Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple!

I’m Holly Christie, your host, and I’m thrilled to have you here. As someone who’s been in the website design game for over a decade, I know how tricky—and sometimes overwhelming—the world of web design can be, especially when it comes to protecting yourself with the right contracts.

In this episode, I’m explaining what you absolutely need to include in your website design contracts.

I share the essentials from my own real-world experience: how to create agreements that keep both you and your clients accountable, why you need detailed terms of service alongside your contract, and the must-have clauses to avoid headaches like scope creep, project delays, or ghosting clients.

I’ll walk you through practical strategies for outlining timelines, handling changes, protecting your intellectual property, and making sure your liabilities are clear—plus, I’ll offer friendly tips on navigating cancellations and abandoned projects.

Whether you’re brand new to contracts or looking to shore up your existing ones, this episode will give you the tools and confidence you need to run your web design business smoothly.

So, let’s get started and make sure you—and your clients—are always on the same page!

Timestamped summary

00:00 Essential Website Design Contract Elements

05:29 "Showcase Client Testimonials"

08:18 Website Build: Quote and Timeline Management

12:42 Project Cancellation and Abandonment Guidelines

15:21 Web Design Project Terms & Conditions

18:28 Send Terms Before Project Start

Mentioned in this episode:

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Today we are talking about what you need to have in your website design contracts.

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple.

I am Holly Christie, website designer and developer mentor to you lovely website designers and developers yourselves, and I am right in it with you with a website design business.

I have been doing this for well over a decade, and one of the things I've really noticed in that time is that web design is a really underrepresented industry.

There aren't really any coaches or mentors or anyone out there to really support you when you feel like things that aren't going that well or to run ideas off or anything like that.

And that is what this podcast is about.

It is a place where you can come and you can know that you're getting it really right and you can find out how to kind of patch those places where you feel you're not getting it quite so right.

Because web design is a little bit of a minefield and we're just trying to find our way through the weeds here.

And as someone who has been in those weeds for a very long time, let me try and help you have an easier experience of it than some of the ones that I have had.

So, lovelies, without further ado, we are going to go into what you need to have in your website design contract, because this is a really important piece of the puzzle in the business because people commission a website and then they think, oh, you know, yeah, I'll get around to doing it later, or, oh, well, you know, I'll.

I'll get back to the designer later.

And what they don't realize is you are sitting there waiting for their feedback, waiting for them to pay their deposits, waiting for them to sign off the website.

And often people just don't make it a priority.

So having a really robust contract means that people will make it a priority because you have it there in writing, which they have signed when they've entered into an agreement with you.

So let's look now into the detail of what you need to have in that contract.

I'm going to caveat this by saying as well, if you just think, oh, God, it feels beyond me, I don't know how to do this myself.

I'm not sure how to handle legal documents like this.

I have a website designer's contract pack which I sell from my website, which is courses.thisdemandinglife.com it has every single contract you need for your website design business.

So if you're not thinking that you've got the experience or the skill or whatever to be able to do this yourself.

I've got you covered.

You can just go straight there.

That is courses.thisdemandinglife.com and you can just pick up the whole pack for 49 pounds.

But if you would like to know a little bit more about it, you are in the right place.

And the first place we are going to start is have two things.

Have a contract and have a terms of service.

Your contract is essentially going to say, I am going to build this website for you at this price in this timescale and you're going to pay this for it.

It will obviously have a few extra bits in there, like what your liabilities are and stuff like that, but essentially your contract should be relatively short.

It should just have the information that you and your client need to get started that holds you both to account with each other.

And your terms of service is where you can go into the minutiae of everything, where you can see say, this is what I need from you.

These are what my timescales are going to be.

This is what my liability is.

It's a bigger version of that contract.

I do make my terms of service available on my website as well.

So it's always available.

And when I'm sending a quote, I send the terms of service with it.

And then when someone accepts the quote, I send the contract and the terms of service so I can always, always make sure that they have had this.

Before we begin the website project with your terms of service, it needs to be robust.

I make mine really friendly, yet firm.

It outlines the processes, it outlines timelines how I expect clients to behave and how I will behave towards them.

It also has additional clauses like a sunset clause if they don't get the info to me in time.

So a sunset clause is a very nice way of saying you may have paid the deposit, but if you're not going to give me the content for a year or whatever else, then that non refundable deposit just kind of gets swallowed up.

You're going to have to put that down to experience.

This is where some web designers can struggle a little bit.

And I often see this when I'm in web design groups where someone says, oh my client, I've done the work for the client, they've now disputed the work.

Should I be refunding some of the deposit?

No.

When someone enters into a contract with you, they should know you and your work well enough that they can see what it is that they're going to be getting.

So they should have seen some of the portfolio of your website.

They should see your work reflected in your own website.

They should see testimonials.

Obviously I would expect this all to be on your own website, but I am always happy to put people in contact with my previous clients, especially if they are paying thousands and thousands for a website.

I mean, a lot of my people come from recommendations, but I will put them in touch with a client who maybe had a project that is the most similar to theirs and you'll see.

I've also got testimonials on my website, one from Katie Murray who says Holly is firm but fair, you know, she'll hold you accountable for this so that she can do her job.

And then there are other testimonials which say, oh, you know, Holly's brilliant, blah blah, blah, but people should have a really good idea of what they're getting into when they work with you so that if there is a dispute later on, they can't say, well, what you've delivered is wildly outside what their expectations were.

Make sure that they do feel like they know you quite well.

Make sure that when you've sent a quote to them, you've sent them links to reviews that you've sent them links to other websites that you've built.

So they have a really good all round idea of that in your terms of service and in your contract.

You also want to go into detail of how clients can send information to you and in what formats.

For example, that will be what formats to send images in, how to send them, what formats to send the website copy in, and branding files.

And each designer will have their own way.

I know people who use ClickUp, I know people who use Moxie, I use Trello.

I also ask people to send it through Wetransfer.

Other designers might use Google Drive or Dropbox or something like that.

So it really doesn't matter how they send it to you, as long as it's a way that works for you.

For example, I choose not to use things like Google Drive or Dropbox because I don't want an open ended folder that people can just drop things in and take them out of.

I want to have everything in one place that I can review before we get started on the website.

And then that means that anytime someone says can you add this additional image, I've got another page of copy or something like that.

It means that I can quote for it separately, that I'm not going to have that scope creep that is every designer's nightmare of you quote for one price for a project.

The project ends up being three times the size.

You got the client saying, can you just, can you just, can you just.

Your contract needs to be able to hold boundaries around scope creep.

So Mime says along the words of.

And again, you can buy this in the web design Skuntrak pack.

It says along the lines of once we have received all of the information to get started with the website build, we will book in the website and we will let you know what date the build will take place.

Any information that you submit after this will be quoted for separately.

And it means that when people come back to me and say, can you just add this, can you just do that?

I can say to them, yeah, absolutely.

Because this is outside the remit of the original website contract, I will quote separately for it and I will let you know how much that will be.

And it's a really good way of also stopping the timelines from expanding because often when people realize that they're going to have to pay for those add ons, they choose not to do it.

And if they decide it is something that they want to pay for, I also within the quote say, I then anticipate that the build will take another couple of weeks or another week and this will be the new estimated or projected finish rate as well.

So there is always a way of handling this stuff really kindly and allowing the client to prioritize whether they really do want that thing they've just had an idea of or not, and still getting paid for your time.

Because obviously how much time you spend on one website affects when you can start your next website build or how much time you're spending on other websites.

So it is really important that you get that covered.

So your contract pack, they need to include those timelines.

So the timeline of when they pay, the deposit, when the website will get booked in, when they can expect to hear from you, all of that needs to be covered here and it's really important.

And when you expect, expect to hear from them as well.

So many people say that they get ghosted by their web designers, but so many web designers get ghosted by their clients where the website for the client just isn't a priority.

They're just getting on with their everyday work and you know, they get back to you when they can or when they remember or when they want to.

But most small business owners are dealing with kind of project after project after project themselves.

And unless there's this contract that holds them accountable to it, then they're not going to prioritize that.

So having a The website will take six weeks from start to finish.

I will update you every Friday for example.

I need to hear back from you within two working days so that I can then make any changes and we can stick to the timelines.

And it means that if you don't hear from them within two working days you can drop them really polite email and just say, just you know, wondering whether you've had a chance.

It has been two working days.

Really want to stick to the timelines.

We have agreed.

Please can you come back to me by the end of today as well.

And most people respond really well to that as well.

Any changes and revisions, as I said, you can write that in as well into your contract.

That should there be changes or revisions mid project then a new quote will be issued and a new timeline will be agreed as well.

You also want to include what each party agrees to do.

Here's an extract from my contract.

Extract 2.1.

The client confirms they have the authority to enter into this agreement.

The client will provide this demanding life with the assets and information needed to complete the project in the manner laid out in our terms of service.

The client will review work providing feedback and approval in a timely manner.

And in that terms of service the timely manner is detailed of within two working days.

And then the next clause says this demanding life confirms that they have the experience and skills to complete the project in a professional manner whilst maintaining confidentiality of any information provided to complete the project as well.

And that's just an assurance because some clients may ask you to sign a non disclosure agreement.

I've had this particularly when I've worked with clients where they've had a new idea that they're bringing to market and they don't want anyone else to be able to copy it until it's up and running.

You also need to have cancellation policy as well.

So I have both cancellation and abandoned project policies in there.

So your cancellation will just say how either of you can cancel the project.

If you suddenly think this isn't working, it's not right and what any penalties you may have to pay back to the client.

But also if a client chooses to cancel the project, how they need to do that and what they're liable for.

For example most deposits are non refundable as well.

And the abandoned projects one is another one that I have in my contract pack and in the contracts I personally use because it stops that dragging their heels with their website.

So what I have on my abandoned project is it's 14 days if I have not heard from the client within 14 days, we consider the project to be abandoned and then it starts to go down our cancellation procedure.

But I will always email the client with a very friendly check in.

Would they still like to go ahead with the project?

They are looking at falling into the abandoned project clause.

Just want to make sure that everything's on track.

Almost every client will say, oh my goodness, I'm so sorry.

And having that clause in there is enough to get them back on track.

Particularly because if a website then gets archived, they have to pay a reactivation fee for it and they can end up going back to the back of the queue when the website builds as well with the abandoned projects click clause as well.

Every now and then someone just won't go back to you or they'll say, yeah, I've changed my mind on it.

And we chalk it up to experience.

But it also means that if we activate it from 14 days, we're not hanging around for ages waiting to hear from them.

We can take that project out of the pipeline so that we know where we are financially, we know where we are on a timescale.

So it works for everybody there as well.

Your contracts also need to have about intellectual property, about who owns the property, who owns the design.

And I have, for example, while my clients own the website, I own the design of the site.

So people can't.

I'm happy for them to edit the design as well, because websites are a thing that flex and people need to flex that.

Say, for example, I do the design of their website and then they have another website designer build on top or make updates.

The other website designer cannot claim the rights of the design and they cannot put their name to it.

So, for example, in the footer of most of my websites, I have a website designed by this demanding life.

They cannot change that as well.

But we can agree that we won't have that in the footer.

Most clients don't ask me to remove that.

And there have been a couple of times where a client has led the design and you can listen about this in one of the previous episodes, they've led the design and I've not been happy to put my name to it at the end of it, but we've just all pushed forward to get that website over the line there as well.

Within your timeline, you can say when the project will be handed over.

And as well as a timescale for this, also a monetary side of it, websites will not be handed over to the client until they have been fully paid for.

If they're On a payment plan, it means xyz and obviously you will handle your own payment terms there as well.

And finally, liability, and it is really important that you have a clause for liability here because you are not responsible for the success of your client's business.

And whatever website you build, obviously I want you to build absolutely brilliant ones.

And if you're struggling with that a little bit, then you can come to me for mentoring and we'll work on those strategies and skill sets together.

But I have clients sometimes come to me when their business is in trouble and they end up paying quite a lot of money for their website because they are throwing everything at it.

They want the website to work.

This is like their not website, they want the business to work.

This is their last ditch attempt and they are going for it.

And it means that they can be quite challenging to work with because they're in this state of high anxiety.

But they also think that the website is going to be like a magic wand and just turn things around.

And the website is only a part of the marketing strategy and it is only going to be as successful as the clients are viewing the website to be an absolute magic wand.

And of course, the website is only part of their marketing and their success will depend on the copywriting.

That's a big one.

But also how the client actually is when they're talking to the people about businesses.

I had a client once who she was throwing everything at the website, wanted it to be a magic wand and the website brought in the inquiries.

And then she complained to me that she had three people who pulled out all when it got to the invoicing stage.

And I was like, well, that's nothing to do with the website.

The website's doing its job.

It's bringing people in.

Clearly they just don't like you very much or how you're doing it or whatever else.

That's really important as well, that you make sure that you build the website that you promised to build.

And that's obviously a responsive site, an accessible site, a site with excellent SEO.

If you're struggling with any of these, let me know.

I can help you out with them.

But make sure you deliver what you say you're going to deliver.

But you're not making any promises that this is going to turn around their business or do this, that or the other.

So make sure you have a clause about liability there for sure.

Your terms of service needs to be sent at the time of quoting.

And again, when sending the contract and the invoice, always, always retain proof that you've sent these to your clients and do not get started until you have a signed contract and you've received the deposit in full.

I know sometimes we can get really excited and think, oh, yeah, I'm going to get this set up.

Trust me, you can do that.

Afterwards.

People kind of fall by the wayside for whatever reason, and it's really important that you always have a record that you have sent this info to them.

So until our next episode, Happy website designing.

If you have a contract that you think is absolutely awesome and you would like to share it with me, drop me a [email protected] and I'll see you in the next episode.