ITPF Spring 2025 / Questions to Ask

Getting to know you!

These are questions to ask at initial meetings with the vendor. They’ll give you a basic understanding of the scope of your project and how the vendor operates.

Are you familiar with our existing site/industry?

Can you provide examples of similar projects?

This might seem small, but finding a redesign partner can be tricky and expensive if your company is in a niche market. Hiring someone with industry experience is a big plus, like hiring employees with relevant backgrounds.

A vendor without industry knowledge may struggle to give helpful advice on content, structure, and meaningful user experiences. But, finding a partner with experience in a different field can also be beneficial. They can offer fresh ideas and best practices from other businesses.

What cred do you have?

It’s smart to chat with a potential partner’s past website redesign clients. This helps you understand the company better. What was it like to work with them? How did the final product turn out? How successful has the website been? What (if any) pitfalls should you be aware of? Talking to past clients helps you do your homework. It gives you a fuller view of your potential redesign partner.

What is your web design and development process?

The design and development process is crucial and can differ widely among agencies. Each digital vendor has its own method for shaping its projects. Knowing how this process works and who is involved is key.

Look for a partner who clearly explains your responsibilities at each stage and what to expect during the project.

Can you work within our budget parameters?

Firms often hesitate to share budget details, which can help both parties. For example, sharing your budget with a realtor helps the vendor know what options to present. Make sure your potential partner fits your budget. Also, try to include as many wish list items as you can.

What’s included (and not included) in your price?

Each vendor has different pricing structures. It’s crucial to know what the quoted price includes and excludes. Understand what you’re getting for your money and any extra costs that may arise. Clarify how the vendor estimates and bills for anything outside the scope to avoid surprises.

Payment Structure

Considerations:

• Will payment for work on this project be upon successful and accepted project completion? If not, will the majority of payment be made only upon project completion?
• Terms and cost

Do you offer an ongoing/annual maintenance agreement?

Considerations:

• Platform updates
• Security updates
• Troubleshooting
• Enhancements/way to address new needs

What is the price structure for a typical contract and what period of time does it cover?

Considerations:

• Can you provide how the contract is managed if we need you (the vendor) to help maintain the website for security updates or other miscellaneous fixes?
• Purchase a package of hours for various tasks (updates, fixes, new projects, updates, etc.) 
• What if we don’t use all the hours? (If our contract is $15K annually and we don’t use the hours, do you still charge that amount?)
  • Purchase specific services separately, so not all hours go into a general use fund, but instead, “X” number of maintenance hours or additional website updates/fixes. 
  • Should we decide to cease working with you in the future:
• What costs will be involved in exporting/migrating off of your platform / CMS?

How long do you think this project will take to complete (realistically)?

The project length can vary based on scope, complexity, and both sides’ ability to meet deadlines. A potential web partner should check how long similar projects usually take. Then, they can give a schedule for important milestones and highlight factors that might affect the timeline.

What will be required of us throughout the project?

Successful websites require client involvement. Even though you’re hiring  a vendor, your input is still needed. Knowing what is expected from your team regarding resources, time, and deliverables is helpful.

Will you outsource any part of my project?

A vendor might say it does web design and development, but that doesn’t mean it’s its main focus or that it has the right experts. Knowing what they will do in-house and what we will outsource is essential.

Using third-party vendors can add complexity, costs, and scheduling issues. However, a vendor that handles most tasks internally can significantly benefit your project.

If a partner plans to use outside help, ask who they will work with and what tasks they’ll handle. Outsourcing works well when the vendor has a good plan to manage those relationships.

Identify if which portion of this work will be handled by:

• Third parties
• Subcontractors
• Part-time or temporary employees.

How do you ensure a consistent and usable experience on all devices?

It is a good idea to ask for examples of sites the vendor has made within the last two years that showcase the features, elements, performance, usability, accessibility, etc. that you expect for your own site.

Consider having one of these reviewed for usability and accessibility before committing to a contract with the company.

Will the design be fully responsive (will content reflow gracefully among all common viewport widths: desktop, laptop, tablet, phone)?

Content import considerations

• What do you (the vendor) need in order to import content from an existing site?
• Do you need anything extra to correctly import and assign metadata (dates, times, authors, tags, categories, header metadata) to pages?
• If we decide to switch to another Content Management System or hosting platform in the future, will there be an easy way to export pages/images/documents from the site you create for us to the new environment?
• What about dynamic features such as forms, interactive content, or structured data?
• What support will be available if we migrate to a different platform?

Content/Architecture development

• We have an existing site, how will you help us determine what content should be included in a new site?
• Who is responsible for reviewing content and deciding the site architecture?
• What are your Best Practices for content structure?
• How do you identify and design for our audiences?
• Do you take into consideration special connections to applications such as ticket/product sales, content from databases, and/or social media integration?

Other Content and Media

What is the full breadth of your capabilities?

Websites are key marketing assets. It is vital to choose a redesign partner who understands marketing. Website projects frequently need more than design and development.

You may need services from marketing strategists, content creators, copywriters, photographers, and videographers. Make sure the vendor can meet all your needs.

Considerations:

• Do you optimize media for playback?
• Where / how are videos and audio stored?
• Do you make sure video and audio meets accessibility standards?

How will you optimize my website for search engines?

SEO has evolved significantly. Now, it focuses more on creating relevant content for users than on technical tweaks.

There are best practices for SEO and page speed that can impact your ranking. Ask each vendor about its optimization approach and how they’ll ensure your site has the right content and technical elements.

Identify SEO practices you will follow to build the site:

• Added plugins
• Submit sitemaps to Google
• Check broken links
• Check page load times
• Optimize images

How will you optimize my website for page speed?

Identify the metrics and benchmarks you will be using to judge site performance, and what are the minimum scores you will meet for these tools: 

Considerations:

• Initial response time
• Total page load
• First content render
• Traffic thresholds
  • What happens if we go viral? 
  • Are there plans in place to handle spikes in traffic? 
  • Will throttling occur if we get too much traffic? 
  • What happens if a server crashes?
  • Who is responsible for bringing it back up?
  • How are we notified of issues?
• Will these metrics be specified in your contract?

What accessibility practices will you follow to build the site?

Considerations:

• What WCAG level will you contractually guarantee for the product you deliver?
• How will you review the site to guarantee it meets those criteria?
• Has your content contributor interface been checked for accessibility?
• Do you offer a VPAT? How recently was it updated?
• Do you charge extra for accessibility remediation?

Where will the site be hosted?

Considerations:

• Are you willing to work with a campus host?
• Is hosting an additional cost?
• Will we have contact info for the host?
• Will we have access to the hosting environment?
• What if we decide to change hosts in the future?

How many types of user roles are available and what levels or authority?

Considerations:

• Will one of our staff have the ability to install and update the (Illinois) Theme?
• Who can assign/edit user roles and access?
• Who is responsible for training users?

What content management system(s) do you recommend and why?

Can you show us a demonstration?

Most web companies have their favorite content management systems (CMS). It’s important to understand why they recommend a specific CMS and its pros and cons. Make sure the CMS strengths align with your website’s needs.

Clients often think all CMS platforms work similarly on the back end. However, the design and functionality can vary greatly. Request a demonstration to see how intuitive their CMS is.

When evaluating platforms and software, staying as close to “stock” functionality as possible is usually best for portability, maintainability, and performance. Look for vendors who will lean into the core features of the platform they are using rather than using custom code for every feature.

Similarly, site builder types of plugins or themes tend to be harder to migrate later and usually incur performance hits, and thus should be avoided except in cases where they are necessary for your use case.

Identify what’s unique to your platform:

• If this will be hosted in a Content Management System, what third-party elements (themes, plugins, software, etc.) will you be using? 
• What are the service and maintenance terms for keeping custom code functional and secure? 
• If you extend the (Illinois) Theme, do we own the right to bring that component back to share with the campus?
• What languages / packages do you use?
• Looking ahead – if you have custom written plugins/software, do we get to take that functionality with us to the next host/provider?

Will my website be fully custom or built using a “customized” theme?

Many websites claim to be custom but are tweaked, pre-built themes. Budget limits may push you to use such themes. If you want a customized website, ask this question. A custom site means the vendor has crafted every design detail and hand-coded by a skilled developer.

Custom websites often cost more than pre-built ones. However, they load faster, allow for better customization, and meet standards like the ADA more effectively.

How will you handle hosting, security, and maintenance?

Hosting, security, and maintenance are crucial for your website’s success. Many firms prefer to have their web partner manage hosting to ease their workload.

If your vendor hosts your site, understand what hosting they provide and the security measures in place, like a Website Application Firewall. Also, clarify how CMS updates will be managed and if backups are performed regularly.

Most marketing teams aren’t equipped to handle CMS updates, as compatibility issues can break the website. Your vendor should provide ongoing security, backups, and maintenance for optimal performance.

Considerations:

• How will you guarantee the security of our content and website?
• Who will be responsible for keeping components patched and up to date?

How and when will backups be performed?

Considerations:

• Where are backups stored?
• How can we restore our site from a backup, if necessary?
• What happens if we need more storage?
• Are there additional costs associated with increasing our storage?

What kind of testing and quality assurance checks do you perform before launching a new website?

Testing is critical before your website goes live. Your partner should test on all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, as well as the latest iOS and Android devices.

They must follow a checklist for quality assurance to ensure everything is ready for launch.

Identify what kinds of QA testing will be performed:

• Acceptance testing
• Functional testing
• System testing
• Accessibility evaluation
• How will we receive those reports?
• What kind of remediation will be performed?

Post launch support, training, quality assurance

Considerations:

• Do you offer training on how to use the site once it’s built? If so:
  • How (live training, video tutorials, support tickets, etc) 
  • To what extent (for example, configuring and customizing plugins, using the block editor, updating plugins and themes, etc.)?
  • Does this cost extra?
  • For how long?
  • What type of documentation, guides, and resources will you provide?
  • Example: https://documentation.faa.illinois.edu/