How to Choose a Web Design Agency in New Zealand

Choose a web design agency by comparing the decisions and responsibilities behind the proposal, not just the homepage mock-up or headline price. Before signing, confirm what the website must achieve, who owns every account, what content and functionality are included, how success will be measured, and what happens after launch.

This guide is written by Kiwi Web Design, so we have a commercial interest in the subject. The checklist is designed to be useful whether you choose us, another New Zealand agency, or an independent designer.

Start with a business brief, not a page count

“We need a five-page website” describes an output, not an outcome.

A more useful brief explains:

the customers the site must serve;
the questions they ask before choosing a provider;
the services, products, or locations that need their own paths;
the action each visitor should be able to complete;
the information the business needs from an enquiry;
the systems the website must connect to;
the budget, timing, and internal approval process.

Two agencies can quote for five pages and be proposing very different work. One may include customer research, copy structure, analytics, redirects, forms, testing, training, and launch support. Another may be pricing five templates filled with client-supplied text.

Download the web design agency brief and contract checklist before requesting proposals. It is a plain-text template you can complete and send to each supplier.

The 12 questions to ask every web designer

1. Who will own the domain name?

The business should control its domain account and be listed correctly as the registrant or domain-name holder. The agency may manage technical settings, but management and control are different things.

The New Zealand Domain Name Commission’s guidance says a .nz domain should list the correct individual or organisation, not the web developer or provider.

Ask the supplier to state:

where the domain will be registered;
whose name and email will be on the account;
who can change DNS records;
how access will be transferred if the relationship ends.

2. Who owns and controls the website itself?

“You own the website” can still hide practical restrictions.

Clarify whether you will receive:

administrator access to the content-management system;
access to the hosting account or source repository;
a copy of custom code and design files;
rights to use the theme, fonts, images, and plugins;
a current backup and a documented restore process;
the ability to move the site to another provider.

If the site runs on a proprietary agency platform, ask what happens if you stop paying or the provider closes. You may be licensing a service rather than receiving a transferable website. That can be a reasonable model, but it should be explicit.

3. Which other accounts will be created, and in whose name?

A website project can involve more than hosting and a domain. List every connected account, including:

Google Analytics;
Google Search Console;
Google Business Profile;
Google Ads or Meta Ads;
email delivery and form services;
booking, payment, merchant, or e-commerce platforms;
cookie-consent and privacy tools;
stock-image, font, and software licences.

The business should have appropriate ownership or administrator access. An agency can be added as a user. Rebuilding an account history later is much harder than setting access correctly at the start.

4. Who writes the copy and supplies the images?

Many project delays begin with the phrase “content supplied by client.”

Ask exactly what the proposal includes:

Does the agency interview you and draft copy?
Is it editing only, or writing from a blank page?
How many services or products are included?
Who verifies factual claims, prices, qualifications, and policies?
Are photos original, client supplied, licensed stock, or AI generated?
Who owns the resulting files and licences?
Is image resizing, compression, and alternative text included?

The owner knows the business best, but that does not mean the owner has time to turn operational knowledge into website copy. Agree on a process and named responsibilities.

5. How was the proposed site structure decided?

Ask the agency to explain why each page exists and which customer task it supports.

A real answer might sound like this: residential and commercial customers need different scope and quote information, so they receive separate service paths. A weak answer is: every small business gets Home, About, Services, Gallery, and Contact.

The Barrett Access Scaffolding project is one KWD example. Three customer sectors were separated, and the enquiry experience was redesigned to collect job details rather than only a name and phone number.

6. What functionality is included, and what is only mentioned?

Words such as “booking,” “e-commerce,” “CRM integration,” and “SEO” cover a wide range of work.

For every feature, document:

the platform or tool being used;
setup and configuration included in the price;
data migration or product entry limits;
licences and transaction fees;
email and notification behaviour;
testing responsibility;
training and ongoing support;
what happens when the third-party service changes its price.

For example, a booking link to an external page is different from a complete service-selection, availability, confirmation, and reminder flow. Both may be valid. They should not be compared as if they are the same deliverable.

7. What does “SEO included” actually mean?

No agency can guarantee a first-place Google ranking. Google’s own SEO Starter Guide says there are no secrets that automatically rank a site first and that changes can take time to affect Search.

Ask whether the project includes:

search-intent and competitor research;
page titles and descriptions;
heading and internal-link structure;
redirects from old URLs;
image optimisation;
canonical URLs and sitemap setup;
structured data that matches visible content;
Search Console setup;
local business information;
post-launch monitoring and reporting.

“An SEO plugin is installed” is not an SEO strategy.

8. How will enquiries, calls, bookings, and sales be measured?

Analytics installation is only the beginning.

Ask the agency to show which actions will be tracked and how a lead will be attributed. For an enquiry form, that may include the landing page, referring source, campaign tags, form name, and a unique lead identifier included in both the delivered message and analytics event.

Also ask how test submissions and spam will be separated from real leads. Page views should not be reported as conversions.

For phone-led businesses, clarify whether the scope includes click tracking only or a call-tracking number that can connect a call to a marketing source. Those provide different levels of evidence.

9. What personal information will the website collect?

Forms should collect information the business genuinely needs and tell people what will happen to it.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner advises organisations to collect personal information only where necessary for a lawful purpose and to make privacy information easy to find at the point of collection.

Ask:

what each form collects;
where submissions are stored and sent;
which third parties process the data;
how long records are retained;
who can access them;
where the privacy statement appears;
how access or correction requests are handled.

For legal advice about your specific obligations, use a qualified New Zealand privacy professional or lawyer.

10. What is included in the price?

Compare proposals line by line. At minimum, identify:

strategy and discovery;
number and type of pages;
copywriting and content entry;
custom design versus a modified template;
forms, booking, e-commerce, or integrations;
SEO and analytics setup;
redirects and migration;
revisions and approval rounds;
accessibility and browser testing;
launch and training;
hosting, licences, maintenance, and tax;
optional work and hourly rates.

A lower build price may still be the right choice. The important thing is knowing what has been left for the owner to provide, configure, or purchase later.

11. How are changes, delays, and approvals handled?

The agreement should explain the working process before a disagreement happens.

Look for:

project milestones and approval points;
how feedback should be supplied;
how many revision rounds are included;
what counts as a change of scope;
the rate or quote process for additional work;
what happens when client content is late;
who can approve work on behalf of the business;
cancellation, pause, and refund terms.

Good communication is not just being friendly on a sales call. It is a process that makes responsibilities and decisions visible.

12. What happens after launch or if we part ways?

Ask for the exit process while the relationship is positive.

The handover should cover:

administrator and account access;
backups and recovery;
software and licence renewals;
training for common updates;
security and maintenance responsibility;
response times and support rates;
transfer to another provider;
ownership of completed and unfinished work;
final invoices and account closure.

Ongoing maintenance can be valuable, especially when nobody inside the business owns updates and security. It should be a clear service choice, not the only way to retain access to the site.

How to review a portfolio properly

Do not review only screenshots. Open the live projects and complete a task.

For each example, check:

Can you identify the business, offer, and location quickly?
Can you find a specific service without guessing?
Is the evidence real and relevant to the claim?
Does the site work on a phone?
Can you complete the main action?
Does the case study explain the problem and work delivered, or only show a finished homepage?

Industry experience can be useful, but reasoning matters more than a matching colour palette. Ask the agency what it learned about the client’s customers and how that changed the structure or functionality.

Red flags that deserve a second question

Guaranteed first-place rankings or an exact ranking date.
A domain registered solely in the developer’s name.
No written list of deliverables.
Testimonials or case-study results that cannot be verified.
A very low headline price with essential costs left undefined.
No plan for redirects when replacing an existing site.
No testing of forms, booking, checkout, or delivered notifications.
Analytics described only as “Google Analytics installed.”
No documented handover or exit process.
Pressure to sign before questions are answered.

A red flag is a reason to investigate, not automatically proof of bad intent. Give the supplier an opportunity to explain the model in writing.

A simple proposal comparison scorecard

Score each supplier from 0 to 2 for every category: 0 means absent, 1 means partly defined, and 2 means clear and complete.

Category	Score to look for
Business and customer understanding	/2
Site structure and content responsibilities	/2
Ownership and account access	/2
Functionality and integrations	/2
Search, redirects, and analytics	/2
Privacy, security, and accessibility	/2
Price and exclusions	/2
Process and change control	/2
Launch, training, and maintenance	/2
Exit and transfer process	/2

The highest score is not automatically the best agency. Use it to expose differences that a total price hides, then weigh those differences against budget, timing, and the importance of the website to the business.

Before you sign

Read the final proposal and agreement together. Confirm that verbal promises appear in writing, account ownership is named, optional costs are separated, and the acceptance criteria for important functionality are testable.

You should be able to explain what you are buying, what your team must supply, what will happen at launch, and how you can leave with your business assets intact.

Use the downloadable brief and contract checklist to prepare your questions. To see how Kiwi Web Design structures its own work, review our website design process, case studies, and contact page.

← Back to all articles