Questions to ask any web agency before you sign

• Who exactly will work on my project? Ask for names and roles. Will the senior people on the sales call do the work, or hand it to others?
• Is any of the work subcontracted or offshored? Neither is wrong in itself, but you should know, and the agency should stay accountable for quality.
• Who is my day-to-day contact? And who do you go to if that person is away?
• How many projects does each person run at once? A team stretched across too many projects will miss your dates.

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• Have you built something similar? Ask to see it live, not just a screenshot.
• Can I speak to a past client? A confident agency will arrange it.
• What went wrong on a recent project, and what did you do? Every agency has had a project go sideways. How they talk about it tells you a lot.
• What results can you show, and how were they measured? Be wary of percentage claims with no baseline or timeframe.

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• What are the phases, and what do you need from me in each? A good answer names specific inputs: content, decisions, access, feedback deadlines.
• How long will it take, and what usually causes delays? Honest agencies will tell you the client side is often the bottleneck, and explain how they handle it.
• How many rounds of design revisions are included?
• Who writes the content? Copywriting is one of the most common gaps between what clients expect and what is quoted.
• How do you handle requests that are out of scope? Look for a clear change-request process with prices agreed before work starts.
• Where will we communicate, and how quickly do you reply?

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• Whose name will the domain, hosting and other accounts be in? The answer should be yours.
• Do I own the design files and the code when the project is paid? Check the contract, not just the call.
• Are any themes, plugins or tools licensed to you rather than to me? If so, what happens to them if you part ways?
• If we stop working together, what will you hand over, and how quickly?

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• What does success look like for this project, in numbers? For example, enquiries per month, conversion rate or sales.
• How will you measure it? Ask whether analytics and conversion tracking are part of the scope. See Conversions and goals explained.
• Do you guarantee anything? If yes, ask exactly what is measured, against what baseline, over what period and what happens if it's missed. A guarantee that can't be measured is a slogan.

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• How will you protect our existing search rankings? You want to hear about redirects, keeping URLs where possible, and checking Search Console after launch. Our guide Don't lose your SEO during a migration explains what good looks like.
• Will you move all the content, or only some?

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• What support is included after launch, and for how long?
• What does ongoing care cost, and what does it cover? Updates, backups, security, small changes?
• Am I locked in? Can you move your site to someone else without penalty?
• How do you handle an emergency, like the site going down at the weekend?

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• What is included in the price, and what is not? Ask for exclusions in writing.
• What are the payment terms? Deposit, milestones or full payment up front all exist; know which applies.
• What recurring costs will I pay to third parties? Hosting, licenses, apps. See Hidden costs to watch for.

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