Once you’ve narrowed down a shortlist of web design agencies, the real work of vetting begins. This is where a lot of businesses either get it wrong (going with whoever seems friendliest on the sales call) or overcomplicate it (writing a 40-page RFP for a five-page website). Here’s a more useful middle path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don’t just look at whether the sites are visually appealing \u2014 click through them. Are they fast? Do they work well on mobile? Is the navigation intuitive? A portfolio full of screenshots can hide a multitude of real-world usability problems that only show up when you actually use the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reviews are useful for spotting patterns \u2014 repeated complaints about missed deadlines or poor communication are a real signal. But be skeptical of agencies with suspiciously uniform five-star reviews and no critical feedback at all; that’s sometimes a sign of incentivized or filtered reviews rather than an honestly earned reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For most small and mid-sized business projects, a formal RFP is overkill \u2014 a clear conversation about goals, budget, and timeline gets you further, faster. RFPs make more sense for larger organizations, government entities, or complex multi-stakeholder projects where a documented, comparable process is genuinely needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ask for a reference you can actually contact, not just a portfolio link. Ask what happens if the timeline slips \u2014 a serious agency will have a real answer, not deflection. Ask how revisions and scope changes are handled, since this is where a lot of client relationships sour later. These are the same fundamentals we cover in our broader guide to choosing a web design company<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it reasonable to ask for references?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Absolutely \u2014 a legitimate agency should be able to connect you with at least one past client willing to speak honestly about their experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Should I be worried if an agency doesn’t have a formal RFP process?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not necessarily \u2014 a formal RFP process matters more for large or complex projects. For most small and mid-sized businesses, a clear conversation is often more useful than paperwork.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once you’ve narrowed down a shortlist of web design agencies, the real work of vetting begins. This is where a lot of businesses either get it wrong (going with whoever seems friendliest on the sales call) or overcomplicate it (writing a 40-page RFP for a five-page website). Here’s a more useful middle path. Reading a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-2326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2327,"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions\/2327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2326"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidcelestin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/offerexpiration?post=2326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Frequently Asked Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n