25 Questions to Ask a Web Design Agency Before You Sign

Hiring a web design agency is a consequential purchase because you cannot inspect the finished product before the work begins. You are evaluating a proposed process and a promise about what will be delivered. One useful way to test that promise is to ask better questions than the agency expects, and to listen closely to how a potential web designer answers them.

This guide gives you 25 questions to ask a web design agency, organized by what each one protects: your business goals, your scope, your timeline, your search visibility, your budget, and your ownership of the finished website. It draws on our experience planning, building, and reviewing HubSpot websites. The questions below focus on information buyers often need before scope and pricing are final. Every question below includes what a strong answer sounds like and what should make you pause. Use it as a scorecard across every web design firm on your shortlist, and the right partner tends to separate itself quickly.

The short list: 25 questions to ask before you hire

If you only have a 30-minute discovery call, work through these in order. The full explanation for each follows below.

1. What business goals should this website hit in the first 12 months?
2. Who is our target audience, and what should they do on the site?
3. What will you review on our current website before you design anything?
4. What is failing on our existing website today?
5. How many pages will the new site include, and how is that number decided?
6. Which content management system do you build on, and why that one?
7. Do you build custom sites, or start from pre made templates?
8. Is responsive web design and mobile responsiveness included by default?
9. When do you recommend fully custom websites over a template build?
10. Walk me through your web design process from kickoff to launch.
11. Who is our project manager and single point of contact?
12. What is the project timeline, and what is the target launch date?
13. How many rounds of revisions are included before change orders begin?
14. What communication tools and project management software will we use?
15. Do you work in house, or outsource to other designers and contractors?
16. What is your approach to user experience design?
17. Will the site meet WCAG accessibility guidelines, and at what level?
18. How do you test the site before and after it goes live?
19. How will this new website generate leads after launch?
20. How do you handle search engine optimization and keyword research during the build?
21. What marketing services and additional services do you offer beyond web design?
22. Do you provide logo design, brand standards, and content strategy?
23. Can I see custom sites you built for businesses like ours, and speak to past clients?
24. Who owns the site, the logo files, the code, and the customer data?
25. What post launch support, additional support, and training do you provide?

How we built this list of questions

These are not interview trivia. Each question maps to a specific way a website project goes wrong for small businesses. We organized the list around failure modes that become expensive or disruptive to correct after launch.

• Misalignment on business goals. A visually polished site can still fail if the project never defines how success will be measured.
• Scope drift. Undefined page counts and vague deliverables make cost changes difficult to evaluate.
• Ownership traps. If an agency controls hosting, the domain, or final design files, leaving can require an additional transfer process.
• SEO as an afterthought. A redesign without URL mapping and redirect planning can break inbound paths and complicate how search engines process changed URLs.
• Accessibility exposure. Sites that ignore accessibility can exclude people who rely on keyboard navigation, assistive technology, captions, or sufficient color contrast. Contract language about accessibility should be reviewed separately from technical conformance testing.
• Support gaps. Technical issues arrive after launch, not before, and that is exactly when many web companies go quiet.
• Team opacity. You should know whether the design team that pitched you is the design team that builds your website.

Business goals, target audience, and your current website

The first four questions have nothing to do with design. They establish whether the agency is building toward an outcome or just toward a deadline. A potential web designer who leads with color palettes before understanding your core business is telling you something.

1. What business goals should this website hit in the first 12 months? Push for numbers. More demo requests, shorter sales cycles, fewer support calls, better recruiting. A good website is measured, not admired. If the agency cannot connect design decisions to a business outcome, they are selling you decoration. Strong answers sound like: “We would define two primary conversion actions, instrument them, and report on them monthly.”

2. Who is our target audience, and what should they do on the site? The agency should ask you this before you ask them. Effective web design depends on understanding your target audience and the specifics of your industry, so listen for whether they want to talk to your sales team and your customers, or whether they are content to guess. Web projects that skip audience research produce sites that speak to the business owner’s taste rather than the buyer’s needs.

3. What will you review on our current website before you design anything? The answer should include analytics, your top web pages by traffic and conversion, your sitemap, your live URLs, and your existing rankings. Ask specifically whether they will map every URL on the existing site to a new one with redirects. Redesigning without that review is how a new site launches with broken links and a traffic cliff.

4. What is failing on our existing website today? A serious web design firm will have opinions before the contract is signed. Ask them to walk you through one of your service pages and critique it live. You will learn more from five minutes of that than from an hour of portfolio review. It also tells you whether they can articulate why something is not working, or only that it looks dated.

Scope: how many pages, custom sites, and the content management system

Scope questions help protect your budget. Written scope reduces ambiguity between a business and a web developer.

5. How many pages will the new site include, and how is that number decided? Get a page count in writing, and get clarity on what a “page” means. Does a service page with six sections count the same as a thin contact page? Does the blog listing count? Does each blog post template count? Ask what happens when you need page 26 on a 25 page quote.

6. Which content management system do you build on, and why that one? Common answers include HubSpot CMS, WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, and Shopify. The right follow-up is not “which is best” but “why is this one right for us.” A content management system decision determines who can edit the site, how it connects to your CRM, and how painful the next redesign will be. Ask whether the selected platform has subscription, usage, hosting, or add-on fees, and include any current costs in the budget. Be skeptical of an agency that only ever recommends one platform regardless of the client.

7. Do you build custom sites, or start from pre made templates? Neither answer is automatically right. Template and custom approaches trade implementation effort, flexibility, and scope in different ways. What matters is that the agency is honest about which one you are buying. Some design firms quote custom pricing and deliver a lightly reskinned theme, so ask directly whether the design is built from your brand or adapted from a purchased template.

8. Is responsive web design and mobile responsiveness included by default? Ask the agency to define its mobile and responsive requirements, explain what it tests, and show recent mobile work on a real device. “Mobile friendly” and “designed mobile first” are not the same commitment, so the scope should use precise language.

Fully custom websites versus pre made templates

9. When do you recommend fully custom websites over a template build? Ask what project requirements justify custom work and which requirements a template can meet. Request a written explanation of the tradeoffs in design flexibility, implementation effort, maintenance, licensing, and future changes.

Ask for the cost and timeline difference between the two paths on your specific project. A custom build can require more design decisions and more of your team’s input on content and direction. If you do not have that bandwidth right now, a phased approach, template first and custom later, is often the smarter call. A partner willing to tell you that is worth keeping on the list.

The design process, project timeline, and revisions

These questions are about how the work actually gets done, and who does it. Ask for enough detail to understand responsibilities, review points, and the definition of done.

10. Walk me through your web design process from kickoff to launch. You want named phases with named deliverables: discovery, information architecture, wireframes, visual design, build, content load, quality assurance, launch. Ask what you owe them at each stage. Ask for a documented project management process with review checkpoints. A vague process leaves no shared definition of “done” and makes schedule drift harder to control.

11. Who is our project manager and single point of contact? A project manager should oversee the work from start to finish. Ask to meet that person before you sign, not after, and ask what happens when they are on vacation or leave the company. Ask how many active projects they manage and how coverage works when the primary contact is unavailable. On small teams, the answer may be the founder, which is fine as long as it is said out loud.

12. What is the project timeline, and what is the target launch date? There is no universal website timeline. Page count, content readiness, integrations, review cycles, and platform constraints determine the schedule. Ask what the launch date assumes about your team’s content and approvals, and what happens to the schedule and cost when either side misses a dependency.

13. How many rounds of revisions are included before change orders begin? Do not assume that revision rounds are unlimited. Get the included number and definition in writing: is a round one consolidated set of feedback from your whole team, or does every individual email count against your allotment? Clarify what counts as a revision versus a scope change, and confirm that scope changes must be approved in writing, because that boundary is where billing disputes live. When earlier phases are approved properly, final edits are usually minimal.

14. What communication tools and project management software will we use? Ask which platform holds the schedule and the feedback, how often you will get status updates, and whether you get a login to see progress on the website project yourself. Regular, structured communication is what separates a project you can plan around from one you have to chase. Too many channels fragments the conversation, so agree on one place for decisions and one for day-to-day questions.

15. Do you work in house, or outsource to other designers and contractors? Outsourcing is not disqualifying. Undisclosed outsourcing is, and any agency should tell you plainly which parts of the web development are handled by an in house team and which go to contractors. Ask who manages them, who is accountable for quality, and whether your customer data ever leaves the agency’s systems. An in house team gives you tighter coordination; a hybrid model can give you deeper specialist skill.

User experience design, accessibility, and pre-launch testing

These three questions help you evaluate whether real people can use the site and whether the release process catches preventable defects.

16. What is your approach to user experience design? User experience design is the practice of creating a positive online experience, and it spans branding, function, and usability rather than visual polish alone. Ask how they decide what goes above the fold, how navigation is structured, and what evidence informs those calls. Ask whether they test designs with real users or rely on internal opinion. An agency that can explain why a layout works, in terms of what the visitor is trying to accomplish, is thinking about your buyer rather than their portfolio.

17. Will the site meet WCAG accessibility guidelines, and at what level? Ask the agency to name the WCAG version and conformance level included in the scope. Ask whether accessibility is built into design and development or checked only at the end, how they test color contrast, keyboard navigation, focus states, form labels, and image alt text, and whether you receive a validation report before launch. Technical conformance work does not replace legal advice about the obligations that apply to your organization.

18. How do you test the site before and after it goes live? Testing should confirm that all links work before the site goes live, along with forms, integrations, and page speed across browsers and devices. Ask for the quality assurance checklist. Ask who tests, whether you get a staging environment to review, and how long you have to sign off. Ask specifically how they check for broken links and redirect errors after migration, and who owns each correction.

Then ask what testing continues after launch. Forms, CRM routing, redirects, indexation, analytics, uptime, and error logs can reveal defects that were not visible in staging. Ask the agency to name its post-launch checkpoints, what it monitors in Google Search Console and other systems, who fixes each issue, and whether that work is included.

SEO, marketing strategy, and how the new site will generate leads

A website that no one finds is a brochure with a hosting bill. These questions test whether the agency thinks past launch day.

19. How will this new website generate leads after launch? The answer should involve specific lead generation mechanisms: conversion paths, forms mapped to your CRM, lead magnets, calls to action matched to buying stage, and a plan for what happens to a lead after it comes in. If the answer is “the site will look more professional, so more people will call,” that is a hope, not a marketing strategy.

20. How do you handle search engine optimization and keyword research during the build? Ask how search requirements affect the sitemap, content, templates, and migration plan before design decisions are locked. Ask whether keyword research happens before the sitemap is finalized, because your page structure should reflect what people actually search for. Ask how they handle title tags, meta descriptions, heading hierarchy, image alt text, internal linking, mobile usability, and page speed. Google says good Core Web Vitals, together with other page-experience aspects, align with what its core ranking systems seek to reward. Then ask for the agency’s URL mapping and redirect plan so existing pages have explicit destinations when URLs change.

Also ask how the site will support content over time. Proper SEO improves visibility gradually rather than immediately, so the compounding only happens if you keep publishing. Agencies that build inbound growth into the project tend to deliver sites that perform long after launch. If ongoing publishing is part of your plan, the templates need to support it and someone needs to own the content strategy, review process, and maintenance schedule.

21. What marketing services and additional services do you offer beyond web design? You are not obligated to buy them, but the answer tells you how the agency thinks. Some design companies only build. Others provide ongoing marketing services after launch, including content creation, social media management, paid media, email, revenue operations, and analytics. A partner with those related services in house can connect the site to the rest of your funnel; a pure design shop will hand off to whoever you hire next. Both work, as long as you plan for the handoff.

Logo design, brand standards, and other related services

22. Do you provide logo design, brand standards, and content strategy? Logo design, brand standards, and content may be included, optional, or client-provided, so ask the agency to state the boundary explicitly. If your brand identity is dated or inconsistent, redesigning the website first is building on sand, so ask whether logo design and a brand standards document are inside the scope or a separate engagement. If you already have a brand, ask what logo files and brand assets they need from you and in what formats, so you are not scrambling mid-project.

Content is the other frequent gap. Ask explicitly who writes the copy. Many quotes assume the client provides all written content, and that assumption is buried in the scope. If you want the agency to write it, get that priced upfront. The same applies to photography, iconography, and any careers page work such as a job posting template or a connection to your recruiting tools.

Portfolio, past clients, and the design team behind the work

23. Can I see custom sites you built for businesses like ours, and speak to past clients? A web design agency is best evaluated on relevant project experience and the outcomes it produced. Portfolios show capability; references show what it is like to work with the team when something goes wrong. Ask for a recent reference and a longer-term reference if one is available. The longer relationship can reveal how the agency handles support after launch.

When reviewing the portfolio, look past aesthetics. Ask what the goal of each project was and whether it was met. Ask which team member led it and whether that person is still with the agency. Ask how many comparable web projects the current team has completed together and which members of that team will work on yours. A beautiful site in a case study means little if the design team that built it has since dispersed. Shortlist two or three design firms and run all of them through the same questions, so you are comparing answers rather than impressions.

How to read testimonials and case studies

Testimonials and case studies are the most-gamed part of any agency website, so read them for structure rather than sentiment. A testimonial that says the team was “a pleasure to work with” tells you nothing. One that names a specific problem, what the agency did, and what changed afterwards tells you a great deal.

Apply four tests to every case study you are shown:

• Is it attributed? A full name, title, and company beat “J.S., CEO” every time. Anonymous praise is unverifiable by design.
• Does it carry before-and-after numbers? Conversion rate, organic sessions, lead volume, bounce rate, time to launch. Screenshots alone are decoration.
• Is the business comparable to yours? A great result for an ecommerce brand with 40 SKUs does not predict much about a B2B services site with a long sales cycle.
• Is the site still live and still theirs? Open the URL. If the client has since rebuilt with someone else, that is worth knowing, and it is a fair thing to ask about.

Then ask the question that separates real proof from marketing: “Can you show me a project that did not go to plan, and what you changed as a result?” The substance of the answer matters more than whether the example is dramatic: listen for ownership, the corrective action, and what changed afterward.

Ownership, hosting, security, and post launch support

24. Who owns the site, the logo files, the code, and the customer data? Do not assume that every asset follows the same ownership rule. The agreement should state who owns or licenses the domain, written content, design files, custom code, themes, plugins, fonts, media, customer data, and administrator credentials. It should also explain what can be transferred if the relationship ends and what depends on a continuing platform or third-party license. Review the contract itself rather than relying on a verbal assurance, and obtain legal advice when ownership terms are material to the transaction.

While you are here, confirm the security basics: SSL certificate, automated backups, uptime commitment, and who patches the platform. Ask how urgent incidents are reported, who receives them, and what response-time commitment applies.

25. What post launch support, additional support, and training do you provide? Ask whether support is included for a period, sold as a retainer, or billed hourly, and get the hourly rate in writing now rather than discovering it later. Ask what is covered: security patches and technical issues, or also new features and new tools as your needs evolve.

Then ask about training. If your team can handle routine edits, you will spend far less over the life of the site. A good agency will show you the editing tools during the sales process and let you try them, and some include structured onboarding and training programs. If they are reluctant to let you edit your own website, ask yourself why.

Red flags when hiring a web design firm

Some answers may justify removing an agency from the shortlist. Evaluate these patterns during the sales process and ask for written clarification before you make that decision.

• A quote with no page count or deliverable list. If the scope is one paragraph, the change orders will not be.
• A single price with no breakdown. A lump sum hides which parts you could cut, defer, or take in house. Ask for cost by phase. If the number moves each time you ask, the estimate was never grounded in scope.
• Slow or scattered communication before you have signed. Unanswered emails, missed calls, and answers spread across four channels during the sales process do not improve after the contract. Time their response to your last three messages and treat that as the service level you are buying.
• No written project timeline. “Six to eight weeks” with no milestones, no dependencies, and no statement of what they need from you is a guess. Ask for dated phases and what happens to the schedule when either side is late.
• Reluctance to name the team. If you cannot meet the people doing the work, you do not know who is doing the work.
• No redirect or migration plan. This is the fastest way to lose organic traffic that took years to build.
• Ownership hedging. Any hesitation about who owns the domain, the code, or the customer data is disqualifying.
• Accessibility scope is undefined. An agency that cannot name an accessibility standard or testing method has not defined the accessibility scope.
• Anonymous testimonials only. If no client will attach their name and title to the praise, treat it as copywriting.
• Time-limited pricing. Ask what scope or cost assumption changes after the deadline and get the answer in writing.
• No questions for you. A potential web designer who does not interrogate your business goals will not build toward them.
• Portfolio links that 404. Broken links in a web design company’s own portfolio tell you what their maintenance standards are.

Does your existing website need a redesign or a rebuild?

Before you brief any agency, it helps to know which project you are actually buying. A redesign changes the look and structure on the same platform. A rebuild changes the tech stack underneath. The cost difference is significant, and agencies will quote whichever one you ask for.

Lean toward a redesign if your current site performs well technically, ranks reasonably in search engines, and your team can already update it. Lean toward a rebuild if you cannot edit web pages without a developer, if the platform is unsupported, if mobile responsiveness is poor, or if the existing site cannot connect to your CRM. Bring this assessment to the discovery call and ask the agency whether they agree. Their answer, especially if it disagrees with yours and explains why, is a useful signal about whether they are advising you or selling you.

What strong answers look like

What to read carefully in the contract

Contracts protect both you and the agency, which means they also encode assumptions you may not have discussed. Read the payment schedule, the revision limits, the intellectual property clause, and the termination terms before you sign anything.

Pay particular attention to automatic renewal on any maintenance retainer, to what happens to your site if you stop paying, and to whether the agency can display your project in its portfolio. Ask what the exit process looks like: who transfers what, how long it takes, and whether there is a fee. A good agency will answer plainly and put it in the agreement. If they rush you through the paperwork, slow down. For larger engagements, having a lawyer review the terms is a small cost against the risk.

Where Selworthy fits if you want a HubSpot-native build

The official HubSpot Solutions Partner directory currently lists Selworthy as a Gold Solutions Partner and lists Website Design, Website Development, and Website Migration among its services. That directory is a useful independent check on our current tier and listed capabilities. It is not evidence for an unsourced performance result.

If Selworthy is on your shortlist, ask us the same 25 questions. Request the page count, project roles, search and redirect scope, accessibility target, ownership terms, training, support coverage, and exclusions in writing. Selworthy is headquartered in Shallotte, North Carolina, an hour from both Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, and works with clients across the United States.

If you want Selworthy to review your current website and explain the tradeoffs before you choose a build path, start a conversation. Ask for the scope, deliverables, timing, and any fees in writing before you commit.

FAQs about hiring a web design agency

How much do web design agencies charge?

There is no universal agency price that remains accurate across page counts, content needs, design depth, integrations, migration work, accessibility requirements, and support. Compare quotes on the same deliverables, exclusions, assumptions, and ownership terms. Ask each agency to separate required work from optional phases and to state how change requests affect the fee.

What should a web design proposal include?

A comprehensive proposal should let you say yes or no without a follow-up call. Expect a defined scope with a page count and a deliverable list, a phased timeline with milestone dates and what the agency needs from you at each one, a cost breakdown by phase rather than a single lump sum, and a payment schedule tied to those milestones. It should also state what is explicitly excluded, how many revision rounds are included, who owns the finished assets, and what post-launch support costs. If any of those elements are missing, ask for them in writing before you sign so the commercial assumptions are explicit.

How long does it take to build a small business website?

There is no universal timeline for a small business website. Page count, content readiness, integrations, design depth, accessibility testing, migration work, and stakeholder approvals all affect the schedule. Ask the agency to list its assumptions, dependencies, milestones, and the effect of delayed feedback before you accept a launch date.

What questions should I ask a designer about SEO?

Ask when search research happens relative to the sitemap, how the agency handles titles, descriptions, headings, image alt text, internal links, mobile usability, and page speed, and how existing URLs map to new destinations. Google’s site-move guidance recommends preparing a URL map, using redirects when URLs change, updating internal links, and monitoring the move. Ask to see those deliverables in the scope.

How do I verify an agency's case studies and testimonials?

Look for named attribution with title and company, before-and-after metrics rather than screenshots, and a client whose business model resembles yours. Open the live URL to confirm the site is still running and still built by that agency, and ask to speak with the client directly. If an introduction is not available, ask what public evidence can verify the work and attribution.

Should I hire a freelance web designer or an agency?

Freelancers and agencies use different staffing and delivery models, but neither model guarantees a lower fee or a better result. Ask who will do each part of the work, who provides coverage when someone is unavailable, and whether the person who scopes the project remains involved during delivery.

Should I choose a local agency or work with a remote team?

Location is one factor, not a quality guarantee. A local team may be useful for on-site photography, facility access, or in-person workshops. A remote team may be appropriate when the project can be handled through scheduled reviews and shared systems. Compare relevant experience, process, availability, and communication expectations alongside proximity.

Who should own the website after launch?

The contract should state who owns or licenses the domain, content, code, design files, fonts, media, data, and administrator access. It should also state what can be transferred if the relationship ends and which components depend on continuing third-party licenses. Do not assume that every asset follows the same ownership rule.

What is the difference between a web designer and a web developer?

A web designer handles layout, visual hierarchy, and user experience design. A web developer builds the functioning site, including templates, integrations, and anything custom. Many small web companies combine both roles in one person. On larger web projects they are separate, and it is worth asking which specialists will touch your build.

What happens if I am unhappy with the design?

This is why revision rounds and milestone approvals exist. Confirm before signing how many rounds are included, what counts as a revision versus a scope change, and what the exit terms are if the relationship is not working. Concerns raised at the wireframe stage cost far less to resolve than concerns raised the week before launch.