I have built and rebuilt enough websites to know something simple: most of the trouble happens because of things nobody agreed at the start.
Here are the ten I settle first, every time.
1. Who owns the web address and the hosting?
Not who looks after them. Who owns the accounts. (Hosting is the rented computer your website sits on.)
If the answer is "the person who built our site in 2023", sort that out before anything else. I have watched businesses lose weeks because the only email address that could unlock their own web address belonged to someone who had moved on.
2. Where is the backup kept?
A backup is a spare copy of your site. If it is kept on the same computer as the site itself, it is not really a spare. I learned that the hard way.
3. What is the one thing the site is for?
A phone call. A WhatsApp message. A form. A sale. Pick one.
A website built to do everything does nothing well, because every extra choice on the page costs you the main one.
4. Who changes the words and pictures after launch?
And can they do it without calling me? If the answer is no, I have not finished my job.
A shop whose prices change every week should never have to message a developer about a price.
5. What is it like on a cheap phone, away from wifi?
That is how most of your customers will see it. Your own laptop, in your office, is not a fair test.
6. Are we counting from day one, or adding it later?
Counting calls, messages and sales is easy to set up at the start. Added six months later, the first six months are simply gone. Nobody can get them back.
7. What happens to the old pages?
Nothing loses customers faster than a new website that quietly deletes the pages Google already knew about. Every old address should still work, or send people somewhere sensible.
8. What does Google need to understand the business?
Clear page titles, clear headings, a list of your pages for Google to follow, and permission for it to show them. Dull work. It is also why some sites get found and others never do.
9. What happens when something breaks?
Not if. When. Who gets the call, what can they get into, and how fast can the site come back?
The worst time to decide this is while the site is down.
10. What does "finished" mean, in writing?
Agree it before starting and nobody has an uncomfortable conversation at the end. This protects you as much as it protects me.
None of these are technical questions. They are business questions that happen to get answered by whoever builds the site.
Which is exactly why you should ask about them before you hire anybody, me included.