How to Choose a Web Development Company: 7 Questions to Ask Before You Hire

Choosing a web agency is a decision your business lives with for years, and most of the pain does not arrive during the project — it arrives after handover: when you want to change a price and cannot, when the site slows down and nobody is watching, when you want a new system and discover everything must be rebuilt.

These are the questions that separate an agency delivering a working business asset from one delivering files.

1. Can we edit content ourselves after handover?

If the answer is "just message the team any time" with no admin system, you will pay every time you change a price, add a promotion, or fix a typo. Ask directly whether there is a CMS — and ask to see it before you decide.

2. Who owns the code and the domain?

The domain should always be registered to your company, never the agency. Know from the start whether you can take the site with you if you change teams. This single point is why many businesses stay with a provider they are unhappy with.

3. How findable is this site by Google — and by AI?

Customers no longer search only on Google; they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. Ask specifically:

• Is Schema / JSON-LD complete?
• Is there an llms.txt for AI crawlers?
• Is the content structured to answer questions, or only to look good?

If the agency does not understand the question, that is your answer.

4. Can this site support an AI agent later?

Many businesses will want an AI assistant on their site within a year or two. The question is whether the site being built now can support one, or will need rebuilding. A site designed AI-native has a vectorized knowledge base (RAG) so an AI can answer from your real data immediately; an ordinary site usually starts over.

5. What is the monthly maintenance and what does it cover?

Ask for it itemised: hosting, security, backups, updates, and how many hours of changes per month. If it cannot be answered clearly during the sale, expect less clarity when something breaks.

6. Ask for live work, not portfolio images

Ask for links to sites that are live right now, and open them on your own phone. Check the speed. Check whether the content is still maintained. A portfolio of static images proves someone once designed something attractive — not that the site still works.

7. Who will actually do the work?

Ask whether the team in the meeting is the team building it, or whether it will be passed to freelancers. Subcontracting is not wrong — but you should know who is responsible at three in the morning.

Warning signs

• A price far below everyone else with no explanation of what was cut
• Refusing to show the admin system before signing
• Promising "number one on Google" — nobody can guarantee rankings
• No mention of post-launch care at all

How we answer these

Every site we hand over includes an admin system you control, the domain and code are yours, Schema and llms.txt ship from day one, and the build is AI-native — ready for an AI agent without a rebuild.

The site you are reading is a live example. Try talking to Nong TT in the bottom-right corner.

Read next: What does a website cost? · AI website builders vs hiring a studio

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