How to choose a digital agency: 8 questions before signing
Eight questions to ask before signing with a digital agency, with the answers that are a good sign and the ones that should make you walk out.
Choosing a digital agency is uncomfortable because you are asked to judge work that, by definition, you do not know how to evaluate: if you knew how, you would not be hiring it out. So many people decide on price or on how likeable the salesperson was, and discover the problems two years later, when they want to leave and cannot.
This article is published by an agency, so it is worth saying up front: these eight questions work for evaluating us exactly as they do for anyone else. If the answer wanders, that is already an answer. They are ordered by importance.
The eight questions
1. Whose name is the domain registered in, and who has access to the panel?
This is the most important question of all and the one that causes the most grief. If you leave a meeting having asked only one thing, make it this.
The domain is your address on the internet: what people type to reach you. It is registered in someone’s name, and that someone decides what happens to it.
Good sign: it is registered in your company’s name, you hold the credentials for the registrar — the company where the domain is bought — and you know when it expires. The agency can manage it, but ownership is yours.
Bad sign: “we take care of that”, “it’s on our agency account”. If the domain is in the agency’s name, you do not own your own address. When you want to change provider you negotiate from a very poor position: they can stop renewing it, point it elsewhere, or take months to authorise the transfer. And getting it back is not a technical formality: it is a contractual matter.
The same goes for hosting, the server where the site lives. There it is more common and more acceptable for the account to be the agency’s; what is not acceptable is being unable to get a complete copy of your site when you ask for it.
Follow-up: “if I ask you tomorrow for the credentials and a copy of the site, how soon do I have them?”. A specific timeframe is a good sign; an awkward silence is the answer you were looking for.
2. Who owns my Google and Meta accounts?
First cousin to the previous question and almost as serious: Google Business profile, Google Ads, Analytics, Search Console and Meta advertising accounts (Facebook and Instagram).
Good sign: they are in your company’s name, you appear as the owner, and the agency has delegated access that can be withdrawn. That is how it is meant to work: Google and Meta have specific mechanisms allowing an agency to manage a client’s account without owning it.
Bad sign: the agency created them in their own name and you do not even appear. The consequences are concrete:
- The Google Business profile is where your reviews land. If it is not yours, your review history — the hardest thing to build in a local business — stays with whoever controls it.
- Advertising campaign history is what makes advertising work better over time. Starting from zero throws that learning away.
- Analytics data is your only basis for comparing before and after. Without history you cannot evaluate anyone.
Follow-up: “can you show me now where I appear as the owner?”. It is checked in a minute in front of you.
3. When the contract ends, who owns the website and the code?
Frequently answered badly, almost always in good faith: it was never discussed.
Good sign: the contract states in writing that, once the work is paid for, the design, the text and the custom code are yours, and that another provider can continue them.
Bad sign: the site living on a proprietary platform it cannot be exported from, the contract not mentioning intellectual property, or the answer being “the site is ours, you pay for the service”. That is legitimate if it is explained before signing and the price reflects it, but you should know you are renting, not buying.
Honest nuance: no website is portable without work. With a standard content management system, another provider picks it up without drama; built custom on uncommon technology, migrating it costs even when the code is yours.
4. What exactly happens if I want to leave?
The time to agree the exit is while both parties are happy.
Good sign: a reasonable, symmetrical notice period, a written handover procedure (what is handed over, in what format and how quickly) and no disproportionate penalty.
Bad sign: long lock-ins with nothing in return, automatic renewals cancellable only in a narrow window, or the classic “we’ll look at that if the time comes”. Also a handover charged as an unforeseen extra.
Honest nuance: a lock-in can be justified: if the agency absorbs the initial development and spreads it across the monthly fee, it is logical for them to ask for commitment. What is not justified is a long lock-in on pure maintenance.
5. How and how often is it measured, and what do I get to see?
If it is not measured, the contract renewal ends up being decided on feelings.
Good sign: they tell you which indicators they will look at and why, they give you direct access to the source tools (Search Console, Analytics, the ads dashboard) and the reports include what is not working. Being told “we tried this and it did not work out” is a sign of confidence.
Bad sign: metrics that sound good but mean nothing for your business, or only a proprietary dashboard from which nothing can be cross-checked. Watch out for reports that only list the searches where you rank well: that is a shop window, not a measurement.
Follow-up: “which indicator would tell me this is NOT working?”. If there is no answer, there is no real measurement.
6. What exactly does the maintenance include?
“Maintenance” is the most elastic word in the industry: it can mean a great deal or almost nothing, for similar fees.
Good sign: a written, specific list. Platform updates, backups with stated frequency and retention, downtime monitoring, security certificate, bug fixing and a number of hours or changes per month. And, with the same clarity, what falls outside and how it is billed.
Bad sign: “comprehensive maintenance” with no breakdown. Ask about three concrete things:
- Backups: how often, where they are kept, and whether restoring them has ever been tested. A backup that has never been restored is a backup you do not know works.
- Downtime: if the site goes down on a Saturday, is there anyone, and how quickly do they respond?
- Content changes: does changing a piece of text or a price come out of the fee or get billed separately?
7. Who writes the text?
It is half the result and the part most underestimated at signing.
Good sign: they tell you who writes, how they will get the information about your business (interview, visit, questionnaire) and what review you get. Also being told honestly whether they use artificial intelligence as support and how they review it: the tool is not the problem, the lack of review is.
Bad sign: it being left unclear and your discovering at delivery that you were expected to write it, or being handed generic text that would serve any company in the sector with the name swapped.
Honest nuance: writing it yourself is a valid option and usually makes the project cheaper. What is not acceptable is it not being agreed: it is the number one cause of projects sitting still for months waiting for text nobody knew was theirs to write.
8. What do you guarantee, and what don’t you?
The question that best separates a professional from a salesperson.
Good sign: they guarantee the work, not the algorithm’s output: what gets done, at what scope and to what delivery dates. And they tell you openly what cannot be guaranteed. Someone who explains the limits of what they can promise understands the terrain.
Bad sign — and here there are no nuances:
- “We guarantee you first position on Google.” Nobody controls someone else’s algorithm. The work can be guaranteed; the position, never.
- “We have an agreement with Google that gives us priority.” Partner programmes exist and are real, but they concern paid advertising. No certification or agreement gives an advantage in organic results.
- “In X weeks you’ll be at the top.” A fixed timeline stated before looking at your site, your sector and your competition is a sales argument, not a forecast.
- “We guarantee X visits a month.” There are ways of hitting that figure that bring in not a single customer.
Why these promises are impossible, and which signals do indicate a project is going well, we explain in how long SEO takes.
And one final warning
No agency will score top marks on all eight, and there are two signals that are not questions: if they talk about their method before asking what you do and who buys from you, they are selling a package instead of solving your problem; and someone who tells you “you don’t need what you’re asking for” is worth more than someone who says yes to everything.
The aim of this list is not to find the perfect provider, but for you to understand what you are signing and for you, if the relationship does not work, to be able to leave with your domain, your accounts, your data and your website under your arm.
If you retain one idea from this article, make it this: the domain and the Google and Meta accounts have to be in your name. Everything else can be rebuilt. Those, not always.
If you are in the middle of this decision, at Ryojin.TECH we run a free, no-obligation audit: we look at the state of your website, your domain and your accounts, and tell you what you need. Whether you then work with us or with anyone else.