How to choose a web design agency: 15 questions to ask before you sign

The best way to choose a web design agency is to ignore the portfolio for a moment and compare answers to fifteen specific questions: who will own your domain and accounts, who actually does the work, how the site will meet accessibility and privacy rules, how a redesign protects your search rankings, and what happens after launch. Every agency's demo reel looks good. The answers below are what separate an agency that leaves you with a solid asset from one that leaves you with a dependency. Print the list, bring it to your meetings, and use the good and bad answers as your scorecard.

If budget is your first question, our breakdown of how much a website costs covers prices line by line. This article is about choosing well.

Ownership and control

Ask these first. A bad answer here can cost you a whole website later.

• 1. Whose name will the domain, hosting and accounts (Google Analytics, Google Ads, Business Profile) be in?
  • Good answer: "Yours. We'll have admin access during the project."
  • Bad answer: "Don't worry, we handle all that." If the domain is registered to the agency, the agency controls your web address.
• 2. If I switch providers in two years, what can I take with me?
  • Good answer: the site, its files, its content and all logins, handed over once the final invoice is paid.
  • Bad answer: the site only runs on the agency's proprietary platform and can't be exported.
• 3. Can I edit my own text and photos?
  • Good answer: a live demo of the content management system and a short training session included.
  • Bad answer: every change goes through a billable support ticket.

The team and the approach

• 4. Who will actually design and build my site?
  • Good answer: names and roles, and honesty about what's outsourced.
  • Bad answer: something vague. Subcontracting isn't a problem in itself; hiding it is.
• 5. Will you start from a theme, a builder like Wix or WordPress, or custom development, and why for my project?
  • Good answer: a choice explained by your needs (number of pages, languages, features, budget). A well-chosen theme can be the right answer for a small site.
  • Bad answer: the same stack for everyone. The price gap is real: Clutch reports that agencies working mainly with builders typically charge US$25 to US$49 an hour, against US$100 to US$149 for shortlisted agencies in Canada and the US. You should know which one you're paying for.
• 6. Who writes the content, and who handles the second language?
  • Good answer: a copywriter, or your content edited by one, and translation done or reviewed by a person. If you do business in Quebec, French content is a legal requirement for commercial publications on your website, and raw machine translation shows immediately.
  • Bad answer: "Send us the text and we'll drop it in," with no schedule or help.
• 7. Can you show me comparable sites that are live, and give me two clients to call?
  • Good answer: live sites, not just mockups, and references who pick up the phone.
  • Bad answer: screenshots only, or nobody you can reach.

Technical quality and compliance

• 8. What accessibility standard will you build to?
  • Good answer: WCAG Level AA, ideally version 2.2, the latest published by the W3C, tested with a keyboard and a screen reader. If you operate in Ontario with 50 or more employees, the AODA already requires WCAG 2.0 Level AA on your public website, apart from two exceptions for live captions and pre-recorded audio descriptions.
  • Bad answer: "We'll add an accessibility plugin." An overlay doesn't fix a badly built site.
• 9. How will the site handle privacy and cookie consent?
  • Good answer: a banner that actually blocks tracking until people consent, a privacy policy that matches what the site does, and the right contact details published. If you have Quebec customers, our Law 25 guide explains what that involves.
  • Bad answer: "That's your department," with no technical help.
• 10. What speed targets will the site meet?
  • Good answer: Google's Core Web Vitals thresholds, measured on mobile: the largest element visible within 2.5 seconds, interactions answered within 200 milliseconds, and layout shift (CLS) of 0.1 or less.
  • Bad answer: "It'll be fast," with no number and no test.
• 11. For a redesign: how will you protect my current search rankings?
  • Good answer: a map from every old address to its new one, permanent (301) redirects kept for at least a year as Google recommends, and monitoring in Search Console after launch.
  • Bad answer: redirecting everything to the home page, or not mentioning it at all.
• 12. What conversion tracking will you set up?
  • Good answer: Google Analytics 4 with forms, calls and bookings tracked as key events, tested before launch.
  • Bad answer: "We'll install Analytics," full stop. Without conversions, you won't know whether the site pays for itself.

Money, timelines and after launch

• 13. What's the timeline, and how are payments split?
  • Good answer: dated stages (strategy, design, build, testing, launch), payments tied to them, and what you need to supply at each stage.
  • Bad answer: 100% upfront, or no dates at all.
• 14. How many revision rounds are included, and what does an out-of-scope change cost?
  • Good answer: a set number, and an hourly rate or per-change price written into the contract.
  • Bad answer: "Unlimited revisions." That usually ends in friction or a project that never finishes.
• 15. What happens after launch?
  • Good answer: an included support period, then a clear maintenance offer (updates, backups, security, small edits) with its price and how to cancel.
  • Bad answer: nothing planned, or a mandatory multi-year maintenance contract.

Red flags

Some answers should make you pause, however good the portfolio looks:

• A guaranteed first-place ranking on Google or a set number of new clients. Nobody controls Google's algorithm.
• A domain or ad account registered in the agency's name.
• A one-line quote with no breakdown of pages, features and content.
• No questions about your customers, services or goals before a price is given.
• A very low price explained by "we reuse a template," without telling you which one or its limits.
• Pressure tactics: a discount that expires tomorrow, or a signature requested at the first meeting.

How to compare agencies

Ask each one the same fifteen questions, in writing if you can, and record the answers side by side. Give the most weight to ownership (questions 1 to 3) and redesign (question 11): those are the most expensive to get wrong. Then call the references and ask one thing: "Would you hire them again, and why?"

A real example

World Gym Québec runs a network of twelve gyms, each with its own classes, hours and amenities. The brief called for one bilingual, mobile-first site that gives every gym its own page while selling a single membership, plus a custom recruitment platform. In its testimonial, World Gym Québec highlights the speed of execution and the responsiveness to every revision, and says the recruitment platform "has significantly streamlined how we manage applications and candidates across our organization." The full project is in the World Gym case study.

Our answers

At PNE Solutions we're happy to answer every one of these questions before you sign anything. For our website design projects: custom-built sites with no templates, usually three to six weeks, a content management system included, 30 days of support after launch, no long-term contract, and the site, domain and logins are yours once the final payment is made.

Sources

• Website Designer Pricing Guide — Clutch
• WCAG 2 Overview — W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
• How to make websites accessible — Government of Ontario
• Web Vitals — web.dev (Google)
• How to move a site — Google Search Central
• Infraction à la Charte de la langue française : le site web de Loft Hotel inc. — Government of Quebec