In short: Portfolio and price are no longer enough to choose a web development agency. In 2026, ask five things: how they use AI and who is accountable, what performance budget they commit to, how they test and release, who owns the code and accounts, and how they handle SEO, GEO and support after launch. A good agency answers all five specifically and in writing.
Your website is your digital handshake. It is often the first thing people see when they encounter your brand. I wrote that line in early 2025 in the first version of this article, and it is still true. What has changed is how websites get built and how people find them.
Most agencies now use AI tools in some form. Search results include AI-generated answers. Performance is measured with stricter metrics. So the old checklist of "look at their portfolio and compare prices" is no longer enough.
Here are the questions I would ask any agency in 2026, including mine.
1. How do you use AI, and who is accountable?
Almost every team uses AI now. In Stack Overflow's 2026 Developer Survey, only 17.2% of developers said they do not use AI tools at all (Stack Overflow, 2026). The question is not whether an agency uses AI. It is how.
Ask them:
- Which parts of the work do AI tools or coding agents do, and which do people do?
- Does a person review every change before it is merged? Who approves production releases?
- What client data, if any, goes into AI tools, and under what terms?
- Do you have a written AI policy? The same survey found only 24% of developers say their organisation publishes approved tools or an official AI policy.
A good answer is specific: agents draft code on isolated branches, engineers review every pull request, tests gate each environment and a named person approves releases. A vague answer, or "we don't use AI", should make you curious. We describe our own approach in AI agentic coding in a real studio.
2. What is your performance budget?
Speed is no longer a feeling. Google's Core Web Vitals define a good experience as Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, measured on real visits (web.dev).
Ask them:
- Will you commit to Core Web Vitals targets on mobile, in writing?
- How do you measure them: lab tools only, or real user data too?
- What happens when a new feature or tracking script breaks the budget?
An agency that plans performance into the architecture will answer quickly. One that relies on a caching plugin at the end will change the subject. See also how website speed affects SEO and UX.
3. How do you test, and how do releases work?
Testing is where cheap projects become expensive later.
Ask them:
- What is covered by automated tests, and what is tested by hand?
- Do you have separate environments for development, staging and production?
- How do you roll back a bad release, and how long does it take?
- Who gets alerted when the site goes down at night?
You do not need to understand every answer. You need to hear that there is a process, and that it is the same on every project.
4. Who owns the code and the accounts?
This one gets skipped until there is a dispute.
Ask them:
- Will the code live in a repository we own, or can access at any time?
- Are domain, hosting, analytics and Search Console accounts registered to us?
- Is any part of the site built on the agency's proprietary platform that we cannot take elsewhere?
- What documentation do we receive at handover?
Clear ownership protects you if the relationship ends, and a confident agency has no reason to avoid it.
5. Are you ready for SEO and GEO, and what about support?
Search has two layers now. Classic SEO still matters, and Google says the same fundamentals apply to its AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no extra technical requirements (Google Search Central). On top of that, GEO is about being a clear, consistent source that AI answers can cite. I go deeper on this in SEO and GEO: build websites that search and AI can cite.
Ask them:
- Is technical SEO built into the codebase: structure, metadata, sitemaps, canonicals and redirects for a redesign?
- Which structured data will you implement, and how do you keep it matching the visible content?
- How will our company facts stay consistent across the site and external profiles?
- Do you have a view on llms.txt? A careful answer treats it as an emerging convention, useful but not universal.
Then ask about life after launch:
- What does the support plan cover, with which response times?
- Who handles security updates and monitoring?
- Is the team that built the site the same team that supports it?
Warning signs
Some answers should make you pause:
- Guaranteed rankings. SEO is ongoing work. Rankings depend on competition and content, not only on the build.
- No contract or no written scope. Professional work starts with agreed milestones, responsibilities and a clear change process.
- A price with no breakdown. If you cannot see what is included, the missing parts usually appear later as extra costs.
- Statistics with no source. If an agency quotes impressive percentages, ask where they come from and what they measured.
What a good agency looks like in 2026
Put the answers together and the picture is clear. A good agency uses AI openly with human review, commits to measurable performance, tests and releases with discipline, leaves you owning your code and accounts, builds for search and AI answers from the start and supports what it builds.
Price still matters. But the cheapest proposal often hides costs that show up a year later, in a slow site, a risky release or a rebuild nobody planned.
How LabForty answers these questions
We start with a short discovery call, then prepare a proposal with timelines, milestones and pricing. Fixed-scope projects can have a set price; evolving work usually fits an agile model. If the scope changes, we review the effect on timeline and budget and move forward only after you approve it (FAQ).
Every website we build includes technical SEO, and for redesigns we plan which content, URLs and integrations to keep or change. After launch, hosting, updates and monitoring can be agreed in a support plan, and the engineers who build your system are the ones who maintain it. You can see the kind of work we do in our case studies. LabForty is ISO 9001:2015 certified (certificate).
FAQ
What should I ask a web development agency before signing?
Ask how they use AI and who approves changes, which Core Web Vitals targets they commit to, how they test and roll back releases, who owns the code and accounts, and what the support plan covers.
Is the cheapest proposal a risk?
Not always, but check what is excluded. Testing, performance work, SEO and support are where low prices usually cut, and those costs return later.
How long does a corporate website take to build?
At LabForty, a standard corporate website takes 4 to 8 weeks, and projects with more complex functionality such as user portals or multilingual structures can take 8 to 12 weeks. Timelines are agreed in the contract.
Should I own my website's code?
Yes, or at least have guaranteed access. Domain, hosting, analytics and Search Console accounts should also be registered to you.
Ask us the hard questions
We are happy to answer every question on this list, in writing. If you are planning a new website or platform, or need a second opinion on an existing one, start a conversation.
