How to choose a web design agency

Choosing an agency for a website build comes down to what you own when it is finished, what the price covers, and whether the site works on a phone. This is the checklist we would use if we were on your side of the table.

Most complaints about website agencies surface a year after launch. The domain turns out to be registered to the agency. Changing a price on the site takes a paid request. The site is slow on mobile data and nobody ever measured it. All of that can be settled before you sign.

Who owns the domain, the code and the accounts

With us you own everything. At the end we hand over the repository, the accounts and the documentation.

What is in the price

A single number tells you nothing until you know what it covers. Ask for these in writing.

• Pages and languages. How many of each, listed.
• Text and photos. Who writes the copy and who supplies the images. A site with no text cannot launch, however far the design has got.
• After launch. Who hosts it, who fixes what breaks, and whether that is monthly or per request.
• Changes. What counts as a change and how it is priced.
• What is left out. The features the first version does not include.

With us, every project has a written list of what version one does not do, so adding something later is a decision with a price. Scope, price and payment terms are agreed in writing before work starts. We wrote more on where the money goes in Web design, and what the money buys.

Speed and SEO, checked before you sign

Open two sites from their portfolio on your own phone, on mobile data rather than office Wi-Fi. Then run them through Google’s free PageSpeed Insights. Beyond the score, notice whether you can read, tap and find the phone number without zooming.

For search, the page Google downloads has to contain the text. Many modern sites are JavaScript apps that send an empty page and fill it in the browser. Open the page source in your browser, and if the text is not there, search engines may not see it either. Each page also needs its own title, description and address. Every route on our own site is turned into real HTML at build time, and we wrote up how.

What to ask in the first meeting

1. 1Explain what you sell and who buys itA good agency asks about customers before it asks about colours.
2. 2Ask to see a site they built, on your phoneOpen it live in the meeting and scroll it yourself.
3. 3Ask who owns what at the endDomain, code, accounts, in those words.
4. 4Ask who designs and who buildsA design handed to a separate developer has to be interpreted, and the interpretation is where the budget goes.
5. 5Leave with it in writingScope, price, payment terms and a start date.

Red flags

• The domain stays in the agency’s name with no date for moving it to you.
• The offer is one number with no list of pages, features or what happens after launch.
• Nobody can show you their work on a phone.
• The contract says nothing about code or accounts.
• A promise of first place on Google. Nobody controls that.
• Maintenance that is compulsory and bundled with no way to leave and take the site with you.

Questions owners ask