Hiring a web designer in Lagos: what a good website should include
Hiring a web designer in Lagos? Learn what a good business website must include, what it costs in 2026 and how to avoid a site that gets praise but no enquiries.
Dan Audu
Jun 18, 2026
24 min read
In this article14 sections
- Web designer or web developer in Lagos: who do you actually need?
- What a good website should include on the homepage
- The pages and sections every Lagos business website needs
- Design that works on Nigerian phones, networks and eyes
- Trust signals: how a Lagos website convinces strangers to pay
- Making your website easy to find: SEO basics your designer must set up
- Calls to action and conversion: turning visitors into enquiries
- How to find and shortlist a web designer in Lagos
- How much does a web designer in Lagos cost in 2026?
- The design process step by step, and how long it takes
- Mistakes I see Lagos business owners make when hiring a web designer
- Key takeaways
- Frequently asked questions
- Your next step: get a website that brings enquiries, not only compliments
Funke owns a spa in Lekki. Last year she paid a designer ₦350,000 for a new website. Her friends loved it. It had a full-screen video, a slow sliding banner and a cool font that was hard to read. Three months after launch she counted her enquiries from the site. There were four. When she opened the site on her own phone, she understood why. It took eleven seconds to load on MTN data, and after all that waiting she still could not find a price list, an address or a WhatsApp button.
Funke did not hire a bad person. She hired a web designer in Lagos who was good at making things look nice, and she never told him what the site was supposed to do. This happens to Lagos business owners every week. The site gets compliments, but the phone does not ring. In my experience, most of these problems can be avoided in the first two conversations, if you know what a good website should include and what to ask the person you hire.
In this guide I will explain the difference between a web designer and a web developer, then walk you through everything a good business website should include, from the homepage to the small legal pages. I will also show you how to shortlist a designer in Lagos, what it costs as at 2026, how the design process works and the mistakes I keep seeing. Use it as a checklist for your next project, whoever you hire.
Web designer or web developer in Lagos: who do you actually need?
People use these two titles as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and confusing them is the first way business owners waste money. A website needs both kinds of skill, but not always from two different people.
What a web designer does
A web designer plans how the site looks and feels, and how visitors move through it. They choose the layout, the colours, the fonts, the images and the position of every button. A good designer thinks about people: where a nervous first-time customer will look for the price, and what will make them trust you enough to call. Their tools are sketches and design software, and their output is a set of screens that show what the site will look like.
What a web developer does
A web developer turns those designs into a working website. They write the code, connect the forms, set up payment through Paystack or Flutterwave, make the site fast, and protect it from hackers. If a designer is the architect, the developer is the engineer and builder. I have covered how to check this kind of person in my guide on choosing the right web developer in Abuja or Lagos.
When you need one person and when you need a team
For a small business site, one skilled person can often do both jobs, especially when the site is built from a good template. For a larger project, such as a school portal, a hotel booking site or a store with hundreds of products, you want a designer and a developer who work closely together. When you hire, ask directly: who will design, who will build, and how do they talk to each other? If a designer gives you a beautiful design and then hands it to a stranger to build, details get lost.
| Role | What they deliver | Main skills | You need this when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web designer | Layouts, colours, mobile screens, page structure | Visual design, user experience, typography | You want the site to look professional and be easy to use |
| Web developer | Working pages, forms, payments, speed and security | Coding, databases, hosting, integrations | You need bookings, payments, logins or custom features |
| Content writer | Page text that answers customer questions | Clear writing, search-friendly wording | You have no time or skill to write your own text |
| Photographer | Real photos of your shop, product and team | Lighting, composition, editing | Your images are dark, blurry or copied from elsewhere |
What a good website should include on the homepage
Your homepage is your shop window. Most visitors decide within a few seconds whether to stay or leave. Everything on it must make that decision easier.
A headline that says what you do, for whom, and where
“Welcome to our website” wastes your best space. Say something like “Family dental care in Ikeja, open six days a week” or “Corporate catering for Lagos offices, delivered on time”. A stranger should understand in five seconds what you do and whether it is for them. Add your city or area, because customers in Lagos search by location: Lekki, Surulere, Yaba, Ajah, Victoria Island, Ikeja.
One main action
Choose the single most important thing you want a visitor to do and make it obvious. It can be a button that says “Book a table”, “Get a quote”, “Chat on WhatsApp” or “Shop now”. It should appear at the top of the page, and again further down, in a colour that stands out. If you have five different buttons competing for attention, visitors will click none of them.
Proof near the top
Add a small strip of proof close to the headline: a rating, a number of customers served, client logos, a photo of your team, or one short review. It answers the question every Lagos customer silently asks: “Is this place real?” A line like “Trusted by over 300 families in Lagos since 2016” does more than a paragraph of self-praise.
Simple menu and clear contact details
Keep your menu to five or six items: Home, Services, About, Gallery or Projects, Contact. Show your phone number and WhatsApp link at the top on mobile, as a button that can be tapped. Do not hide the contact details in the footer only. People in a hurry look at the top right first.
Photos and video without slowing the page down
Many designers love a full-screen video at the top of the homepage. It looks impressive on their fast connection. On a Lagos mobile network it often means a white screen, a spinning circle and a lost customer. If you want video, keep it short, let it start only when the visitor taps it, and put a light photo in its place until then. Use real photos of your shop, your team and your work, sized and compressed so that each one is small in file size. As a rule, a homepage should be readable while the pictures are still loading.
Ask your designer how heavy the homepage is. A good target for a small business is a total page weight that a mid-range phone can load in a few seconds. If the answer is “I do not know”, that tells you how much attention speed is getting.
The pages and sections every Lagos business website needs
Every business is different, but most good websites share the same skeleton. Here is what I check for on nearly every project.
Services or products with prices or “starting from” prices
One page or section for each main service or product. Give a short description, who it is for, what is included, and a price or “starting from” price. If your prices vary a lot, show the range and explain what changes it. Hidden prices cause the endless WhatsApp loop of “HM?” and then silence.
About page that builds trust
This is often the second most visited page. Tell the real story: who started the business, why, how long you have been operating, and what makes you different. Show real faces. Include your CAC registration name and number if you are registered, and any professional memberships or certificates. Lagos customers, especially corporate buyers, check these details.
Contact page with a Lagos-proof address
Lagos addresses can be confusing even for people who live here. Give the full street address, the area, a nearby landmark, and a Google Map pin. Add a line like “Second floor, opposite the bank, free parking behind the building”. Include your opening hours, phone, WhatsApp and email. Customers stuck in traffic on the Third Mainland Bridge want to know how long they will take to reach you, not to hunt for your office.
Frequently asked questions
Write down the ten questions you answer most, and answer them on a page. Delivery areas, payment methods, refund policy, how long a job takes, whether you issue receipts. This page saves you hours and helps Google understand what your business offers.
Extra pages for particular kinds of business
Some businesses need more than the standard list. A school needs a page for fees, the admission steps, the school calendar and an online enquiry form, and parents in Lagos expect to see photos of the classrooms and the compound. A hotel or shortlet needs room pages with real photos, rates, house rules and a booking calendar. A restaurant needs a menu with prices, opening hours, delivery areas and a way to order or reserve. A clinic needs its services, the doctors’ qualifications, a booking form and clear emergency contact details. A real estate company needs listings with location, price, documents and a form to book an inspection. Ask your designer how each of these will be handled, because these pages are what bring in the actual money.
A blog or updates section, only if you will use it
A blog helps with Google, but only if you actually publish useful posts. An empty blog with one post from 2022 makes your business look abandoned. If you cannot commit to writing at least once a month, skip the blog and put that energy into collecting reviews.
| Page or section | What it must include | Common mistake I see |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Clear headline, main button, proof, contact | A large slideshow with no message |
| Services or products | Description, prices, photos, order button | No prices and no buttons |
| About | Story, team photos, CAC details, certificates | Generic text copied from another site |
| Contact | Address, map, WhatsApp, phone, hours, short form | A form that sends messages to an unused email |
| Reviews and projects | Real customer words, photos, results | Fake or unnamed testimonials |
| FAQ | Delivery, payment, refunds, timelines | Leaving it out and answering everything by hand |
| Privacy and terms | How you use customer details, refund rules | No policy pages at all |
Design that works on Nigerian phones, networks and eyes
A design that looks perfect on a designer’s big screen and Lagos office Wi-Fi can fail completely on the phone of a customer in a danfo, on a weak network. In Nigeria, mobile is the main screen, and your designer must design for that reality first.
Mobile first, not mobile later
Most of your visitors will arrive on an Android phone with a smaller screen than you imagine, many of them mid-range devices. “Mobile first” means the designer starts with the phone layout and then adapts it for laptops, instead of squeezing a big design onto a small screen at the end. Ask to see the mobile version of the design before you approve the desktop version. Check that text is readable without zooming, buttons are big enough for a thumb, and phone numbers can be tapped to call.
Speed on MTN, Airtel and Glo
Data is expensive, and networks slow down in crowded areas, in buildings and during heavy rain. Every extra second reduces the number of people who stay. Good designers keep images light, use fewer fonts and avoid auto-playing videos on the homepage. When I test a site, I open it on a mid-range Android phone on mobile data and count the seconds. If the main content is not readable in about three to four seconds, we cut and compress until it is. My article on why websites get traffic but no customers explains how much speed and layout affect sales.
Readable fonts and colours
Thin grey text on a white background looks stylish and is hard to read outdoors in Lagos sunshine. Use dark text on a light background, or the reverse, with strong contrast. Keep body text at a comfortable size, around 16 pixels or larger on mobile. Use no more than two fonts. A tired customer reading at night on a dim phone will thank you.
Images that are real and light
Real photos of your shop, your team and your work do more for trust than any stock photo. They should also be compressed so they do not slow the page down. Every image needs a short description in the code, called alt text, so that people using screen readers understand it and Google can read it too.
Trust signals: how a Lagos website convinces strangers to pay
Lagos is a city of hustle and a city of scams. Customers have seen fake vendors, fake alerts and fake delivery promises. A good website works hard to calm that fear in the first minute.
Show who is behind the business
Put a real name, a real photo, a real address and a phone number that people can call. Add your CAC registration details if you are registered, and link your official social profiles. If a customer can find your shop on Google Maps and see other people’s reviews of it, they will feel safer than if you only appear as a website with a contact form.
Use real reviews and case studies
A short review from a named customer, with a photo if possible, is worth more than any advert. Ask happy customers to write two lines and give you permission to publish them. For service businesses, a short case study works well: the problem, what you did and what changed. Never invent reviews. Customers can tell, and it can damage you badly if someone discovers it.
Make the payment and policy pages clear
If you take payments, show that you use trusted gateways such as Paystack or Flutterwave and explain your delivery and refund policy in plain words. A short page that says “how long delivery takes, what happens if something is wrong, and how to reach us” reduces fear and reduces disputes. It also protects you when a buyer claims they never knew the rules.
Legal basics you should not skip
If you collect names, phone numbers or emails through a form, the Nigeria Data Protection Act expects you to be clear about what you do with them. A simple privacy page and a short note next to your form are a sensible start. Make sure you have the right to use every photo, font and icon on your site, since images copied from other websites can cause legal trouble and look unprofessional.
Making your website easy to find: SEO basics your designer must set up
A beautiful site that nobody finds is a billboard in a locked room. Search engine optimisation, usually called SEO, means preparing the site so that Google understands it and shows it to the right people. A good Lagos web designer should build the basics in from day one, not sell them to you as a mysterious extra.
Page titles, descriptions and headings
Every page needs its own title and short description, written for humans first and search engines second. The title of your services page should say something like “Wedding catering in Lagos” and not just “Services”. Headings on the page should follow a clear order, with one main heading per page and smaller headings that break up the text.
Local words that Lagos customers actually type
People search by place. They type “hair salon in Lekki”, “generator repair Surulere” or “best shawarma Yaba”. Your site should mention the areas you serve in natural sentences, in headings and on the contact page, not only in a hidden list. My guide on getting your business to page one of Google in Nigeria walks through it in plain steps.
Your Google Business Profile
The free Google Business Profile shows your business on Maps and in local search results. It should link to your website, and your website should show the same name, address and phone number in exactly the same form. Mismatched details confuse Google and customers alike.
Speed, security and mobile layout
Google favours sites that load quickly, work on phones and use HTTPS (the padlock in the address bar). These are technical basics that your designer and developer should handle. If you want extra help beyond the basics, a dedicated SEO service can keep the work going after the launch.
Calls to action and conversion: turning visitors into enquiries
A website earns its money when a visitor takes an action. Designers call this conversion. You can think of it as the difference between a shop where people only look around and one where they buy.
“Everybody says my website is beautiful,” Funke told me, “but nobody is booking.” We changed four things in one week. We put a WhatsApp button on every page, added a price list, replaced the video with a fast photo, and put the address and map above the fold. Her online bookings went from four in three months to about twenty in the next month. The site was already pretty. It just had not been told to sell.
WhatsApp as the main button
In Nigeria, WhatsApp is often the easiest way for a customer to reach you. A button that opens a chat with a prefilled message such as “Hello, I want to book a massage on Saturday” removes friction. Put it in the header, on every service page and as a floating button on mobile. Then make sure a real person, or a well-set-up automatic reply, answers quickly.
Short forms that people finish
If you use a contact form, ask for only what you need: name, phone number, and a short message. Every extra field lowers the number of people who finish it. Make sure the form actually reaches you: test it, and confirm the notification goes to an email address that someone checks daily.
Online booking and payment where it makes sense
Salons, clinics, hotels, tutors and consultants can let customers book a time and pay a deposit online. This reduces no-shows and saves you hours of back-and-forth. Shops can add a cart and a payment option. If you plan to sell online, the website cost guide linked in the pricing section below shows how features change the price.
Measure what visitors do
Ask your designer to set up simple analytics, so you can see how many people visit, which pages they read and where they leave. Then check the numbers monthly. When you know that 60 percent of visitors leave from the services page, you know where to fix things.
How to find and shortlist a web designer in Lagos
Lagos has thousands of people offering web design, from experienced studios in Victoria Island and Yaba to beginners working from home. The market is large, and that is both the good news and the bad news. Here is the shortlist method I recommend.
Where to look
Begin with businesses you admire. If a restaurant in Lekki has a site that loads fast and makes you want to book, ask the owner who built it. Then check portfolio platforms such as Behance, LinkedIn and Instagram, where designers show their work, and look at design and tech communities in Lagos where people share projects. Google Maps can also show local studios with real reviews. Take names from at least two sources so that you are not relying on a single opinion.
What to look for in a portfolio
A designer’s portfolio should show mobile screens as well as desktop screens. Look for a variety of business types, and for short case studies that explain the problem and result, not just pictures. Open the live sites and use them on your phone. Ask yourself: is it easy to find the price, the contact details and the main action? Did it load quickly? Would I trust this business? If the portfolio shows only pretty pictures with no explanation, the designer may be a visual artist and not a strategist.
Interview questions for a web designer
- How will you find out what my customers need before you design anything?
- Can I see the mobile design before the desktop version?
- How many design options and revision rounds are included?
- Who builds the site after the design is approved, and how do you work with that person?
- How do you make sure the site loads fast on mobile data?
- Will the domain, hosting and files be in my name at the end?
- What support do I get in the first month after launch?
The best designers ask you questions in return: who are your customers, what do they complain about, what do your competitors do well? If a designer never asks about your business, they are designing for themselves.
| What you see in the portfolio | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Mobile and desktop screens for each project | The designer understands that most Nigerian visitors use phones |
| Short case studies with results | They think about business goals, not just looks |
| Live links that load quickly on your phone | They or their developer care about performance |
| Only stock-photo mockups and no live links | Possibly a beginner or copied work, so ask more questions |
| Every site looks identical with different logos | Template work, which may be fine for small budgets but not for custom needs |
| Client names you can contact | They are confident that clients are happy |
How much does a web designer in Lagos cost in 2026?
Prices in Lagos are wide, and they change with the naira. The ranges below are typical as at 2026 and are meant as a guide, not a fixed price list. For a complete breakdown of running costs and hidden fees, read my full guide on website cost in Nigeria.
| Type of service | Typical price as at 2026 | What you usually get |
|---|---|---|
| Template-based site, customised | ₦150,000 to ₦350,000 | Ready design adjusted with your logo, colours and text, three to five pages |
| Custom design for a small business (5 to 8 pages) | ₦350,000 to ₦900,000 | Original layout, mobile design, some content help, basic search setup |
| Design and build with features | ₦600,000 to ₦1,500,000 | Custom design, bookings or payments, analytics and training |
| Established Lagos agency | ₦1,500,000 and above | Team, brand strategy, project management, larger scope |
Why designers in Lagos may cost more
Rent, power, internet and transport are expensive in Lagos, and agencies pass part of that cost on to clients. A studio in Victoria Island pays a lot for its office. That does not automatically make its work better. Some of the best designers I know work from home offices and charge fair prices. Judge the work and the process, not the address.
What is usually not included in the quote
Ask whether the price includes copywriting, photography, logo design, domain and hosting, business email, and training. Many designers quote only for design and leave the rest to you. Also ask what happens after launch. If you need ongoing changes, you will pay for those too. My guide on why your website needs regular maintenance explains what to budget for after the site goes live.
How to stretch a small budget
Start with the pages that bring money: home, services, contact. Send your own photos and text. Use one well-chosen colour and one or two fonts. Skip complicated animation. You can add a blog, an online shop or a booking system later, once the first version proves itself. A simple site that loads fast and answers questions beats a complicated one that scares customers away.
The design process step by step, and how long it takes
A good design project follows a clear path. Knowing the steps helps you give feedback at the right time and prevents the “let us start again” moments that eat budgets. For a typical small business site, the whole process takes four to six weeks.
| Stage | What the designer delivers | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Discovery | Questions, goals, list of competitors, page plan | Answer honestly, share examples you like and dislike |
| 2. Structure (sitemap and wireframes) | A simple black-and-white plan of each page | Check that every important question is answered |
| 3. Visual design | Colours, fonts, images and full mobile and desktop screens | Give one list of feedback within a few days |
| 4. Build | The approved design turned into a working site | Send remaining text, photos and prices |
| 5. Testing | Checks on different phones, speed, forms and payments | Try the site yourself on your own phone and data |
| 6. Launch and handover | Site goes live, logins handed over, short training | Confirm logins, share the link and update your profiles |
Where projects usually slow down
It is rarely the design stage. It is late content, unclear decision-makers and last-minute changes after approval. If you send photos, prices and text at the start and choose one person to approve each stage, you will save weeks. A designer who sends you a private link to check progress every week is a designer who wants you to succeed.
One more practical point: agree on the deadline for your feedback as well as the designer’s deadline for delivery. When a client takes three weeks to reply to a design, the designer moves on to other projects, and your project goes to the back of the queue. Two working days to respond is a fair habit, and it keeps everyone’s attention on your site.
Approving a design properly
Do not approve a design on a laptop screen only. Look at the mobile screens, read every word and check that nothing is missing: phone number, address, WhatsApp button, price, opening hours. Send your changes as a numbered list. Once you approve, changes become more expensive because the build has begun.
Mistakes I see Lagos business owners make when hiring a web designer
These are the patterns I have seen many times. Avoid them and you will be ahead of most of your competition.
Choosing on style alone
A designer with a glamorous Instagram page is not necessarily good at making websites that sell. Look at how they think about your customers, and how the site performs on a phone. Beautiful and useful must go together.
Too many people giving opinions
When the spouse, the sister, the pastor and three staff members each send different feedback, the designer produces an unclear design that pleases nobody. Choose one decision-maker who gathers everyone’s ideas and gives a single answer.
Skipping the content
Designers cannot design around text that does not exist. If you have not written your services, prices and about story, the site will be full of “lorem ipsum” placeholder text or dull generic words. Write the content first, even as rough notes.
Ignoring what happens after launch
A site left alone for a year becomes slow, outdated and sometimes unsafe. Plan for updates, backups and small changes from the beginning. Also plan for growth: if you later need a booking system or an online store, tell your designer now so that the site is built to grow. For custom design work with a focus on how customers use your screens, you can look at my UI and UX design service.
Copying a foreign website
Some clients show me a website from London or New York and say “make mine like this”. A design built for a customer with fast fibre internet, a credit card and home delivery within two hours will not always suit a customer in Ikeja who pays by bank transfer, checks WhatsApp first and worries about fake sellers. Take ideas from foreign sites, but adapt them to how Nigerians actually search, pay and decide. Payment options such as bank transfer, USSD and cards through a local gateway, and trust details like a Lagos address and a working phone number, matter more here than a clever animation.
Key takeaways
- A web designer plans how the site looks and works for visitors, and a developer builds it. Small projects can use one skilled person for both jobs, but ask who does what.
- A good homepage tells a stranger what you do, where, and what to do next, within five seconds.
- Every business site needs services with prices, an About page, a Lagos-proof contact page with a map, FAQs, real reviews and policy pages.
- Design for mobile first, because most Nigerian visitors use phones on mobile data and lose patience fast.
- Build trust with real photos, CAC details, honest reviews and clear payment and refund rules.
- Set up local SEO and a Google Business Profile so that customers who search “near me” or “in Lekki” can find you.
- As at 2026, custom design for a small Lagos business usually costs between ₦350,000 and ₦900,000, and template work can start lower.
- Avoid choosing on style alone, avoid too many decision-makers and always plan for support after launch.
Frequently asked questions
What does a web designer in Lagos do?
A web designer plans how your website looks and how visitors move through it. They choose layouts, colours, fonts and images, and design the mobile and desktop screens. In many small projects the designer also builds the site, but larger projects often use a separate developer.
How much does a web designer in Lagos charge in 2026?
As at 2026, a customised template site usually costs about ₦150,000 to ₦350,000, and a custom design for a small business of five to eight pages costs about ₦350,000 to ₦900,000. Sites with bookings or payments can reach ₦600,000 to ₦1,500,000. Agencies charge more, and prices move with the naira.
What should a good business website include?
A good business website includes a clear homepage headline, one main action, services or products with prices, an About page, a contact page with address, map and WhatsApp, real reviews, FAQs and a privacy policy. It must also load fast on mobile data and be set up for local search on Google.
What is the difference between a web designer and a web developer?
A web designer decides the look, layout and user journey. A web developer writes the code that makes the site work, including forms, payments, speed and security. For a simple site one person can do both, but complex projects usually need both skills working closely together.
How long does it take to design and launch a website in Lagos?
A small business website usually takes four to six weeks from the first call to launch when your content is ready. Online stores and sites with bookings or portals take longer, often two to three months. Late photos, prices and text are the most common causes of delay.
How can I judge if a web designer’s work is good?
Open their live projects on your phone using mobile data. Check the speed, the mobile layout and how easily you can find the price and contact details. Ask about results, and speak to a past client if you can. A good designer explains why they made choices and asks about your customers.
Do I need a designer based in Lagos for a Lagos business?
Not necessarily. A Lagos-based designer can meet you in person and understand the local market, but many projects work well through video calls and shared folders. Focus on portfolio quality, clear written terms, mobile testing and post-launch support, not only on the address.
Your next step: get a website that brings enquiries, not only compliments
If you are planning a new website or you are unhappy with the one you have, tell me what your business does and who your customers are. I will review what you have, explain what a good version would include and give you a fixed price in writing. You can read more on my professional business website service page, look at examples on my projects page, or book a free consultation at a time that suits you. If you prefer to chat, message me on WhatsApp from the site and I will reply the same day.
BSc Economist and software engineer with 8 years of experience. CTO / Team Lead at Xoftpro Smart Systems and founder of DannieSoft.
