How to choose a freelancer or agency

Some studios run on volume: enough projects moving at once that no single one gets much attention beyond the brief. That's not automatically bad. High volume can mean a tight, repeatable process. But it's worth knowing which one you're hiring into.

Two questions worth asking directly:

• How many projects are running at the same time?
• Who will you actually be talking to once the contract's signed?

A ready-to-go template gets you online with the least amount of decision-making, which is exactly why it's attractive. The trade-off is that the site was designed around what's easiest to template, not around what your business specifically does. Ask to see how the layout or structure changed for a past project's specific needs, not just its colors and photos. If the honest answer is "it doesn't, really," that's useful to know before you sign anything. More on that trade-off here.

A site that looks finished on a laptop screen doesn't tell you much on its own. Worth asking what's been done for:

• Speed: load times, especially on mobile
• Conversion: whether the layout and copy are built to get visitors to do something, not just look good
• SEO: whether the site is structured so search engines can read and rank it properly
• AI visibility: whether the site is set up to be found and cited correctly by AI tools and answer engines, a channel that's become as real as traditional search

None of these show up in a screenshot. A studio that can explain, specifically, what it does for each one is a different conversation than one that answers "yeah, it's all optimized" without any detail behind it.

Ask which CMS the site runs on, then ask to see it, not just hear that it's easy to use. A CMS built specifically for the site tends to only expose what you'll actually need to touch: text, images, a handful of settings, nothing else. I get into what that looks like day to day here. Compare that to a generic admin panel built for every possible site, most of which you'll never use and some of which you can break by accident.

This is the one question worth never skipping. Some studios build on a platform only they control, license, or resell, so leaving later means starting over from nothing.

If we part ways, can you take the site and its content with you?

A studio confident in its own work answers that fast, because it's a question it's been asked before.

A site that breaks the week it goes live, with nobody answering, is a common story. Before signing anything, get specific on:

• How many days (or hours) of fixes are included after launch
• What's covered, and what falls outside that
• What it costs once the included period ends

"Support" without numbers attached to it usually means it hasn't been thought through.

A polished portfolio shows what a studio can produce, not whether every client got the same level of attention.

1. Click into two or three projects, not just the hero shots on the homepage
2. Check whether the structure actually changes between them, or whether it's the same layout with a different logo and color palette dropped in

Same layout everywhere isn't automatically a bad sign either, but paired with a big claim about being fully custom, it's worth asking about directly.

How someone handles the enquiry is a preview of how they'll handle the project. A fast, specific reply that asks real questions about the business is a different signal than a generic quote sent before anyone's actually talked to you. It's the cheapest due diligence available, and it happens before any money changes hands.

A good answer to any of these usually comes fast, because it's something the person's explained before. It's the hesitation, or an answer that changes depending on how the question's phrased, that's worth paying attention to. And if you're still weighing a freelancer against an agency in the first place, that trade-off is worth reading through too.