Hi! Thinking about your own site but your head is spinning from the number of web agencies on the market? Believe me, I understand. My acquaintance Oleksii decided last year to launch an online store for his small eco-goods business. "I thought I'd order a site and be selling within a month," he laughs now. In reality the process of choosing an agency took almost three weeks, but that time investment paid off completely.
Let's work out together how not to make a mistake and to find "your" web agency, which will create not just a website but a real tool for growing your business.
Why is it so important not to make a mistake when choosing a web agency?
Imagine you're inviting guests to your home. What do they see first? That's right — the front door, the hallway, the overall design of the apartment. Your site is the same kind of "front door" for your customers on the internet.
Do you know what's interesting? People form an opinion about a site in some 50 milliseconds! That's even less than a single blink of an eye. So the first impression has to be flawless, right?
My friend Maryna once cut corners on developing a site for her coffee shop. "I hired a student for peanuts," she said. "And then for six months I spent 5 times more fixing constant problems: the site kept crashing, the photos wouldn't load, the order form didn't work." And how many customers she lost in that time we can only guess.
What's the conclusion? A badly made site is:
- A constant headache
- Lost customers
- A damaged reputation
- Extra costs to fix mistakes
And now ask yourself: is such a saving worth your nerves and money in the long run?
How to choose an agency that won't let you down: simple steps
1. Browse their portfolio (and not only what they show you)
Remember how we check a potential partner's Instagram before a first date? With a web agency the principle is the same 😉
What to do:
- Look through different projects — is there anything among them similar to your business?
- Visit the live sites from their portfolio — open them on your phone, click through the pages
- Try to find their work that they didn't show you — sometimes the most interesting stuff stays off-camera
My colleague Ihor once told me: "I asked the agency about one site from their portfolio that was working with errors. They started making excuses that the client had ruined everything after launch. I called that client directly — it turned out the agency had been ignoring his requests to fix the bugs for six months." Do you think Ihor kept working with that agency?
2. Talk to their clients (and don't be afraid to ask uncomfortable questions)
Official reviews on the site are good, but let's be frank: who would post a negative review about themselves?
What's worth doing:
- Ask for the contacts of 2–3 clients the agency has worked with over the past year
- Find reviews on independent platforms — Google, Facebook, DOU
- Ask acquaintances — maybe someone has already worked with this agency
And here are the questions worth asking former clients: "Did the agency meet deadlines?" "What problems came up during the cooperation and how did they solve them?" "Would you recommend them to your friends?"
3. Pay attention to how they communicate (even before work starts)
You know, I once looked for a web agency for a project myself. I sent an inquiry to five companies. Some replied a week later with a template email. Others called back within an hour and asked a pile of questions about my business. Who do you think I worked with next?
Communication is a mirror of future cooperation. Ask yourself:
- How quickly do they respond to your messages?
- Do they listen to your needs or just offer standard solutions?
- Do they explain complex technical things in simple language?
- Do they ask you questions about your business and goals?
If at the sales stage they aren't interested in your needs, what will happen once you've paid the money?
4. Ask about the technical side (don't be afraid of seeming incompetent)
"But I don't understand anything about programming!" — I often hear from clients. So what? You aren't shy about asking a doctor about your test results even though you have no medical education, are you?
A professional agency will always explain in plain language:
- Which management system they'll build the site on and why
- How they'll take care of load speed
- How the site will look on mobile devices
- Which analytics tools they'll install
One of my acquaintances, the owner of a beauty salon, told me: "I asked them to explain what a CMS is. One agency answered 'It's a content management system' and that was it. Another explained in simple words and even showed a demo version so I'd understand how I'd add new services to the site." Who would you work with?
5. Study the contract and payment terms carefully (the devil is in the details)
Olena, the owner of a small natural cosmetics business, once shared her story: "We agreed on one sum with the agency and at the end of the project I was billed 30% more. It turned out every 'extra' feature had to be paid for separately. And in the contract it was written in small print."
What to pay attention to:
- Does the contract contain a clear list of work?
- Is staged payment specified?
- What does warranty service include?
- Who will own the domain and hosting?
- How much will further site support cost?
Ask yourself: is everything in the contract clear to you? If not, don't hesitate to ask for explanations.
The most common mistakes we make when choosing a web agency
Mistake #1: "Cheap = good"
Remember the joke about the programmer who charged 1,000 dollars for pressing one button? 999 dollars for knowing which button to press and 1 dollar for the pressing itself.
It's the same with web development — you pay for experience and expertise. Of course that doesn't mean you should pick the most expensive offer. But if one agency offers to build a site for UAH 5,000 and another for UAH 50,000, it's worth asking: what's the difference?
Mistake #2: "I just need a website. Any website."
It's like saying: "I just need a car. Any car." And then wondering why you can't move your whole family in a two-seater sports car.
Before contacting an agency, ask yourself:
- What do I need a site for?
- Who are my customers and how will they use the site?
- How will the site help my business grow?
Mistake #3: "We'll deal with the technical details sometime"
My acquaintance Iryna, a photographer, told me: "They made me a nice site but three months later it started to load incredibly slowly. It turned out the developers hadn't optimized the images and I have hundreds of them on the site. I had to pay for optimization separately."
Technical details are the foundation of your site. Don't neglect them, even if they seem boring.
How to build a great relationship with the chosen agency?
Imagine you're starting a renovation in your apartment. Would you tell the builders: "Make it look nice somehow and I'll be back in a month"? Probably not. It's the same with a web agency.
What's worth doing:
- Prepare a clear technical brief — the more precisely you describe your needs, the better the result
- Be ready to answer questions promptly and give feedback
- Appoint a responsible person from your company to communicate with the agency
- Agree on regular meetings or calls to monitor the process
Andrii, the owner of a sports nutrition online store, once told me: "We created a shared chat with the agency where I could see progress and ask questions. Thanks to that we launched the site two weeks earlier than planned."
What next? Your first step
Now that you're armed with knowledge, it's time to act. Make a list of 3–5 agencies you like. Have a first conversation with them and evaluate them against the criteria we've discussed.
And now think: what is the single most important criterion for choosing a web agency for you personally? Price? Portfolio? Reviews? Speed of work?
Maybe you've already had experience working with web agencies? What worked well and what didn't? Share your experience in the comments — let's learn together!
