How to choose a web agency

Explain the business problem first

Bring examples of the customer journey that is failing: unanswered enquiries, confusing services, duplicate bookings or slow quote follow-up. Ask the agency how it would learn your process before suggesting features. A supplier who only asks how many pages you want may miss the job the site must do.

Agree one or two outcomes you can observe, such as complete quote requests or fewer manual booking corrections. Do not accept a promise of sales or ranking as a substitute for a practical plan.

Ask what is included

Request a page list, design scope, writing responsibilities, forms, integrations, testing, training and launch tasks. Ask which elements are optional and how changes will be quoted. “Website build” is too vague to compare across proposals.

Look closely at any booking, payment or customer-data features. Ask how exceptions, refunds, access and failures will be handled. A demonstration with one real scenario can reveal gaps before you commit.

Check account ownership

The business should control the domain and know who owns the hosting, email, payment, Google Business Profile and analytics accounts. Ask for the registrar name, administrator roles and handover process. Give an agency the access it needs without making it the only route into an essential account.

Read the domain and email guide and ask how the supplier documents DNS and connected services.

Read the contract and exit terms

Find the payment schedule, cancellation rules, notice period and what happens to files, content and data when the relationship ends. Ask whether any template, plugin or platform licence stops working after cancellation. Get the answer in writing before signing.

Clarify intellectual-property ownership and licences for images, fonts and software. If a supplier says you own the website, ask what that means in practice: editable source, exports, accounts and documentation.

Understand recurring charges

Separate build work from hosting, domain, email, payment processing, messages, maintenance and marketing. Ask which charges are third-party fees, which are agency fees and whether they can change. A monthly plan may be convenient, but compare the total cost and what support it really includes.

Ask how billing works if you stop marketing support but keep the site, or move the site but keep the domain. This helps expose bundled arrangements that are hard to unwind.

Agree support and security

Ask who monitors uptime, renews certificates, updates software, makes backups and tests restores. Confirm support hours, the contact route, response expectations and charges for urgent work. If the site is static, there may be fewer updates, but hosting and connected systems still need care.

A supplier should describe how it limits access and handles customer data. If the site takes payments, confirm that card details flow through an appropriate payment provider.

Judge the working relationship

Ask who will do the work, who approves decisions and how progress is shared. Speak to the people who will actually build or support the site if possible. Check whether the agency can explain trade-offs without jargon and whether it pushes a feature you do not need.

Review examples for relevance and verify any claims directly. A pretty portfolio image alone does not show how booking, editing or support worked after launch.

Before you agree

Write down the scope, timeline assumptions, content deadlines, acceptance checks, price, recurring costs, ownership and exit. Ask how defects found after launch are handled. Keep a copy of the proposal and account list in your own records.

Use our website cost guide to compare pricing factors and online booking guide to decide which features matter. Search visibility takes time; a supplier cannot promise a particular Google ranking.

Run a fair comparison

Send the same short brief to each agency. Include your business type, current site, main customer action, services, required integrations, content you already have and the person who will approve work. Ask each supplier to state assumptions and exclusions. This makes differences in approach visible without forcing every proposal into an identical template.

Score proposals against the work that matters to you: clarity of the customer journey, ability to handle exceptions, account ownership, support and total cost. Ask a follow-up when wording is vague. If you have limited time, prioritise a supplier who can explain what happens after launch, because small changes and failures are part of running a site. Keep the final decision and agreed scope in writing.

If two quotes cannot be compared, ask each supplier to restate the scope using your customer journey. A clear answer now is a useful sign of how project questions will be handled later.

Questions you may have