9 Questions to Ask a Sydney Web Development Agency
Every agency on your shortlist will describe itself as collaborative, strategic and outcomes-driven. None of that is information. The useful part of a procurement conversation starts the moment you ask something the pitch deck didn't anticipate.
Here are nine questions worth putting to any Sydney web development agency, whether you're running a formal tender inside a government agency, reporting to a not-for-profit board, or you're an enterprise team that simply needs the thing built properly. For each one: what a strong answer sounds like, and what a weak one quietly tells you.
Key Takeaways
- Ask who writes the code. "Our senior team" isn't an answer. Names, locations and how many hours a week those people will be on your project is an answer.
- An agency willing to talk you out of something during the sales process is far more likely to be straight with you during the build.
- Content migration is where web budgets quietly die, and it's rarely scoped honestly in a first proposal. Webcoda always include options for content migration, from assistance, to full responsibility, and it's always scoped as an optional item.
- Ownership of code, content and design files belongs in writing before kick-off, not in a negotiation at the end.
- If nobody in the pitch room will be on your project, you're buying from people you'll never speak to again.
Questions About Who Actually Does the Work
1. Who writes the code, and where do they sit?
A strong answer is specific: here are the developers, here's who leads the build, this much happens in Sydney and this much doesn't. Offshore delivery isn't really a problem, the problem can be if you have no Australia based contact from the point the project starts. If an agency won't say where the work happens, you'll work it out in the first sprint, when simple questions start taking a day to come back. Webcoda are always upfront about who will be the main contacts of a project – generally involving a dedicated project manager, a technical lead, a senior developer and senior ux/ui designer – depending on the project scope.
2. Which people in this room will be on the project?
Pitch teams and delivery teams overlap less than anyone likes to admit. Get the names. Then get them written into the contract, because that's where a promise turns into an obligation. The weak version of this answer is always some variation of "you'll be looked after by our delivery team". It's ok if you don't deal with the pitch team on a day-to-day, but you always want them to be contactable throughout the project to answer questions or concerns.
3. Tell us about a project that went badly
Best question on the list, and the one most likely to be dodged. You want a real account with a lesson attached: what got missed at scoping, what it cost, what changed afterwards. Any agency claiming nothing's ever gone sideways is either very new or isn't being straight with you.
Questions About the Build
4. What would you talk us out of?
Ask this early. If your site is forty pages of mostly static content and the response is a headless architecture with a bespoke design system, you're being sold to. Sometimes the honest answer is that your platform is fine and what you actually need is a content plan and a designer, not a rebuild. Agencies that say so out loud are worth keeping on the list.
5. Can someone in comms publish a page without ringing you?
Ask to watch a real editor use the back office, live, rather than looking at a slide of it. The gap between "the CMS supports that" and "a busy person can do that on a Friday afternoon" is where a lot of expensive websites go stale.
6. How are you scoping the content migration?
Ask what page count they've assumed. Ask what happens to documents and PDFs, who rewrites the pages that no longer make sense, and what the number does if the real count turns out to be double. "We'll migrate your existing content" with no figure attached isn't an estimate. It's a placeholder that becomes a variation later.
Migration doesn't stop at content and files, it should take into account redirects, schema tags, GTM event tracking etc… A page count doesn't reflect the full picture. So make sure the migration includes everything you need.
7. What's your approach to accessibility?
Listen for process, not a badge. The W3C doesn't certify websites, and a conformance claim is only ever as good as the audit behind it, and accessibility designed in from wireframes costs less than accessibility retrofitted after user testing. WCAG 2.2 Level AA is now the reference point for Australian Government digital services and for Digital NSW, though older policy documents and existing contracts still cite WCAG 2.1 Level AA, so establish which one you're being quoted against. Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 the obligation sits with your organisation, not your supplier, which is reason enough to ask how they'll evidence the work.
8. How will this connect to what we already run?
CRM, payment gateway, email platform, single sign-on, and whatever system finance refuses to replace. Integration is where fixed-price projects turn into change requests. A good answer names your systems, admits which ones the team hasn't touched before, and prices a discovery instead of guessing at the total.
The Part That Lasts Longest
9. What does support look like in year three?
Everyone's attentive in month one. Ask about response times, who's on call, what counts as a bug versus a change request, and what a small monthly retainer genuinely buys you. Then ask the exit question: if we go elsewhere, what do we take, and in what format? Hesitation there tells you plenty.
An agency which offers a retainer support package with dedicated response targets are much more likely to be there for you if you have issues or want updates. Webcoda offer a dedicated 'clientdash' retainer portal combined with a ticketing system for support requests. Clients can login to view usage, hours remaining, and other valuable information relating to their ongoing retainer support service.
Where Webcoda Fits
Webcoda has been delivering web solutions from Sydney since 2005 and is a certified B Corporation, with dedicated services for government and not-for-profit clients alongside web development and digital design. We hold partnerships across several platforms rather than one, which means when the honest answer to a brief is a smaller build on software you already own, that's the answer you'll get.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ask who will write the code and whether those people were in the pitch, how content migration has been scoped and against what page count, how integrations with your existing systems are priced, what support looks like in year three, and what you take with you if you leave. Then get the answers into the contract rather than the proposal, because a proposal isn't a commitment and it won't survive the first change of scope.
Look for evidence of the unglamorous parts: accessibility built into the design process rather than bolted on afterwards, an understanding of records and privacy obligations, and experience with the procurement and reporting rhythm public sector work involves. Ask which version of WCAG they build to and how they test it. Then ask for a public sector reference and speak to that client directly, because a logo on a website doesn't tell you how the project went.
Not automatically. Offshore and hybrid teams can deliver excellent work, and plenty of Sydney agencies use them well. What matters is whether the arrangement is disclosed and whether you have a decision-maker in a compatible time zone. The problem isn't distance, it's a delivery model nobody described to you before you signed.
Because the page count in the proposal is usually a guess, and because migration isn't a copy-and-paste job. Old pages have inconsistent structures, orphaned documents, broken links and content that no longer reflects how the organisation works. Someone has to make editorial decisions about all of it. Agree upfront who that someone is, and what happens when the real inventory turns out bigger than anyone expected. It normally does.
That depends entirely on what your contract says, which is why it's worth settling before kick-off. Clarify ownership of custom code, editable design files, content, and the accounts holding your domain, hosting and analytics. Licensed third-party components and platform licences usually stay with their vendors, and that's normal, but you should know which parts of the build fall into that category.
A refusal to name a project that went wrong. A fixed price attached to integrations nobody has investigated. A recommended architecture far larger than the problem. Reluctance to demonstrate the CMS with a real editor at the keyboard. And a proposal with no exit terms, which tends to mean the agency hasn't thought about the end of the relationship, or would rather you didn't.
Talk to Webcoda
Webcoda is a Sydney-based, B Corp certified digital agency that has been building websites and enterprise web applications since 2005, for organisations including Sony, BridgeClimb, the Australian Federal Government and NSW Health. We are an Umbraco Gold Partner, a Gold partner for Xperience by Kentico and a HubSpot Solutions Partner, so platform advice comes without a single-vendor agenda.
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