Most website projects that go wrong do not go wrong in the build. They go wrong in the brief. The buyer did not know what questions to ask, and the supplier did not ask them either. The result is a website that is delivered on time and on budget, but that does not do what the business actually needed.
This checklist is designed to prevent that.
Who will actually do the work?
The agency or freelancer you speak to at the sales stage may not be the person who builds the site. Work can be subcontracted, and that is not inherently a problem — but you should know who is responsible for the delivery and whether they have experience with the type of site you need.
Ask: Who will be doing the work? Have they worked on similar projects? Can I see examples?
Who will own the website when it is finished?
This question is more important than most buyers realise. There are three things to clarify:
The code or platform. If the site is built on WordPress, Webflow, or a similar platform, you should have direct access to the account. If it is built on a proprietary system owned by the agency, moving the site to a different supplier later may be impossible without a full rebuild.
The domain. The domain should be registered in your name, not the agency's. This is a non-negotiable point for any serious supplier. If an agency is reluctant to transfer domain ownership to you, treat it as a warning.
The hosting account. As with the domain, you should have access to the hosting. Suppliers who retain control of hosting can effectively hold your site to ransom if the relationship breaks down.
What happens when something goes wrong?
Every website will need a fix at some point — a plugin update that breaks a page, a form that stops working, a browser update that causes a layout issue. Before you sign, understand:
- How quickly will the supplier respond to a reported problem?
- Is there a support contract, or does every fix get charged separately?
- If the supplier closes or goes out of business, what happens to the site?
A supplier who cannot answer these questions clearly is one who has not thought through the service they are selling.
What is included in the price — and what is not?
Website quotes can be misleading because of what they exclude. Ask specifically:
- Is copywriting included, or do you need to provide the text?
- Is photography included, or will you need to supply images?
- Is the site being built against a template or from a custom design?
- Does the price include the initial SEO setup (title tags, meta descriptions, sitemap submission)?
- What does "revisions" mean — how many rounds, and what is the process if you need changes after the site launches?
How will the site perform — on mobile and in search?
A site that looks good on a desktop but is slow on a phone is not a finished site. Ask:
- What will the site's score be on Google's Core Web Vitals?
- Is the site fully responsive, or does it use a separate mobile version?
- What SEO foundations will be in place at launch?
You do not need to understand the technical answers, but a supplier who cannot give clear answers is one who has not built them into their process.
In short
The questions above are not about catching anyone out. A good supplier will answer all six without hesitating, and will often raise half of them before you do — that in itself is the strongest signal you will get.
What you are testing for is whether the person selling to you has thought past launch day. A website is not a project that finishes; it is a thing that has to be hosted, updated, fixed and eventually handed on. The supplier who talks only about the build has told you which part they are interested in.
Owning your site versus renting it
Most of the questions above are really one question wearing different clothes: are you buying a website, or renting access to one?
Both are legitimate. Plenty of businesses are perfectly happy renting, and for a very small site it can be the sensible choice. The problem is that the two are rarely distinguished at the point of sale, and they behave completely differently the day you want to leave.
If you own it, the content is yours in a format you can read, any competent developer can pick the work up, hosting is a cost you control, and the price you agreed is the price. Leaving costs you a migration — real work, but finite.
If you are renting, the content lives inside their platform, only they can maintain it, hosting is bundled into a monthly figure you cannot itemise, and the fee tends to rise at renewal. Leaving does not mean migrating; it means rebuilding.
Ask which one you are being offered. A supplier who answers plainly is one you can work with either way.
Answers that should give you pause
Some responses are more informative than the question deserves.
"Don't worry about the technical side." You asked who owns the domain. That is not a technical question, it is a legal one, and a straight answer takes five seconds.
"It's all included in the monthly fee." Ask what happens to the site if the monthly fee stops. If the answer is that it disappears, you are renting — which is fine, as long as you know.
A portfolio with no live links. Screenshots are not evidence. Ask for URLs you can open and test on your own phone.
No mention of what happens when it breaks. Every site breaks eventually. A supplier who has never raised support, response times or who to call has not thought past launch day.
What will the handover look like?
At the end of a project you should receive:
- Access to all accounts (platform, domain, hosting, analytics).
- A brief explanation of how to make basic changes yourself.
- Documentation of anything non-standard in the build.
If the supplier plans to retain control of the accounts and charge you for every small change indefinitely, that is a business model rather than a service.
We build websites for UK small businesses with transparent pricing and full account ownership handed to you on completion. Find out how we work.