How to choose a web design, SEO and advertising agency

How to choose the right digital agency

Choosing a provider for web design, SEO and advertising should depend less on the portfolio and more on the contract, the proposed process and the people who will actually deliver the work. Most unsuccessful projects break down for organisational reasons: an unclear scope, inadequate control over key assets and reporting that does not support business decisions. This article sets out the questions, documents and practical criteria for evaluating a supplier, regardless of budget.

In short

A good supplier defines the scope in writing, explains who specifically will do the work, puts every account in your name and reports results against metrics tied to the business. The red flags are a guaranteed number-one ranking, a quote without a diagnosis, no access to the Google accounts, and a portfolio without outcomes. Settle the rights over the code, the data and the advertising accounts before you sign.

Table of contents

• Start from the brief, not from the quotes
• Agency, studio, freelancer or in-house team
• How to read a portfolio and references
• Twelve questions before signing
• How to build a shortlist and run the conversation
• Control over the assets: code, data and accounts
• What the contract needs to say
• What an honest report looks like
• Red flags
• What to do if you are already with the wrong supplier
• Frequently asked questions

Start from the brief, not from the quotes

Before requesting quotes, write two pages on what the project has to achieve. Without that document every quote describes a different scope and comparing them is meaningless.

What a minimum brief contains

• the primary goal: enquiries, orders, site-visit requests, phone calls;
• who the customer is and how they actually make a buying decision;
• what page types are needed and what each one has to do;
• what integrations are expected now and in the next 12 months;
• who delivers the copy and the images, and by when;
• whether there is a hard date - a season, a trade fair, a campaign.

Why this saves money

Every requirement that appears after the design is approved costs more than it would have at the start. The brief is not bureaucracy - it is the cheapest instrument you have for controlling the budget. It also reveals immediately which supplier has read it, through the questions they ask.

Set the budget before the quotes, not after

Stating a budget range usually produces a more accurate quote. Without one the supplier guesses and offers either too little to win the job or too much to be safe. With a range stated, the conversation shifts to what can be done within it and what belongs to a later phase. Splitting a project into phases is entirely normal and often more sensible than waiting until the full amount is available.

Define what you do not want

The list of unwanted things is just as useful: no animations that slow the page, no mandatory registration before ordering, no pop-ups on entry. These clarifications prevent disputes later.

Agency, studio, freelancer or in-house team

The choice between an agency, a studio, a freelancer and an in-house team depends on the volume, the timeline and how much project management you can take on yourself.

Supplier type	Strength	Risk	Suitable when
Large agency	Resources, processes, many services covered	A small project gets less attention	Large budget and several channels needed at once
Specialist studio	Direct contact with the people doing the work	Limited capacity at peak times	Mid-sized projects needing a tailored solution
Freelancer	Usually lower fixed costs, fast communication	One person cannot cover every role and may drop out	Small scope and a clearly bounded task
In-house team	Product knowledge, permanent availability	Expensive to maintain every skill set	A steady, high volume of work

When one supplier for everything is an advantage

When the website, the SEO and the advertising are handled by different parties, what usually gets lost is the connection between them: ads point to a page that was not prepared, and SEO recommendations get blocked by the technical solution. One supplier across the whole cycle can reduce that coordination risk. What such end-to-end service can look like is set out in the description of how a business is helped to grow.

When splitting is better

If you already have a working website and solid technical support, there is no reason to change everything for the sake of one service. Splitting also makes sense when you want a second opinion on your current supplier's work.

How to read a portfolio and references

A portfolio shows taste and technical level, but not results. To be useful it has to be read with specific questions rather than viewed as a gallery.

What to check in the projects shown

1. Visit the live websites. Are they still running and still maintained?
2. Check speed and behaviour on a phone, not just on the presentation screen.
3. Look for projects of your type - store, service, B2B, local business.
4. Ask who from the team worked on that specific project and whether they are still there.
5. Ask what the difficult part of the project was. The answer reveals more than anything else.

How to read references

A useful reference states what was done and what effect it had. General praise without context carries no information. Ask whether you can speak to one or two of the clients - serious suppliers have no problem with that. Examples of real projects and client feedback can be seen in the project portfolio and in what clients say.

Long relationships matter more than project count

A supplier who has kept clients for ten years has been through migrations, incidents and platform changes with them. That is a stronger signal than a long list of one-off projects.

Twelve questions before signing

These questions separate a supplier who will take responsibility from one who is selling a package. The answers should be in writing.

On the team and the process

• Who specifically will work on the project and who is the point of contact?
• How is work prioritised and how are changes requested?
• What is the response time when something breaks, on working days and at weekends?

On the scope

• How many unique templates does the quote include and what happens when one is added?
• Who writes the copy, who takes the photographs and who enters them?
• What is explicitly not included in the price?

On ownership

• What rights do I receive over the code after acceptance, and under what licences are the components used?
• In whose name will the domain, hosting, Search Console, analytics and advertising accounts be?
• What do I receive if the relationship ends, and in what format?

On results

• What metrics will we use to judge whether the project succeeded?
• What does the monthly report look like and what does it contain?
• What happens if the agreed metrics do not move for three months?

How to build a shortlist and run the conversation

Three or four candidates are enough. More quotes do not improve the decision - they dilute the comparison and delay the start by weeks.

How to get to a shortlist

1. Ask people in your industry who built their site and whether they are still happy two years later.
2. Look at who is behind sites that work well for you as a user.
3. Check whether the candidate has experience with your project type, not only with your industry.
4. Filter out anyone who sends a quote without asking a single question.

What to watch in the first conversation

The first conversation is also the first test of future communication. A good sign is when it starts with questions about the business, the customers and the current problems rather than with a presentation of packages. A bad sign is when every question you ask gets reassurance but no specifics.

Ask for quotes in the same format

Give every candidate the same brief and ask for the quote to include scope by line item, timeline by stage, terms for changes, warranty and monthly costs after launch. That way you are comparing the same thing rather than three different ideas of the project.

Do not choose on price alone, or on rapport alone

The lowest quote usually describes the least work. The most pleasant conversation partner is not necessarily the best supplier. The practical criterion is a combination: do they understand the task, do they commit to specifics in writing, and do they have the capacity to deliver.

Control over the assets: code, data and accounts

The key digital assets need to be under your company's control - domain, hosting, data and accounts in its name, with the supplier holding administrator access. The reverse arrangement is the single most common reason a business ends up hostage to its supplier.

With code the picture is more nuanced. Full ownership is rarely absolute: the libraries, framework and paid modules remain under their own licences and do not become your property whatever the contract says. The practical criterion is not the word “ownership” but whether you get access to the source code, the right to use and modify it, and the ability for another supplier to continue the work without rebuilding from scratch.

Which accounts should be yours

Asset	Owner or account holder	Why it matters
Domain	The company	Without it you lose your address and your email
Hosting and backups	The company	Access to the site in a dispute or a supplier change
Google Search Console	The company	The company keeps permanent access to the data and does not depend on the supplier's account
Analytics account	The company	Historical analytics data becomes more valuable over time
Advertising accounts	The company	Campaign history affects future performance
Google Business Profile	The company	Reviews and local visibility are hard to rebuild

What to ask for at acceptance

At acceptance, ask for the source code or repository access, database access, a working backup procedure, a list of the services and subscriptions in use, and technical documentation for the integrations. If anything is missing, it should either be provided or explicitly noted in the acceptance record along with the reason.

Data and consent

Sites that collect personal data and use analytics or advertising tools need a working consent mechanism. This is not a formality - a misconfigured setup distorts all the data on which later decisions are based. The topic is covered in detail in the article on Google Consent Mode v2 and cookies.

What the contract needs to say

The contract should define scope, timelines, acceptance, warranty, ownership and termination terms. Missing any of these transfers the risk to you.

Scope and acceptance

The scope annex matters more than the contract itself. It should list the templates, features and integrations. The acceptance procedure should say who tests, within what period, and what counts as a resolved defect.

Warranty and maintenance

The warranty covers defects in what was delivered. Maintenance covers updates, monitoring and changes. These are two different things and should be described separately. If the site takes orders, the response time matters more than the length of the warranty. What ongoing site monitoring looks like is described in the article on website monitoring.

Termination

The contract should state the notice period, what is handed over on termination and in what format. A contract with no exit is riskier than one with a high price.

What an honest report looks like

An honest report shows change in metrics tied to the business, explains what was done and states what comes next. A report of graphs without conclusions describes activity, not results.

What it should contain

• what was completed in the period, specifically and verifiably;
• movement on non-branded queries and by topic group, not just total traffic;
• the number of enquiries, orders or calls and which channel they came from;
• spend by channel and cost per result for the paid campaigns;
• what comes next period and why that specifically.

When the numbers mislead

Growth in total traffic often comes from branded queries, which grow for reasons unrelated to SEO. Growth in impressions without growth in clicks usually means visibility on irrelevant queries. A low cost per click with zero enquiries means cheap but useless traffic.

How often a report is due

During a website build it is normal to have a short update at each stage and a demonstration before acceptance. For ongoing SEO and advertising work the monthly report is the standard, with a short weekly campaign review on larger budgets. More important than the frequency is whether the report leads to a decision. If nothing in the plan changes after it, it is a formality.

Realistic expectations

In its official guide to hiring an SEO, Google states that no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and that for an initial audit it is sensible to grant only read access to Search Console rather than full access. The same document advises checking whether a supplier's recommendations cite Google's official documentation. A supplier promising a guaranteed ranking either does not understand the work or is counting on you not understanding it.

Red flags

A guaranteed ranking or a guaranteed number of enquiries

Rankings depend on an algorithm the supplier does not control. A guarantee of a number of enquiries, without control over the product, the price and the service, is equally unreliable.

A quote produced within one conversation

A quote given without looking at the site, the Search Console data and the competitors is a standard package. It may be cheap, but it is not tailored to your situation.

Refusal to hand over account access

Arguments along the lines of “we work from our own account, it is more convenient” mean the campaign history and the data stay with the supplier. That is a warning sign regardless of the explanation.

No written scope

If the scope was only discussed verbally, every later dispute becomes a matter of recollection. A short written annex solves that in half an hour of work.

A price that is too low

A low price usually reflects a trade-off: fewer hours, a pre-built theme, content from the client, or no testing. That is not necessarily bad, as long as you know what you are buying. For a sense of what sits behind different price levels, see the articles on how much a website costs and how much an online store costs.

What to do if you are already with the wrong supplier

If the relationship is not working, the first step is not to change supplier but to regain control of the assets. Changing before that usually means losing data and rankings.

The steps in order

1. Transfer the domain and hosting into the company's name.
2. Become the owner of the Search Console, analytics and advertising accounts.
3. Secure a full backup of the site and the database.
4. Request a list of every service, subscription and integration in use.
5. Only then terminate and begin the transition.

Preserve the URLs when the site changes

If the new supplier proposes a new structure, insist on a redirect map from the old URLs to the new ones. Missing redirects are the most common cause of a sharp traffic drop after a rebuild. What it costs to maintain organic visibility afterwards is covered in the article on how much SEO costs.

Bring in a second pair of eyes

On a large project, an independent review of the technical solution and the advertising accounts before acceptance costs a small fraction of the budget and often saves far more. If you are looking for such a review or want to discuss a specific case, use the contact form.

Frequently asked questions

How do I choose between two quotes at almost the same price?

By scope and by responsibility. Compare the number of unique templates, the integrations included, who delivers the content, the response time when something breaks and the length of the warranty. All else equal, choose the supplier who asked more questions about your business instead of sending a quote straight away.

Should all the services be with one supplier?

Not necessarily, but it helps when the website, the SEO and the advertising depend heavily on each other. Splitting is reasonable if you already have a working site and good support. What matters when splitting is that responsibility is clearly assigned and that every account is in your name.

What should I do if the supplier holds the domain and the accounts?

Request a written transfer of the domain, hosting, Search Console, analytics and advertising accounts before you terminate the relationship. Secure a full backup of the site and the database as well. Changing supplier without these steps can lead to losing access to data, a break in measurement, and migration errors that cause a drop in organic visibility.