Hiring a web agency is one of the most significant business decisions a small or medium-sized company makes. A good agency can transform your online presence, generate leads, improve your rankings, and become a long-term growth partner. A bad one can take your money, deliver something unusable, disappear when problems arise, and leave you worse off than when you started.
We have spoken to hundreds of business owners who came to WordPress97 after a bad experience with a previous agency or freelancer. The pattern is almost always the same: they hired based on price, received impressive promises, and ended up with a slow, poorly built, or abandoned website and no recourse. The pain is real. The financial and reputational cost is real.
This guide will not tell you to hire us. It will tell you exactly what questions to ask any web agency — including us — before you sign anything or pay a deposit. Apply these questions to every agency you are evaluating and you will dramatically reduce the risk of a bad outcome.
| “The best protection against a bad agency experience is the same as the best protection against any bad business decision: ask the right questions before you commit.” |
Question 1: Can You Show Me Live Examples of Similar Work?
Not a portfolio page with screenshots. Not mockups. Not ‘coming soon’ case studies. Live, working websites that you can visit, load in your browser, and evaluate for yourself. Ask for examples that are relevant to your industry or project type — a portfolio of restaurant websites is not particularly helpful if you are a healthcare practice.
When you visit the live examples, check: How fast does it load? Is it mobile-responsive? Does it look professional? Are there obvious errors? Does it have the kind of functionality you need? The quality of their live work is a direct preview of the quality of yours.
Question 2: Who Specifically Will Be Working on My Project?
Many agencies win business with senior, experienced team members in discovery calls and proposals — and then hand the actual work off to junior staff or overseas contractors without disclosing this. Ask specifically: who will design my website? Who will write the code? Who will manage my project day-to-day? Will these people be employees of your agency or subcontractors?
At WordPress97, we have a team of 10 in-house specialists. Every client is told which specific team member is assigned to their project before work begins, with that person’s direct contact details. This is how it should work.
Question 3: What Does Your Process Look Like from Start to Finish?
A professional agency has a documented, repeatable process. They should be able to explain to you exactly what happens at every stage: how the brief is captured, how design decisions are made and approved, how development is staged, how testing is conducted, how revisions work, how the site is launched, and what post-launch support looks like.
If an agency cannot articulate their process clearly, that is a red flag. Unclear processes lead to scope creep, missed deadlines, unexpected costs, and deliverables that do not match expectations.
Question 4: How Do You Handle Revisions?
Revision policies vary enormously between agencies and can be a significant source of conflict and unexpected cost. Ask: how many revision rounds are included? What constitutes a ‘revision’ versus a ‘new requirement’? What happens if I need changes after the agreed rounds are complete?
A good agency will have clear, written policies on revisions and will include them in their proposal or contract. Be wary of agencies that promise ‘unlimited revisions’ — in practice, this often means ‘we will accept requests until our margin is gone, then push back’.
Question 5: What Are Your Payment Terms?
Standard professional practice for project-based web work is a 50% deposit to begin and the remaining 50% on completion. Be very cautious of any agency requiring 100% payment upfront for a large project — this removes their incentive to deliver and your leverage if things go wrong. Equally, be cautious of agencies who ask for nothing until the work is done — they may not have the financial stability to resource your project properly.
For ongoing retainer services (SEO, maintenance, marketing), monthly billing at the start of each service period is standard.
Question 6: What Happens to My Website If I Stop Working With You?
This question reveals whether an agency is building your website for you or for themselves. Some agencies host client websites on proprietary platforms, or build in dependencies that make it difficult or expensive to move to another provider. Ask: will I have full ownership of my website files and database? Will I be able to take my website to a different host or agency if I choose? Are there any ongoing licences or platform fees that are tied to your agency?
Your website should be 100% yours. Any agency that hedges on this question is creating intentional lock-in.
Question 7: How Do You Measure Success — and What Does Your Reporting Look Like?
Vanity metrics — impressions, follower counts, ‘traffic’ — can mask a complete absence of business results. Ask how the agency defines success for your specific project, and how they will report on it. For a WordPress development project, you want PageSpeed scores, uptime records, and conversion data. For SEO, you want keyword ranking reports, GSC data, and lead attribution. For Google Ads, you want cost per lead, conversion rate, and ROAS.
Any agency that cannot answer this question specifically, or deflects to general metrics, is not results-focused. They are deliverable-focused — which means they care about shipping the product, not about whether the product actually works for your business.
Question 8: Have You Worked With Clients in My Industry?
Industry-specific experience matters. Healthcare websites have specific requirements: HIPAA considerations, patient form design, multi-location SEO structures, and booking system integrations. E-commerce websites have completely different needs: WooCommerce performance, product page SEO, payment gateway integration, and checkout optimisation. A generalist agency can learn on the job — but you pay for that learning curve.
Ask for specific examples in your industry and ask what specific challenges came up and how they were solved. Confident, detailed answers indicate genuine experience. Vague generalisations indicate they are making it up.
Question 9: What Is Your Approach to Security and Post-Launch Support?
A website launch is not the end of the relationship — it is the beginning of the maintenance phase. Ask: what post-launch support is included and for how long? What happens if something breaks after launch? Do you offer ongoing maintenance services? How do you handle security — plugin updates, backups, uptime monitoring?
A website without a maintenance plan is a liability. Unupdated plugins are the most common entry point for WordPress hacks. Any agency that does not raise these topics proactively is not thinking about your website’s long-term health.
Question 10: What Is One Thing You Would Do Differently on This Kind of Project?
This is a curveball — and it is one of the most revealing questions you can ask. A confident, experienced agency will have an honest answer based on real project experience. They might say: ‘We have found that projects like yours often underestimate the amount of content preparation required — we now build a content brief phase into every project to prevent delays’. Or: ‘We have learned that multi-location SEO structures need to be planned at the architecture stage, not added later’.
An agency that cannot answer this question — or gives a self-promotional non-answer — lacks the experience to know what can go wrong. Experience is measured not just by what went right, but by what was learned from what went wrong.
| Red Flags to Watch For No live portfolio examples available to visit Prices that seem too low to be sustainable (someone will pay — usually through poor quality) 100% upfront payment required on large projects Vague or evasive answers to any of the 10 questions above No clear process documented or explained No post-launch support or maintenance offering Claims of guaranteed #1 Google rankings within 30 days No written contract or scope document before work begins Communication is slow during sales — it will be slower during delivery |
