So you’ve decided you need a digital agency. Maybe the website’s looking a bit tired, maybe nobody can find you on Google, maybe you’ve just had enough of chasing a freelancer who’s gone quiet again. Whatever’s brought you here, you’re about to type “how to choose a digital agency” into Google and get about four million results, most of which sound exactly the same.
We’re not going to pretend we’re neutral on this one, we’re a digital agency ourselves. But we’ve also sat across the table from enough business owners who’ve been burned before to know what actually matters when you’re picking who to work with. So here’s our honest take, minus the sales pitch.
Start with what they’ve actually built, not what they say they’ll build
Ask to see real work, ideally something similar in scale to what you’re after, and ask what happened after launch. A lot of agencies are brilliant at the pitch and then go quiet the moment the invoice is paid. You want to know they’ll still take your call in month eight.
Local matters more than people think
You can hire a digital marketing agency from anywhere in the country, and sometimes that’s the right call. But there’s something to be said for working with a team that actually knows your patch. A digital marketing agency in Wakefield understands the local business landscape in a way a call centre in a different city never will, and a digital agency in Leeds is close enough to pop in for a proper conversation rather than another Teams call that could’ve been an email. Proximity isn’t everything, but it does sometimes mean fewer things get lost in translation.
Ask who’s actually doing the work
This one catches people out constantly. You get sold by a slick account manager, then the actual work gets handed to a junior, a freelancer, or an offshore team you’ll never speak to. There’s nothing wrong with a lean team, in fact it’s often better, but you want to know upfront who’s building your site, who’s writing your content, and whether you’ll ever get to speak to them directly.
Watch how they talk about SEO and AI
Any agency worth its salt should be able to explain, in plain English, how they’ll help get you found, on Google and increasingly in tools like ChatGPT and Gemini too. If they can only talk in vague terms about “boosting your rankings” without mentioning technical basics, structured data, or how AI search actually pulls in information, that’s worth noting. This stuff has moved on a lot even in the last year.
Price isn’t the whole story, but it’s not nothing either
The cheapest quote and the most expensive quote are both trying to tell you something. Cheap usually means templated, rushed, or subcontracted out. Expensive doesn’t automatically mean better, sometimes you’re paying for a fancy office in London you’ll never visit. Ask what’s actually included, what happens if you need changes later, and what ongoing support looks like once the initial project’s done.
Trust your gut on the relationship
You’re going to be talking to these people regularly, possibly for years. If the first few conversations feel like pulling teeth, or like you’re being talked at rather than listened to, that’s not going to improve once you’ve signed. The agencies that do their best work are usually the ones who ask more questions than they answer in that first meeting.
We’re biased, obviously, being a digital agency ourselves based between Leeds and Wakefield. But whoever you end up choosing, ask the awkward questions early. It saves everyone a headache further down the line.
