a site that performs in search, a custom build is usually the better investment. For a business testing a new idea or with a very limited budget, a template gets you online faster at lower cost.

The red flag is a designer who recommends a template at a custom build price, or a custom build without explaining why it's worth the difference.

Red Flags to Watch For

No examples of live work. This one is significant enough to list separately from the questions above. If a designer can't show you live websites, don't hire them.

Generic proposals. If the proposal could apply to any business in any industry - 'a professional website tailored to your brand' - it suggests the designer hasn't thought carefully about your specific situation.

No mention of mobile or page speed. Most of your visitors will be on a phone. A designer who doesn't mention mobile performance or loading times isn't thinking about the user experience.

Pressure to decide quickly. Good designers have a pipeline of work. They don't need to close you this week.

No clarity on who owns what. You should own your domain, your hosting account, and the website itself. If those are managed by the designer on your behalf, make sure you have access and a clear process for taking them over if you ever move on.

What to Expect from Brief to Launch

A reasonable timeline for a well-managed web design project is two to four weeks for a straightforward site. Larger sites with CMS, booking systems, or multiple service areas take four to eight weeks.

The process typically runs: initial brief, design concepts, feedback and revisions, build, review, launch. The longest delays almost always come from content - the copy and images that go on the site. If you have that ready before the project starts, the build moves much faster.

A good designer will tell you exactly what they need and when, give you a clear review process, and not go quiet for weeks between check-ins.

We are a Mallorca-based studio. Every project is fixed price, scoped upfront, built from scratch. See our services or start with a Growth Audit if you're not sure what you need yet.