Choosing a website design agency in the UK usually starts with portfolios. That is the easy part. The harder questions are what the site will be built on, who will own it, and whether it will work with the rest of your business.
This guide sets out what to expect from a good agency, the legal and technical basics every site needs, and the questions to ask before you sign.
Key PointThe design is the easy part. Ask who owns the site, what it is built on and how it connects to the rest of your business.
What a good website agency delivers
A good agency delivers more than a design. It should hand over a site that:
- loads quickly on a phone and a laptop;
- is built so that search engines can read it;
- works for people who use a screen reader or keyboard;
- you can keep, edit and move, even if the agency relationship ends.
The last point matters most and is asked about least. If the site only works on the agency's own platform, you do not really own it.
The basics every UK site needs
Some requirements apply whatever the design looks like:
- Cookies and consent. The ICO's guidance on cookies and similar technologies says that for non-essential cookies you must tell people they are there, explain what they do, and get consent. Strictly necessary cookies, such as a shopping basket, are exempt.
- Accessibility. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the international standard for making web content accessible to people with disabilities. Ask which version and level the agency builds to.
- Search basics. Google explains that a sitemap tells search engines about the pages on your site so they can crawl it more efficiently. A good build generates one automatically.
Watch OutA cookie banner that sets tracking cookies before anyone clicks accept does not meet the ICO's guidance.
Your website is part of your systems
A website rarely stands alone. Enquiries need to reach your CRM, orders need to reach your stock and finance systems, and customer details should not be typed in twice.
When an agency builds the site without thinking about those connections, the gaps get filled by hand. Our guide to why business systems do not talk to each other shows how that happens and what it costs in time.
Pro TipList every place an enquiry or order has to be retyped today. That list is the brief for the site's connections.
How we build websites
At Amplio Systems, website building is one of four things we do, alongside integrations, business systems and finance systems. Pages are written as plain text and built by a versioned pipeline, and a failed build leaves the previous good site serving.
Pages are pre-built HTML, so there is no database to slow them down and no plugin to patch. If the arrangement ends, you keep the content, the pipeline and the ability to run it.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What platform will the site be built on, and can we move it if we leave?
- Who owns the content, the design files and the domain?
- How do you handle cookie consent and accessibility?
- How will enquiries and orders reach our other systems?
- What happens when an update or a build fails?
For more on the hiring side, read our questions to ask before hiring a web designer. If you want your website and systems to work as one, our integration service covers the connections, so get in touch to talk it through.
Lee Nash is a business systems consultant and co-founder of Amplio Systems.