Questions to ask a web design agency before signing

Short answer

The questions to ask a web design agency before signing are about outcomes, process and ownership, not just design: what results their sites have produced, how they handle content and SEO migration, how they measure success, who owns the finished site, what support costs, and who will actually do the work.

• Ask for results: enquiries or sales produced, not just screenshots.
• Ask how they protect rankings when URLs change.
• Confirm you will own the domain, site files, content and accounts.
• Get running costs for three years, not just the build price.
• Ask who does the work and who your day-to-day contact is.

What makes a good web design agency?

A good web design agency is one that designs and builds websites around a client's commercial goals, can show evidence that its sites produce results, manages content, SEO and tracking as part of the project, and leaves the client in full control of what they paid for.

Portfolio quality is only one part of that. A beautiful site that does not convert, loses rankings on launch or cannot be edited without the agency is not a good outcome.

The questions below are grouped by the risks they reduce: paying for a site that does not perform, a project that overruns, losing search traffic at launch, and being locked in afterwards. Ask them of every shortlisted agency, in writing, so the answers can be compared side by side.

What should you ask about results?

Start with outcomes. These questions show whether the agency thinks in terms of business results.

• Can you show two or three sites you built and what they produced afterwards?
• How will you define success for our project?
• What will you need from us to measure it?
• Can we speak to a client whose site you built more than a year ago?

• Website goals and KPIs for small businesses

What should you ask about process and content?

Most project problems come from content and scope, not design. Ask how these are handled before signing.

• Who writes the copy, and is it included in the price?
• How do you research our customers and their questions?
• What happens if content is late?
• How many rounds of design changes are included?
• How will you set up enquiry tracking?
• How do you test accessibility, speed and mobile usability before launch?

• Website copywriting for small businesses
• Track every website enquiry to its source

What should you ask about SEO and migration?

If you have an existing site with any search traffic, migration is the biggest technical risk in the project.

• How will you map old URLs to new ones?
• Will every old URL have a 301 redirect?
• How do you preserve titles, content and structured data that already rank?
• What will you check in Search Console after launch, and for how long?

• Website migration SEO checklist

What should you ask about ownership and support?

These questions protect you for the life of the site.

• Will the domain, hosting, analytics and Search Console be in our name?
• Will copyright in the design, code and content be assigned to us?
• Can we move the site to another supplier, and what would we receive?
• What does hosting and maintenance cost, and what does it include?
• What is your response time for urgent problems?

• Who owns your website, domain and content?
• Website maintenance costs in the UK

What are the red flags?

Be cautious of guaranteed rankings, prices far below every other quote without an explanation, refusal to transfer ownership, a proprietary platform you cannot leave, no mention of content or tracking, and a salesperson who cannot tell you who will build the site.

The trade-off with any supplier is cost against risk. A slightly more expensive agency that answers these questions clearly is usually cheaper over the life of the site.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see when businesses change supplier: the previous agency registered the domain in its own name, hosted the site on its own servers, and quoted a large fee to hand over the files.

Asking the ownership questions before signing, and writing the answers into the contract, avoids that entirely. It costs nothing at the start and can save the business its domain later.

• What makes a business website effective
• See the three problems we fix for UK businesses

Agency selection checklist

Get written answers to these before signing.

• Evidence of results, not just screenshots.
• A defined measure of success.
• Clear content responsibilities.
• A URL mapping and redirect plan.
• Tracking set-up included.
• Ownership of domain, accounts and copyright.
• Three-year running costs.
• Named team and contact.

Next step

If you are choosing between agencies, we will review the proposals with you in 30 minutes and point out the gaps and risks in each, including our own if you are considering us.