Experience
Craft CMS is a complex product; there is quite a learning curve to becoming proficient at building websites with it. Does the agency have experience with many web design builds, or are they new to web design, maybe coming from a print background? I can say there is a huge complexity upgrade from using design tools like Photoshop and Figma in building performant Craft CMS sites.
What are your specific needs?
You may want a website, but how important are other aspects of your business? Are you looking to integrate an e-commerce part of the website, or is that the main part of the website? E-commerce can be handled with Craft Commerce; it’s like an add-on to Craft. If your agency can build Craft sites, it is likely to be able to build Commerce sites too, as the codebase is similar. What about other aspects like marketing? Just because your Craft CMS developer can build websites, can they market them? SEO is a specialised skill, and most web design firms don’t know it well.
Solving business problems
When chatting to your agency, a bar indicator of their experience is business knowledge and the bigger picture. Does your development team talk about business goals at all? Are they asking if you have a metric in mid that you want to hit? Something like you want a 20% rise in enquiries over the course of a year after the website is launched. A good web design agency doesn't obsess over pixels; they see the bigger business landscape with you.
Portfolio
What is the developer's portfolio like? If they are undertaking design work for you, does that style fit in with your business? Could you see that kind of design working well for your business? A strong portfolio in industries like yours is a good gauge of whether that design and development team can deliver results for you. Are there many Craft projects on their portfolio, or is it mostly WordPress or other CMS’s?
Updates and maintenance
Does your prospective agency talk about updates with you? You can’t launch a Craft site and just leave it be for a number of years. Around two or three times a year, Craft releases critical security updates. It’s important these are acknowledged and acted upon by your Craft CMS agency. If you don't like the sound or software companies releasing security updates, and are thinking that the software must be insecure, let me say that ALL software has security updates from time to time. Hackers and exploiters are getting more savvy every week, and security updates are just a lay of the land. It’s not that Craft is insecure; it’s just that it’s software and it needs to be updated from time to time.
Pricing
Naturally, price will likely be a deal breaker when taking on a Craft CMS team or developer. You will get quotes from the larger agencies of tens of thousands of pounds, from large agencies, and some Craft guys that will charge you 2 figures a month. Choose a budget you can afford, but remember, in life, you generally get what you pay for.
Development environments
Is hiring an agency that works without a development environment a big no-no? John, what is a development environment? It allows the developer to test and try things out on their computer before putting it on the live site (or staging site). A competent developer would never put a large update live on the site without testing it locally first. If your Craft CMS developer doesn't have a strong development process in place, then you have been warned!
Update schedule
As discussed above, there are security updates that take place regularly within the Craft CMS ecosphere. Craft CMS developers are usually busy people, and whilst they wouldn't get anything else done if they were updating to every latest release, security updates have to be scheduled. The agency shouldn't be so busy that you are waiting weeks or months for your site to be updated, especially when there is a critical security release. When your developer is making general updates to your website, they should really update Craft to the latest release, not always, but it’s something to ask them about.
Other skills: Print design? App development?
Do you need other skills outside the website? Do you need print work done? What about an app? Some web design agencies can’t handle print or app development. Some outsource the work, and that's fine, but ask your agency who will be doing the work and what their experience is with working with that external firm. It’s likely that you will want to build a strong bond with your agency, and you will want to pay one bill and not 3 for print, app development and your website, but again, ask the agency or developer who they work with, as these people need to know what they are doing in their specialised skill.
Communication
A good gauge of communication in the future is what your communication has been like in initial discussions and early contact points. Is your Craft CMS agency so busy that they take a few weeks to get back to you after your first contact? How quickly do they set up a meeting with you? All indicators of what might be to come in your future relationship.
A real specialist or just an agency that does everything and all CMS’s?
Finally, are you dealing with a specialised Craft developer, or does he or they do all kinds of CMS’s? Do they talk about WordPress, ExpressionEngine, Statamic, Drupal, Umbraco? This is a sign of non-specialisation. There is enough to learn about Craft to keep a developer busy for years; it’s a complex product. Your agency or developer should know 2 or 3 CMS’s at most. Do they have focused and deep articles on Craft, or are they posting about a plethora of differing technologies? They could well be trying to do everything and really not specialising in anything.
Written by John Macpherson