Guide · Hiring
Choosing someone
to build it.
Almost every complaint we hear about a previous agency comes down to one of three things: the owner did not own the site, nobody would make changes, or the price on the invoice was not the price on the call. All three are avoidable with eight questions.
Published 2026-09-08 · Formory Group
The eight questions.
- Do I own the domain and the site, and who is listed as the registrant? If the agency holds the domain, they hold the business. This is the single most common trap.
- What happens to the site if I stop paying you? The answer should be that you keep it. If the site disappears, you were renting.
- How many edits are included and what counts as one? Vague answers become invoices.
- What are you doing in month three that you are not doing in month one? Ongoing fees need ongoing work behind them.
- Can I see a site you built two years ago? Anyone can show a launch. Ask what it looks like after nobody has looked at it for a while.
- Who writes the text? If the answer is you, ask what happens to the timeline when you do not.
- What will this page score on a phone? A vague answer here usually means the site will be heavy.
- What would you not sell me? The answer tells you whether you are talking to a consultant or a catalogue.
Warning signs.
A quote that only exists after a discovery call. Guaranteed first-place rankings. A twelve-month minimum on hosting. Prices that are not published anywhere. Portfolios full of sites that are no longer live — check a few, it takes two minutes.
What a fair arrangement looks like.
Published prices. Payment after delivery, or at worst a modest deposit. The domain in your name. Month-to-month on anything recurring. A written list of what the monthly fee covers. Those are our terms, and they are not unusual — they are simply not universal.
And the uncomfortable question.
Ask whether you need a new site at all. An agency that will tell you no when the honest answer is no is worth more than one that is cheaper. Of the businesses that come to us for a rebuild, a real proportion leave with a list of four fixes and no invoice for a rebuild.
Questions
Asked often.
Freelancer or agency?
A good freelancer beats a bad agency easily. The risk with a freelancer is availability in two years; the risk with an agency is being handed to whoever is free. Ask both who will actually do the work.
Should I hire locally?
It matters less than it used to for the build, and more than people think for local search — someone who knows the market can tell you which trades and areas are competitive here without guessing.
How do I check their own site?
Open it on a phone on mobile data and time it. An agency whose own site is slow and has no mobile layout is telling you something.
Check yours
The same test,
on your address.
We do not guess and we do not send a report by email. Type the address, wait ten seconds, read what comes back. If your site is fine it will say so.
If you want
one built.
We build the site, you look at it, and you pay once it is finished and you are happy with it. Hosting, edits and the Google listing carry on monthly, cancellable any month.