How to choose a good web development agency

In trying to launch a new website, you’ve probably come across multiple web development agencies, all claiming to be the best in the business. Each is the ‘best’ there ever was, but as you probably know by now, anyone can make any claim on the internet.

You want the actual best, not the claimed best, and in this guide, I outline how to find and choose an actual worthy to be best web development agency.

Must it be an agency? Why not try out a web development freelancer?

The agency hiring pitfall

Most people (I’m assuming you included) start their shopping and hiring journey from Google’s homepage. You’ve probably searched for ‘hire web development agency (near me)’ at one point before landing on this page. While that approach definitely sets you on your way with multiple web development agencies lining up search result pages, it can get you into the hands of a not so good web development agency.

How? Google does not actively test the technical capability of web development agencies you meet on the first page of its search results. Those agencies are there because they’re good at SEO. For those that show up as ad placements, well, they’re there because they have a large ad budget. Sure, topping Google search results is a positive indicator of a good web development agency, but if you’re going to get the perfect fitting web development agency for your needs, it goes beyond SEO.

Things to look out for in the ideal web development agency

Skip the hassle, see my recommended list of the top web development agencies you can hire to build you a top-tier website.

A decent web presence, going beyond their website

One subtle but effective way I’ve been able to screen committed and professional web development agencies from website creating sweatshops headquartered somewhere in India is to check out their social media presence. Good website development agencies have good to great social media presence, and it’s not far-fetched to see why. Aside from being a ticker for professionalism, a social media presence is a surefire lead generation and branding faucet.

How to gauge this

Check out their social media handles. Usually, you’ll find them (if they have one) somewhere on their homepage – in the footer or header section. How ‘established’ are their social media pages? Are they active? Is there a real face to said profiles, or it’s just infographics and memes? Remember, it mustn’t be mainstream social media; Instagram, Google Business, Yelp, or Facebook all count as well.

An extensive catalogue of past clients (and portfolio samples)

Nothing screams we’re good at what we do, like an expansive and growing list of satisfied clients. Bonus points if some well-known brands populate this list. Web development agencies who have an expansive client list don’t shy away from showing it off, so this is something you can assume is not there if you don’t find it on their website.

Some upcoming but great web development agencies might not have a stellar portfolio list, but if they’re worth their onions, they usually make up for that with portfolio samples.

How to gauge this

As I said, web development agencies with past clients don’t fail to showcase it. You should find example clients on their websites. What kind of web development work was carried out for these clients? Try to visit the actual websites both on your mobile and desktop PC? What do you make of its quality? Major bonus points if they’re websites similar to what you want.

Smooth and clutter-free onboarding process

Professionalism in a top brass web development agency goes beyond creating awesome sites; it should also focus on making the process as smooth and seamless as is possible for clients. I’ve found a direct correlation between how well an agency handles their onboarding process for a new client and the overall quality of their service delivery.

How to gauge this

How easy was it for you to make first contact and receive a response? What was the quality of the response? Did they provide a clear cut route to getting started with your projects? Were your questions answered satisfactorily? Did their response leave any room for doubt?

For instance, was the grammar and verbiage of the respondent questionable? What was the channel of communication after you established first contact, and how convenient was it for you? Did they offer multiple communication channels that were perhaps more fitting for you? Answering these questions should throw more light on the quality of any web development agency’s onboarding process.

Verifiable testimonials

Reviews and testimonials tell the complete story of what it feels like to work with any one particular web development agency. The only problem is reviews and testimonials can be faked. Fake reviews are an undying plague!

Do you know that one in seven TripAdvisor reviews are fake or that fake reviews make up a hefty 61% of all electronics reviews on Amazon? I couldn’t get my hands on the stats for web development agencies or online businesses in general, but I’d wager it’s in the same ballpark figure. It’s essential to check reviews, but you must make sure said reviews are legit!

How to do this

Only trust reviews on third party sites. Most of the reviews you’ll see on the agency’s website homepage are either cherrypicked reviews or outright fakes. You want to see what others are saying about them on third party sites like Google reviews, Yelp, or on their social media profiles.

Now, reviews on these sites can be faked too, but since most faked reviews are usually five-star reviews, you can skip the fake stuff by completely ignoring the five-star reviews. Instead, focus on the not five-star reviews, if any.

What do they say? How did the agency respond? No business is perfect, so a couple of negative reviews is not enough to thrash an agency. However, if there are several negative reviews, or worse still, a slew of negative reviews with a similar theme from different clients, that should alert your spider senses.

Performing your search for a web development agency

I just said googling ‘best web development agency’ is not the best way to start your search for a web development agency; what’s the correct way to go then?

Ask for recommendations

If you know someone who runs an amazing website by your standards, then you should probably stop reading this piece and go straight to them for help. No, really, recommendations are probably the easiest and safest route to landing a competent web development agency. The only requirements are; you trust said person; you are absolutely satisfied with the quality of work; the pricing is well within your capacity.

Use a forum board

If you don’t know anyone who’s running a decent enough website, you can ask for suggestions on a forum. Facebook, Quora or even Twitter works. However, my personal favorites are Reddit forums. If you have experience using Reddit, then good for you as it makes this process easier. If you don’t, fret not; it’s very simple. Simply create an account, then create a post asking for recommendations on a suitable web development agency on web dev and web hosting dedicated forums like the r/webdev, r/juststart, or r/webhosting subreddits.

A few things to note

Sometimes you might get unsolicited messages right after making a forum post asking for recommendations. Ignore them and focus on the direct answers to your posts.

Some direct answers might be web development agencies themselves subliminally endorsing and advertising their business. Check the profile and post-history of answers that drop web dev agency suggestions – if they’ve been promoting said web development agency, ignore said response.

You want to focus on active forum users with natural and non-advertorial profiles and post histories. Check how long they’ve been active. See if they’re regular commentators on said forum and see if they do anything else but promote services.

Very often, you’ll come up with a worthy suggestion from a verifiably active forum user. When and if you do that, good on you. However, NEVER sign a contract or pay for any service to an anonymous person on any forum. Get the name of the web development agency and subject them to the things you should look out for screening process I described earlier.

If you must go the Google (search engines) way

All that I’ve described above might seem like too much of a hassle for some. That’s understandable, you just want to type in ‘best web development agency’ into the search box and find someone who’ll satisfy your every need pronto. Well, you can do, and do that successfully if you follow the following guidelines;

The best agency might not be the one topping the search results pages

As a matter of fact, top results on search pages for web development agencies are usually ads, meaning someone paid to put them up there. Feel free to click on as many agencies that come up on search result pages – I’ll advise going through to the second page if you can.

For each agency you click on, subject them to the things you should look out for screen I described earlier. Note the agencies that manage to tick all the checkboxes.

Where’s the agency located

Web development agencies can be located anywhere across the globe. I’ve actually had very good experiences working with web dev agencies from Nigeria, India and Ukraine – so Nah, this is not the time for you to discriminate.

What you want to do instead is verify that they do have a physical location for their business. Web dev agencies with a physical location are more likely to be actual ‘agencies’ as opposed to a singular dude running a sweatshop and outsourcing tasks to freelancers on Fiverr. Why hire such an agency when you could just get to the freelancers themselves.

Google your choice web development agency

If you’ve settled on any one particular agency, proceed to do a Google search of their name. If the results don’t raise any red flags, proceed to add ‘reviews’ to the name and search again. As an example, if the web dev agency was robsbestpicks web dev agency, search for ‘robsbestpicks web dev agency reviews.’ That should bring up reviews (if any) of said agency. Use the process I described earlier to sort through the reviews.

Do a paid test run

If you’re looking to get started with a huge project, maybe something in the lines of setting up a fully-fledged e-commerce venture, then it’s best if you split the project into bits at first. Start with creating the homepage of your site and see how well that turns out before going on to make full-on commitments.

Note I said PAID test runs, no agency worth its onions will tolerate clients asking for free stuff. In fact, if you asked for a free demo and got it, I’d take that as a red flag.

Hiring a web dev agency – a few things to note

You have all you need to choose and hire your first web development agency, but let me just chip in a few things to note before you hire.

Be explicit about your requirements from the get-go

Don’t assume that the agency ‘gets it.’ Say (or type) everything you need implemented on your site and if you’re not sure what you need, check out our building your first site guide.

Get a quote

Web development agencies can be expensive to hire, at least compared to freelance web devs, although they do have their advantages. You want to be clear on the cost from the get-go. Don’t get strung along by an agency that offers dynamic rates – more often than not, those rates will go up once you’re too far in to pull a plug.

Sign a detailed contract

All the requirements you outlined in step one should be included in the contract. So also should the project deliverables, timelines, payment modalities and everything else you consider important. Contracts are your fall-back mechanism in case anything ever goes wrong – be as detailed as is possible.

Create and sign a copyright agreement

Who owns the code base implemented on the website? Ideally, it should be you but don’t take anything for granted. Create a copyrights document that transfers all the rights to the site and its codebase to you once the project is completed.

Negotiate future projects

All websites will require maintenance, bug fixes, updates and troubleshooting sometime in the future. When hiring a web development agency, you also want to make sure they will be on hand for such updates when the need arises. Some agencies bundle future site maintenance into their package and charge you accordingly. Others don’t. Talk to the agency and see what the arrangement is (or could be) for future updates.

To conclude

I’ve described basically all you need to land at the doorstep of a good enough agency. Don’t worry there’s enough of them out there if you search properly.

I have a list of agencies that fit the bill based on what I’ve described here, and if you’d rather not do the hard work, it’s a good place to start your search. Alternatively, you could send me a message directly, and I’ll whip up something based on your needs. Thanks for reading.