The web development market is overflowing with offers \u2014 from student freelancers to large studios with teams of 50+ people. How do you avoid making the wrong choice and losing money, time, and your sanity? Here are 10 questions to ask any agency before you sign a contract.<\/p>\n
Not just \u201cwe\u2019ve built websites,\u201d but specific projects in your niche or a similar one. Pay attention: does the portfolio include live websites (not just screenshots)? Visit those sites \u2014 check their speed, their mobile versions, and how logically they\u2019re structured.<\/p>\n
A major pitfall: the agency shows you an experienced senior designer, and then a junior builds your site. Ask directly: who\u2019s the designer, who\u2019s the developer, who\u2019s the project manager? Talk to them in person \u2014 it will give you a sense of the team\u2019s level of expertise.<\/p>\n
This term can mean very different things. Clarify whether it includes copywriting, SEO structure, integrations (CRM, analytics, chatbots), admin training, and technical support after launch. Ask for a detailed technical specification or scope of work before signing the contract.<\/p>\n
A good agency thinks about results, not just about handing over the site. If the answer to this question is \u201cwell, we\u2019ll hook up Google Analytics,\u201d that\u2019s a red flag. The right answer includes conversion goals, event tracking setup, A\/B testing, and a plan for analyzing the first 30 days.<\/p>\n
The average development time is 2\u20133 weeks for a landing page and 4\u20138 weeks for a corporate website. If you hear \u201cwe\u2019ll build any website in a week\u201d or \u201cdevelopment will take six months,\u201d both should set off alarm bells. Ask for a detailed plan with deadlines for each stage.<\/p>\n
Revisions are the most common source of conflict between a client and an agency. Clarify how many rounds of revisions are included at each stage, what counts as a \u201crevision\u201d and what counts as \u201cadditional scope,\u201d and how final design versions are locked in.<\/p>\n
Even if you\u2019re not planning any SEO work right now, a site\u2019s technical SEO structure is laid down during development. Proper meta tags, URL structure, speed, schema.org markup \u2014 all of this affects your search rankings. An agency without SEO expertise builds in problems from day one.<\/p>\n
Many agencies \u201cdisappear\u201d once the project is handed over. Clarify the terms of technical support: what\u2019s included in warranty support, how much ongoing support costs, and how quickly they respond to critical bugs.<\/p>\n
Ask for the contact details of 2\u20133 clients the agency has already worked with. A legitimate agency won\u2019t refuse. Call or message these clients \u2014 find out what working with the agency was really like, whether deadlines were met, and how good the result was.<\/p>\n
A \u201c100% prepayment\u201d scheme is a warning sign. Standard practice: 30\u201350% upfront, the rest after the final result is approved. Also clarify what happens in case of a dispute, whether there\u2019s an arbitration mechanism, and how money is refunded for work that wasn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n
The right agency won\u2019t be scared off by any of these questions. On the contrary \u2014 it will answer them clearly and gladly. At Theonebly, we\u2019re ready to answer every one of them at the very first free consultation. Send us a request \u2014 and see for yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The web development market is overflowing with offers \u2014 from student freelancers to large studios with teams of 50+ people. How do you avoid making the wrong choice and losing money, time, and your sanity? Here are 10 questions to ask any agency before you sign a contract. 1. Can I see a real portfolio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing-insights-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}