How to choose a web design agency: 12 questions to ask first

Short answer: choose the web design agency that understands what the website must do for your business, can show similar projects with results, and lets you own everything it builds. Design can be compared in minutes. What separates a good agency from a bad one only shows in the questions about ownership, support, speed and what happens after launch.

Do this before you contact an agency

The most common reason a website project fails is not bad design. It is that nobody decided what the website should achieve. Write four things on half a page before the first meeting:

1. The goal. More enquiries, more booked meetings, online sales or looking credible in tenders. One goal is enough, two is fine, five means no goal.
2. The budget. A rough range lets the agency propose the right scope instead of guessing.
3. Who will update it. Will you add news and change prices yourselves, or will the agency do it? The answer shapes the choice of CMS.
4. The timeline. A trade show, a launch or a new offer gives a real date to plan for.

Gather what you already have too: logo, brand guidelines, copy that works, images and statistics from the old site. It saves time and money.

Agency, freelancer or do it yourself?

12 questions to ask a web design agency

Ask every agency the same questions. That makes the answers comparable, and it quickly shows who has thought through how they work.

Experience and results

1. Can you show similar projects, and what happened afterwards? Ask for results, not just nice screenshots. More enquiries, better rankings, faster load times.
2. Can we speak to a client? An agency that is proud of its work has no problem giving a reference.
3. Who will do the work? Ask who actually works on the project and whether anything is outsourced.

Ownership and freedom

4. Is the domain registered to us? Your business should be the registrant of the domain, so you can move it whenever you like. A .co.uk domain costs only around £10 a year (IONOS), so there is no reason for the agency to own it.
5. Who owns the design, code and copy? The contract should say you own the result once the invoice is paid.
6. Can we move the site if we change supplier? Ask which platform the site is built on and what happens to it if the relationship ends. We work with WordPress, Webflow and Shopify, among others, and the choice depends on how you want to work with the site.
7. Do we get our own logins? To the CMS, hosting, Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Not through the agency's account.

Quality and visibility

8. How fast will the site be? Google measures experience with Core Web Vitals. Good means the largest content loads within 2.5 seconds, the page responds to clicks within 200 milliseconds and the layout shifts no more than 0.1 (web.dev). Write the targets into the brief.
9. What SEO is included from the start? Page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, redirects from old URLs and a sitemap are the foundation. Read What is SEO?
10. How will you measure that it works? Google itself recommends asking what results a provider expects, over what timeframe and how they are measured (Google Search Central).

After launch

11. Who updates and secures the site? Ask about security updates, backups, response times and what support costs per month or hour. Read WordPress maintenance and security.
12. How do we keep improving? A website is never finished. Ask how the agency follows up, tests improvements and reports.

The rules your agency should know

Your business is responsible for the site, but a good agency should build it right from the start.

• Cookies and consent. Non-essential cookies need consent that is actively and clearly given (ICO). In 2025 the ICO checked the UK's top 1,000 websites, including whether rejecting advertising cookies was as easy as accepting them (ICO).
• Accessibility. Under the Equality Act 2010, businesses that serve the public must not discriminate against disabled people and must make reasonable adjustments (legislation.gov.uk). Whatever the legal minimum, WCAG 2.2 at level AA is the standard your agency should build to. Read What makes a good website?
• Personal data. Contact forms, newsletters and analytics handle personal data under UK GDPR. Ask where data is stored and how the forms are connected.

What does a web design agency cost?

There is no official price list and the range is wide. According to Bark's UK price guide, agencies typically charge £2,000 to £7,000 for a small business website, £5,000 to £15,000 for e-commerce and £10,000 to £30,000 or more for custom enterprise projects, while freelancers are usually cheaper (Bark). Treat the figures as a rough guide.

What drives the price is the number of page types, whether the agency writes the copy, integrations with other systems, e-commerce and how much strategy and SEO is included. Always compare what is included, not just the total. If you are building an online shop, read WooCommerce vs Shopify.

How to compare quotes

Put the quotes side by side and tick off the same points:

• Number of pages and page types, and who writes the copy
• Platform, and who owns licences and accounts
• SEO, redirects from old URLs and measurement from the start
• Speed targets, mobile and accessibility
• Number of design rounds and what changes cost
• Support, updates and price after launch
• Timeline and what the agency needs from you

If anything in a quote is unclear, ask. The answer often tells you more about the agency than the quote does. And get it all in a written contract, including ownership and what happens if either side wants to end the relationship.

Warning signs

• Guaranteed first place on Google. Google itself says no one can guarantee a number one ranking (Google Search Central).
• The domain is registered to the agency. That makes it hard to change supplier later.
• You do not get your own logins. You should be able to see and control your own site.
• Nobody asks about your goals. An agency that only talks colours and animations builds a nice brochure, not a sales channel.
• The fixed price covers nothing after launch. Ask what the first change costs.