Choosing the wrong web design agency is an expensive mistake. You can end up with a site that’s slow, hard to update, doesn’t rank on Google, and needs rebuilding in two years. It happens more than you’d think.

We’re a web design agency in Penzance — so yes, we have a stake in you choosing well. But these seven checks apply whether you choose us or anyone else. They’ll help you separate serious agencies from the ones that will leave you frustrated.

1. Look at their actual portfolio — not just screenshots

Screenshots lie. A beautiful screenshot doesn’t tell you if the site loads in three seconds or eight. It doesn’t tell you if it works properly on mobile or if the Google rankings are strong.

Ask for live links to their client websites. Visit them on your phone. Check the loading speed using PageSpeed Insights. Look at the mobile experience.

If an agency can’t point you to live, publicly accessible client sites — or all their examples look very similar — that’s a warning sign.

2. Check for SEO knowledge

A website that doesn’t rank on Google is just an expensive brochure. Your web designer should understand at minimum:

Title tags and meta descriptions
Page speed and Core Web Vitals
Canonical URLs
Structured data (JSON-LD)
Mobile-first indexing

Ask them directly: “How do you approach SEO?” If they look blank or say “we can add SEO later as an extra”, find someone else. SEO should be baked into the build from day one, not retrofitted.

3. Understand what platform they’re building on

This matters more than most business owners realise. The three main options are:

WordPress — widely used, but often bloated, slow, and vulnerable to security issues if not maintained properly. Can be fine in the right hands.

Page builders (Wix, Squarespace, Webflow) — quick to build, easy to use, but performance is limited and you’re locked into their platform.

Custom code (React, Next.js, Astro) — the fastest, most flexible, and most SEO-friendly option. Requires a developer who actually knows how to code. This is what we use at WhealBit.

There’s no universal wrong answer, but you should understand what you’re getting and why the agency has chosen that platform for you specifically.

4. Get a fixed quote, not a vague estimate

“Somewhere between £1,000 and £5,000 depending on what you need” is not a quote. It’s a way of avoiding commitment.

Any reputable agency should be able to give you a clear, itemised quote after an initial conversation. If they can’t, you risk scope creep and bill shock down the line.

At WhealBit, our Launchpad package is a fixed £450. Bespoke projects get a written quote before work begins — no surprises.

5. Ask about page speed and performance scores

Google now uses page speed as a direct ranking factor. Slow websites rank lower and convert worse. There’s no excuse for a new website scoring below 90 on Google’s PageSpeed test in 2026.

Ask the agency: “What Lighthouse scores do your client sites typically achieve?” If they don’t know what Lighthouse is, or can’t give you a confident answer, be cautious.

Our portfolio consistently scores 98–100 across performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO — and we’ll show you the receipts.

6. Clarify who owns the website and hosting

This is a surprisingly common issue: some agencies retain ownership of your domain or hosting, meaning if you leave them, you have to rebuild from scratch or pay a hefty transfer fee.

Make sure any contract clearly states:

You own the domain name
You own the hosting account
You can take the website files with you

At WhealBit, you own everything. We’re here to serve you, not to lock you in.

7. Check that they’re local enough to understand your market

A web designer in Manchester doesn’t know what drives bookings for a St Ives holiday let, or why a Truro solicitor’s website needs to project trust in a specific way, or how seasonal tourism affects a Newquay restaurant’s online strategy.

Local knowledge matters. An agency based in Cornwall — ideally one that’s worked with other Cornwall businesses — brings genuine context that saves time and produces better results.

A quick checklist

Before signing with any agency, confirm:

Live portfolio links that load fast on mobile
Clear SEO approach baked into the build
Explained platform choice with reasoning
Fixed written quote
Performance scores from existing projects
Full ownership of domain, hosting, and site files
Relevant local or industry experience

Why we say this openly

We’re WhealBit, based in Penzance. We work with businesses across Cornwall from Newquay to St Ives. We build in React and Astro — not WordPress templates — and our sites score 99–100 on Google PageSpeed.

If you’d like to see our work, visit our portfolio. If you’d like a free homepage draft with no obligation, contact us here.

And if you choose another agency after reading this — genuinely, good luck. The seven checks above should help you make a great decision either way.

How to Choose a Web Design Agency in Cornwall: 7 Things to Check