The short version
- 01A good web partner asks about your business goals before talking about fonts and colors.
- 02Ask for case studies with real numbers, and a clear plan to protect search traffic in a migration.
- 03Get domain, content and admin access ownership in writing, plus a support plan for after launch.
Every web shop has a nice portfolio. That's table stakes. The portfolio tells you they can make something look good in a screenshot. It tells you almost nothing about whether the site will load fast, show up in search, convert visitors or survive the first time your office manager tries to update the hours.
We've been building websites from Salt Lake City since 2010, and we've seen plenty of sites that looked great at launch and quietly failed afterward. Here's what we'd look for if we were on your side of the table.
They ask about your business before your colors
A good first meeting feels a little like a doctor's visit. Who are your best customers? Where do they come from now? What do they need to know before they'll call? What happens after someone fills out the form? Which service makes you the most money?
If the first conversation is mostly about fonts, page count and "the vibe," be careful. Design matters a lot. But design without a business goal underneath it is decoration.
Listen for whether they push back. You know your industry better than any agency does, but a partner who agrees with every idea you have isn't adding much. The best ones respect your expertise and still tell you when an idea will hurt conversions.
They can show results, not just screenshots
Ask for a case study with numbers in it. Traffic before and after, leads, enrollments, bookings, anything measurable. A designer who has never tracked what their sites do after launch probably isn't building with outcomes in mind.
One example from our own work: for NIMA, the website, paid ads, lead funnels and SEO generated about 65 percent of all enrollments on about 20 percent of the marketing budget within the first 24 months. You shouldn't expect every agency to have a story exactly like that. You should expect them to have some story with numbers in it, and to explain what they did.
Expensive brochure
Fonts, page count and vibe
Looks great in a screenshot
Cheap build, no support plan
Working website
Your customers and best services
Leads and bookings after launch
A plan for after launch
They talk about speed, mobile and search without being asked
In 2026 these aren't upgrades. Google indexes the mobile version of your site, and its Core Web Vitals measure how fast your pages load, how quickly they respond to a tap and whether the layout jumps around. Search is also changing fast, with AI Overviews and AI Mode answering more questions directly on Google's results page.
You don't need your developer to be an SEO agency. You do need them to build clean page structure, fast pages, sensible URLs, proper redirects from your old site and a plan to protect the search traffic you already have. Ask them directly how they handle a migration without losing rankings. A vague answer is a real warning sign, because a botched redirect plan can undo years of SEO in one weekend.
