To choose a web design company: check that their portfolio includes live, mobile-tested sites relevant to your industry; look for a proposal that specifies page templates, revision rounds, CMS platform, and post-launch support. Treat slow or evasive communication during the sales process as a direct signal of how the project will run.
Our guide gives you the framework to apply each criterion before you sign.
How to compare two similar portfolios
When two agencies both show polished work, the question isn't which site looks better; it's whether the work is relevant to your situation.
Look for projects that share your industry, your audience type, or your core functional requirement. Then check that the work is real by clicking through to live sites. Many agencies take screenshots of work before a client later rebuilds it, so a broken link or an obvious redesign means you're evaluating something that no longer reflects the agency's current output.
Test the live sites on your phone. Mobile execution is one of the clearest signals of technical competence.
According to Stanford Web Credibility Research, 75% of users judge a company’s overall credibility based on its website design. Furthermore, research by Forrester shows that an optimized website user experience (UX) can increase conversion rates by up to 400%, while 88% of users are unlikely to return to a site after a single bad experience.
As such, it’s critical to check the navigation, load speed, and interior pages of the web design agency’s live pages beyond the homepage.
Finally, check when the work was done. Strong, consistent work over the last 18 months is a better indicator than a single impressive project from 2020.
This timeline is critical given that the average lifespan of a website is only 2 years and 7 months before evolving technology and design trends necessitate a rebuild.
How to recognize red flags in proposals
A proposal that describes deliverables in vague terms without specifying page templates, the CMS platform, revision rounds, or post-launch support is designed to win the project, not to define it. Vague scope is where budget overruns originate.
Also, be skeptical of any agency that quotes a fixed price without a discovery conversation first; a proposal that arrives within hours of an initial inquiry is a template, not a considered response to your brief.
Proposals that lead with awards and rankings rather than client outcomes, such as traffic growth and conversion rates, prioritize their own brand over yours.
What are red flags in communication?
How an agency behaves during the sales process is the most reliable preview of how they'll behave during delivery. An agency that takes four days to respond to a proposal request will take four days to respond when your site is down.
Problems caught early are cheaper to fix than problems discovered later.
This mirrors a broader pattern IBM has found in software development: catching a defect in production costs roughly 15 times more to fix than catching it during design. The same logic applies to choosing a partner: a mismatch discovered after signing costs far more than the extra hour spent vetting a proposal upfront.
Ask them to walk you through what happens from the signed contract to launch. A confident, specific answer is reassuring; generalities are not.
Dismissiveness about your concerns during the pitch intensifies under project pressure.
Urgency tactics, like expiring discounts or limited-availability windows, signal that their confidence in closing is higher than their confidence in their work.
How to make the final call when you're genuinely stuck
Ask each agency for a reference client in a similar industry and call them. Ask specifically how the agency handled something going wrong, because something always does.
If possible, meet the actual delivery team before signing; the person selling and the team delivering are frequently different people.
When all else is equal, the agency that asked better questions and communicated more clearly during the pitch is the one that will be easier to work with when the project gets complicated.
15 questions to ask web design companies before signing a contract
Before signing a contract, make sure to get clear and specific answers to the following questions:
- What does your design process look like from kickoff to launch?
- Who will be my main point of contact, and how often will we communicate?
- What's the realistic timeline for a project like mine?
- Can you share examples of websites you've built in my industry?
- Have you worked with businesses at my stage/size before?
- What's the most complex project you've completed, and how did you handle it?
- Who owns the website and all design files after launch, me or you?
- Will I have full access to the CMS, hosting, and domain from day one?
- How do you handle on-page SEO during the build?
- Will the site be optimized for Core Web Vitals and mobile performance?
- How many revision rounds are included, and what counts as a revision vs. a new request?
- What happens if the project goes over scope? How are change orders handled?
- Do you offer maintenance plans, and what do they cover?
- What's your process if something breaks after launch?
- What's the payment schedule, and are there penalties if either party misses a deadline?
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