Choosing who builds your website is an uncomfortable decision, because you are buying something you cannot inspect in advance, from people whose work all looks similar in a slide deck. Here is how to make it inspectable.
Start with the work, not the pitch
Ask for three live addresses - not screenshots, not a PDF. Then, on your own phone, on mobile data rather than office wifi, do this:
- Time how long the homepage takes to become useful. Three seconds is slow; eight is losing customers.
- Try to find the phone number in five seconds.
- Fill in the contact form and see whether anything happens.
- Read one paragraph. Is it about the customer, or about the agency?
- Rotate the phone. Does the layout survive?
Everything on our own site can be checked this way: the 22 demos are real, working websites rather than pictures, and you can open every one of them.
Twelve questions worth asking
- Is my design custom, or a theme? Both answers are fine - but the price should match the answer.
- Who writes the words? Copy decides most of the result, and "client provides content" is where projects stall for months.
- Who owns the domain, hosting and accounts? The only acceptable answer is: you.
- What load time are you targeting on mobile data, and how will you show me?
- What SEO is included at launch? Titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, Search Console, Business Profile.
- How will I edit the site afterwards? Ask for a live demonstration of adding a page.
- What happens if a form stops working in three months?
- What is the support arrangement, and what does it cost?
- Who is actually doing the work, and can I talk to them?
- What is the timeline, stage by stage, and what do you need from me to hold it?
- What is not included in this price?
- Can I speak to a client you built for last year? Not last week - last year.
The warning signs
None of these is proof of bad work on its own, but together they have a pattern.
- A portfolio you cannot open. Screenshots are free; live sites are evidence.
- A price before any questions. Nobody can price work they have not scoped.
- "SEO guaranteed, first page in 30 days." Nobody can guarantee Google rankings, and anyone promising it is either guessing or planning to rank you for phrases nobody searches.
- Hosting held hostage. If they will not put the accounts in your name, you do not own your site.
- No written scope. If it is not in writing, it is not in the project.
- No mention of mobile in a country where most people will see your site on a phone.
Cheap, fast, good
The old rule holds: you can have two. The problem is that "cheap and fast" often looks fine for about three months, and then the cost arrives as rebuilding from scratch. If budget is tight, the better move is to reduce scope rather than reduce quality - three excellent pages beat twelve rushed ones, and you can add the rest later.
What a serious proposal looks like
Whoever you choose, the document you receive should contain all of this, in plain language:
- The pages, by name, and what each one is for.
- What is designed custom and what is not.
- The technology, and why it suits your case.
- Timeline by stage, with what is needed from you and when.
- What is included at launch: SEO basics, email, analytics, training.
- What is explicitly not included.
- Support after launch: what, how fast, how much.
- Ownership: domain, hosting, code, content, accounts - all yours.
Before you pay anything
Take one more step: run their own website through a check. If the company building your website has a site that is slow, has no meta descriptions and no sitemap, that is the standard you are buying. You can run that check yourself with our free website audit - on us, on them, on anyone.
And if you want to see how we answer these twelve questions, the answers are already on this site: what a website includes, the work, live, and a free call before anything is quoted.