Short answer
Before you hire, ask who owns the domain and the site, what hosting costs, who edits it later, whether the page works on a phone, whether they will help with a Google Business Profile, and when you will see a first look. Walk away if you will not own the domain, if the contract locks you in, if there is no portfolio you can open, or if the monthly fee does not say what it covers. Other people set their own prices. Ranges vary. The only build price stated here is the one Telep IO publishes.
You should own the domain name and the website. Ask whose name is on the account where the domain is registered, and ask whether you can take the site with you if the designer stops. A landscaper, a plumber, or a shop owner in Medina County should still have the name and the pages. Write that answer down before you pay.
Get the hosting price in writing, and ask what that payment includes. Other designers set their own prices. Ranges vary. This page does not print a number for them. The founding offer is $500 to set up and $50 a month, limited to the first 3 Ohio businesses. Hosting and ordinary upkeep are included. You see a demo of your own site before you pay. The free estimator and the cost guide put that published offer next to prices other companies print on their own sites. What that monthly work covers, and whether you need a plan at all, is in the guide on website maintenance cost.
On this site: Free website cost estimator; How much a small business website costs; What website maintenance costs a small business
Ask who changes the phone number, the hours, and the towns after the site is live. If only the designer can log in, a small edit waits on them. On the Telep IO founding offer, hosting and ordinary upkeep are included. The start page says you email when you need a change.
On this site: Start a site quote
Ask for a phone-first page, and ask to see it on a phone before you hire. The number should sit where a thumb can tap it. A customer calling a landscaper, a plumber, or an HVAC company is often holding a phone. If the text is tiny, or the number is only plain text, the page is hard to use. The free website checker reads a public page you already have. The phone guide on this site walks through the same check.
On this site: Free website checker; How to check if your website works on phones
Ask whether they will help with a Google Business Profile. The profile is separate from the website. The name, the phone, the towns, and the website on it should match the site. The Google account should stay in your name. A designer can walk you through the steps. They should not be the only person who can open the profile. This page does not create the profile for you.
Ask when you will see a first look, and when the site can go live. Write both dates down. The Telep IO start page says you get a preview within a few days. Another designer sets their own dates. A date you did not write down is a date you cannot check.
On this site: What the start page says about timing
Walk away from a hire that fails these checks. The domain stays in the designer's name. The contract locks you in and does not say how you leave. There is no portfolio you can open, or the portfolio is only logos with no live site. The monthly fee is vague and does not say whether it covers hosting, edits, or both.
Before you pay, read this checklist and fill in every line. The domain is in your name. The site is in an account you can open. Hosting has a written price. You know who edits the phone number, the hours, and the towns later. You have seen the page on a phone, and the number can be tapped. You know whether they will help with a Google Business Profile, and the Google account stays yours. You have a date for the first look and a date for launch. You opened real sites they built. The contract says how you leave. If a line is blank, ask again before you hire.
If you want Telep IO to build the site, ask for a quote on the start page. The founding offer is $500 to set up and $50 a month, limited to the first 3 Ohio businesses. Hosting and ordinary upkeep are included. You see a demo of your own site before you pay. If you already have a site, the free website checker reads one public page and does not store the URL. Website Quick Diagnostic is $19, paid once. An automated PDF within about 1 hour with your speed and mobile scores, the top 5 issues ranked, and a plain fix for each. The $19 is credited toward the $99 Checkup within 30 days. Those checks describe a page you already have. They are not a quote for a new site. Town and trade pages are on the websites page. What to put on the site is in the guide on what a small business website should include.
On this site: Get a site quote; Free website checker; Website Quick Diagnostic; Northeast Ohio websites; What a small business website should include
The free website checker reads one public URL. It reports HTTPS, a mobile viewport tag, and whether GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended are blocked. It does not store the URL.
The AI search readiness check is the free look for AI search. It reports whether OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, and PerplexityBot are blocked, and whether the words are in the server HTML. It does not store the URL.
Website Checkup is $99, paid once. A ranked report of what to fix on your website first, covering speed, SEO, mobile, and AI search visibility, delivered within 2 business days. No login is needed. The report goes only to you.
Other designers set their own prices. Ranges vary. This page does not print a number for their work. The founding offer is $500 to set up and $50 a month, limited to the first 3 Ohio businesses. Hosting and ordinary upkeep are included. You see a demo of your own site before you pay. The cost guide and the free estimator show that published offer next to prices other companies print on their own pages.
Ask who owns the domain and the site, what hosting costs, who edits the site later, whether the page works on a phone, whether they will help with a Google Business Profile, and when you will see a first look.
The domain stays in their name. The contract locks you in. There is no portfolio you can open. The monthly fee does not say what it covers.
You should. The registration and the site should sit in an account you can open. If you part ways, you should still have the name and the pages.
A business can be missing from Google because the page is not in the index, because the words you searched are not the words a customer uses, or because the page is blocked. A page can also be in the index and still sit far down the results. The free check on this site reads the public page, and it does not look up a rank.
You can check a public page for free. The checker on this site reads one URL, reports what it found, and does not store the URL. If you want a report that ranks what to fix first, Website Checkup is $99, paid once, and it is delivered within 2 business days.
If you build it yourself, published US prices checked for this page start at $4 a month on WordPress.com when billed annually, $17.77 a month on Wix Light for a yearly plan, or $19 a month on Squarespace Basic billed annually ($228 for the year). If you hire an agency, Clutch says web design agencies typically charge $2,000 to $100,000, and that most reviewed projects cost less than $10,000. If Telep IO builds it, the founding offer is $500 to set up, then $50 a month. Limited to the first 3 Ohio businesses. The start page splits that setup into two payments and makes the first upkeep month free, which comes to $1,050 in the first year, then $50 a month.
Website maintenance is the work that keeps a live site reachable and current: hosting, domain renewal, SSL, backups, software and plugin updates, security, small content edits, uptime checks, and keeping a Google Business Profile matched to the site. You do not always need a monthly plan. You need one when you will not do that work, or when a fee is the only way the site stays hosted and edited. Other providers set their own prices. This page does not print those prices. The only prices stated here are the ones Telep IO publishes.
Redo the site when it no longer matches the business, you cannot edit it, or a customer on a phone cannot read it and call. Many of the usual problems can be fixed without a full rebuild. Old hours, a missing call link, a page that is hard to read on a phone, and an address that is not on HTTPS are often edits. A new look does not, by itself, put the business on Google or on Maps.
A DIY builder can be the right call when you will finish the page, you will own the domain, and a customer on a phone can tap to call, see the towns you serve, and open your Google Business Profile. Hire when you will not keep the page current, when the number cannot be tapped, or when the domain and the site would sit in an account you do not control. Wix, Squarespace, and the GoDaddy website builder are typical monthly subscription plans. This page does not print their prices. Other designers set their own prices. The founding offer is $500 to set up and $50 a month, limited to the first 3 Ohio businesses. Hosting and ordinary upkeep are included. You see a demo of your own site before you pay.
Open the site on a phone you already own and try to call the business from the page. If you have to pinch and zoom, or you cannot find the number, the page is hard to use on a phone. A viewport tag tells the browser to use the screen width. It is a setup signal, not a grade of the layout.
An AI tool can mention your business when it has public information to use, or when a person typed the facts in. A robots.txt file can ask specific crawlers to stay off the site. That file is a request, not a record of what a tool has already saved. Blocking one crawler does not block every AI product.
A Facebook page is not a website you control. Google's guidelines say the website on a Business Profile should represent the business, and they say not to use a page created on a social media site as that website. A site you control can name the work, the towns, and a phone number a person can tap.
A local site should say what you do, name the towns you actually serve, and put a phone number a person can tap. It should also load on a phone. That is not a promise of a ranking or a set number of calls.
Map results come from a Google Business Profile, which is separate from the website. Google says that when you add and verify a Business Profile, customers can find the business on Search and Maps, and that only verified businesses can show their info there. A website does not create the profile. This page does not create it for you.
Ask a real customer after the job is done, and give them a direct review link from your Google Business Profile. Google lets you share that link, or a QR code, in a text or email, on a receipt, and at the counter. Do not pay for a review, do not offer a discount for one, and do not ask only the people who already said they are happy.
A website does not promise a set number of calls. For an HVAC company, a plumber, or a landscaper, the page can make the call easy: the number is tappable, the jobs are named, and the towns are the ones you drive. If those facts are buried, the person on the phone has to hunt.
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