Questions to Ask a Web Design Agency Before Paying Deposit

Most businesses choose a web design agency the wrong way. They look at portfolios, compare prices, and go with whoever gave them the most confident presentation. Two months later they are dealing with missed deadlines, unexpected costs, or a finished website that doesn’t actually do what they needed it to do.

The problem is not that these agencies are all bad. The problem is that the buying process for web design is structurally opaque. Unlike buying a car or a piece of equipment, you cannot test a website before it is built. You are buying a promise, a process, and a relationship, and most buyers have no framework for evaluating any of those things.

These 12 questions exist to fix that. They are not gotcha questions. They are the questions any competent agency should be able to answer clearly, and whose answers will tell you far more about what you are actually buying than any portfolio or proposal ever will.

They apply to any agency or developer you are considering in South Africa, from a one-person freelancer to a ten-person studio.

1. What platform will the website be built on, and will I own it outright?

This is the single most important question you can ask, and the answer should be unambiguous: you own the website, its files, and its content completely once it is delivered. The agency should be able to hand over full access to the WordPress admin, the hosting account, and all associated credentials at any time.

What to listen for: vague references to “proprietary platforms”, monthly fees that the website “requires” to stay live, or any suggestion that moving the website to a different host or agency would be complicated. These are signs of vendor lock-in, where the agency retains control of your digital asset. If your website is built on a platform that only that agency can maintain, you have not bought a website. You have rented one.

The professional standard in South Africa and globally is WordPress. Open source, self-hosted, and fully portable. When your website is built on WordPress and hosted on a standard server, any competent developer can work on it. You are never held hostage to a single supplier.

2. Who will actually be building my website?

Many agencies, particularly those with slick sales processes and account managers, outsource their development work. The person who presents to you is not the person building your website. The person building your website may be a junior developer, an offshore contractor, or a subcontractor the agency has never worked with before.

This is not automatically a problem. Good agencies work with good developers regardless of where they sit. The problem is when the agency’s pricing and positioning suggest in-house expertise that is not actually there.

Ask directly: who will be doing the design work, and who will be doing the development? Are they on your team or are they contracted for this project? How long have they worked with you? What other websites have they built? You should be able to get a straight answer to all of these.

3. Can you show me examples of websites you have built that are similar to what I need?

Portfolio work is curated. Agencies show you their best projects, their most impressive clients, and their most visually striking work. What they do not always show you is whether those websites actually perform, whether they rank on Google, load quickly on mobile, or generate the enquiries and sales they were built for.

Ask for examples specifically relevant to your sector or use case. If you need a WooCommerce store, ask to see WooCommerce stores they have built and ask whether those stores are still live and performing. If you need a professional services website, ask for two or three examples of professional services websites. Then visit those websites. Check how they load on your phone. Search for them on Google. Look at whether the contact forms work. You will learn more in five minutes of independent investigation than in an hour of presentation.

4. What is included in the quoted price, specifically?

Web design quotes are frequently incomplete. Agencies quote for the design and build while excluding things you will inevitably need: copywriting, photography, SEO configuration, performance optimisation, domain registration, hosting, post-launch support. When these are added, the actual cost is substantially higher than the initial number.

Ask for a line-by-line breakdown. What pages are included? Is copy included or are you providing it? Are stock images included or is photography extra? What SEO work is included, specifically, not just “basic SEO”? What performance work is included? What happens after the website launches, is there a support window, and if so, how long and what does it cover?

A professional agency should be able to give you a clear scope document that answers all of these. If the quote is a single line item, “website design, R15,000”, that is not a quote. That is a placeholder for a conversation you have not had yet.

5. How do you handle SEO during the build?

Most cheap websites are built with zero SEO configuration. They look fine. They function. But they are invisible to Google because no one set up the page titles, meta descriptions, website structure, schema markup, image alt text, or internal linking during the build process.

A professional agency treats SEO as part of the build, not an optional extra. Ask specifically: will you configure title tags and meta descriptions for all pages? Will the website structure support the keywords I am targeting? Will you set up Google Search Console and submit a sitemap? Will schema markup be implemented?

If the answer is “we do basic SEO,” ask what basic means. If the answer is “we can add an SEO package for an additional cost,” you are talking to an agency that treats discoverability as an upsell rather than a fundamental requirement of a website that should generate results.

6. How do you approach mobile performance?

Over 80% of South African internet users browse primarily on mobile, often on metered data. A website that looks good on a desktop monitor and loads slowly on a mobile connection is not a functional business website in this market. It is a desktop brochure that most of your potential clients will never properly see.

Ask how mobile performance is tested and what standards the agency builds to. The benchmark worth referencing is Google’s Core Web Vitals, specifically Largest Contentful Paint (should be under 2.5 seconds on mobile), Cumulative Layout Shift (should be near zero), and Interaction to Next Paint. Any developer who cannot explain these metrics and their implications for South African mobile users is not building with the market in mind.

Ask to see PageSpeed Insights scores for websites they have built recently. A professional build on a well-configured server should score above 70 on mobile without significant effort. Scores below 50 on mobile are a red flag for how the developer approaches performance.

7. Who controls the hosting, and what happens if I want to move?

Some agencies insist on hosting your website on their own servers, through their own hosting accounts, on their own infrastructure. This is not inherently wrong. Many agencies provide excellent managed hosting as part of their service. But it creates a dependency you need to understand before you commit.

Ask: if I decide to move to a different agency or host in two years, what is the process? Can I take my website with me? Who owns the hosting account, me or you? How long does a migration take, and what does it cost?

The answer you want is that migration is straightforward, that you own or can own your hosting credentials, and that the agency will assist with a handover if you choose to move. Any answer that suggests moving would be complicated, costly, or would require rebuilding should be treated as a warning.

8. How do you handle revisions, and what is the feedback process?

Most web design projects run into friction during the design review and revision stage. The client has a vision. The designer has an interpretation. They are not the same. Without a clear process for managing this, projects stall, budgets blow out, and relationships sour.

Ask: how many rounds of revisions are included in the quoted price? How are revisions submitted, through a form, over email, in a meeting? What happens when revision requests exceed what is included? Is there a defined timeline for each revision round?

The process itself matters less than whether the agency has thought about it. A professional agency has a documented process. They can explain it clearly, tell you what is included, and tell you what happens when scope changes. An agency that says “we just work through it together” has no process and is setting you up for scope creep and disputes.

9. What does the post-launch relationship look like?

A website launch is not the end of the project. It is the beginning of the website’s operational life. In the weeks after launch, there are typically small issues to resolve, content to adjust, and performance to monitor. Beyond that, a WordPress website requires ongoing maintenance, including updates, security patches, backups, and uptime monitoring.

Ask: what support is available after the website launches? Is there a post-launch window during which bugs and issues are fixed at no charge? After that window, what is the process and cost for ongoing support? Do you offer a maintenance plan, and what does it include?

An agency that has no clear answer to what happens after launch is an agency that does not expect to have a relationship with you after delivery. That is sometimes fine, but you should know it going in, so you have a plan for ongoing maintenance from another provider.

10. How long will the build take, and what are the milestones?

“It depends” is not an acceptable answer to this question at the proposal stage. A professional agency can give you a realistic timeline based on the scope of work, along with the key milestones that structure the project: discovery, wireframes or website structure, design concepts, development, content integration, testing, and launch.

Ask for a project timeline with specific dates or week numbers attached to each milestone. Ask what the critical dependencies are, typically, content delivery and design feedback from the client are the most common causes of delays. Ask what happens if the agency misses a milestone.

A reasonable timeline for a standard 5 to 10 page WordPress business website is 3 to 6 weeks from approved design to launch. Anything shorter is rushed. Anything longer for a standard build is a sign of overcommitment or poor project management. Complex ecommerce builds, custom integrations, or large websites reasonably take longer.

11. How will this website generate results for my business?

This question is the one most agencies are least prepared for, because most agencies think about websites as design products rather than business tools.

Ask: based on what you know about my business and my buyers, how will this website generate enquiries or sales? What is the intended journey for a visitor who arrives on the homepage? Where do they go? What do they read? What action are they supposed to take, and how does the website guide them toward it?

You should hear answers that include: the role of each page in the buyer journey, how trust is built at each stage, where and why the CTAs are placed, and how the website architecture supports the way your buyers actually make decisions. If the answer is essentially “it will look professional and have your contact details on it,” the agency is selling you design, not strategy.

12. Can you provide references from two or three recent clients I can contact?

This is the question most buyers do not ask and should. References are far more revealing than portfolios. A client who worked with an agency six months ago can tell you things no portfolio ever will: whether the agency was communicative, whether they met their deadlines, whether the finished product matched the proposal, whether there were unexpected costs, and whether they would use the agency again.

Ask for references specifically from projects similar to yours in scope and budget. Then actually contact them. Ask open questions: how was the process? Were there any surprises? Did the website deliver what you expected? Is there anything you would do differently?

An agency that is reluctant to provide references, or that provides references from projects completed years ago, is telling you something. A confident agency with a track record of delivering for clients will give you references readily and encourage you to call them.

One Final Note

These questions are not designed to trip agencies up. They are designed to give you the information you need to make an informed decision. A professional agency will welcome them. They will have clear, specific answers to all of them. In some cases the answers will reveal that the agency is not the right fit for your project, and discovering that before you pay a deposit is exactly the point.

The businesses in Johannesburg that get the most value from their web design investment are not the ones who spent the most. They are the ones who asked the right questions, understood what they were buying, and chose a partner rather than a vendor.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if a web design agency is legitimate in South Africa?

Check that they have a verifiable CIPC registration, a physical address, a portfolio of live websites you can visit independently, and references from recent clients you can contact. Be cautious of agencies with no physical address, no verifiable registration, or portfolios that only show screenshots rather than live URLs.

What is a reasonable deposit to pay a web design agency?

A standard deposit in the South African market is 50% of the total project cost, paid upfront to begin work. Some agencies structure it as 50% on signing and 50% on launch. Be cautious of agencies that require 100% payment upfront before work begins, as this removes your leverage if the project goes off track.

Should I use a local Johannesburg web agency or can I use a remote one?

Either can work. The advantages of a local Johannesburg agency include in-person meetings, familiarity with the local market, and proximity for ongoing support. The advantages of a remote agency are a broader talent pool and sometimes more competitive pricing. The more important question is whether the agency has demonstrated expertise in what you need, not where they are located.

What should a web design proposal include?

A professional proposal should include a clear scope of work (which pages, what functionality), a timeline with milestones, a breakdown of what is and is not included (copy, photography, SEO, hosting), the revision process, post-launch support terms, payment terms, and the platform the website will be built on.