Things to know before approaching a web design agency

Most people approach a web design agency once every few years, so nobody expects you to arrive as an expert. But a few things, sorted out before the first message, change the whole project: the quotes get sharper, the timeline gets shorter, and you end up comparing agencies on the things that actually matter.

Here is what we wish every client knew before writing in. It applies to us as much as anyone else.

1. Know what the site is for

Not the pages. The job. A preschool site exists to turn interested parents into enquiries. A store exists to sell. A corporate site for an exporter exists to pass the quiet background check a buyer runs before replying to an email. When you can say "the site has one job, and it is this," every design decision downstream gets easier, and you will instantly spot the agencies that never asked.

2. Be honest about your content

The single biggest cause of slow website projects is not design or development. It is content: the photos that do not exist yet, the About page nobody wants to write, the product list that lives in someone's head. Before approaching anyone, take stock of what you actually have. A good agency can write copy with you and even shoot photos, but they can only plan for it if they know on day one.

3. Understand how the pricing works

Agencies price in three ways: fixed packages, custom quotes, and hourly billing. Fixed and quoted prices put the risk on the agency, which is where it belongs. Hourly billing means you carry the risk of every delay. When you see "from S$X," that is the starting anchor for the simplest version of that package, and the fixed quote you receive should name what is included and what is not. If a price cannot be explained in one paragraph, keep asking until it can.

4. Ask who actually does the work

At many agencies the person who wins your project is not the person who builds it. Briefs get relayed through account managers, and the designer you never meet works from a summary of a summary. Ask directly: who designs this, who builds it, and who do I message when something is wrong? The answer tells you more about the next two months than any portfolio.

5. Make sure you own everything

The domain, the hosting, the store account, the payment gateway: all of it should be in your name by launch, not the agency's. We hand over Shopify stores with the account, domain and payments in the client's name as standard, because we have seen what happens when a business wants to leave an agency that owns its infrastructure. Ask any agency you talk to how handover works. Hesitation is an answer.

6. Ask what happens after launch

A website is not finished at launch; it starts working at launch. Things break, content changes, and search rankings need feeding. Ask what support is included, what a maintenance plan costs, and what response time to expect. An agency with a real answer has thought about the relationship. An agency without one is planning to disappear.

7. Expect a timeline tied to you

An honest agency will give you a timeline with your name in it, because most delays come from the client side: content, feedback, approvals. Our fastest build went live in seven days because the client joined a call every single day. If an agency promises a date without asking what you can commit to, the date is decoration.

8. Check reviews you can verify

Anyone can paste praise onto their own website. Look for reviews on a platform the agency cannot edit, read the specific ones, and see whether the projects they describe resemble yours. Then look at the portfolio for proof the work is real: live links you can click, case studies with detail that could not be invented.

The short version

Know the site's job, know your content, insist on clear pricing and full ownership, and ask who does the work and what happens after launch. Bring those questions to every agency you talk to, including us. The good ones will enjoy answering.

Ready to talk? Tell us about your project or see how we price.