What to look for in a web agency’s portfolio

You’re ordering a website. The agency presents a beautiful portfolio. But does what you see in the screenshots translate into real performance for your site? Not necessarily. Aesthetics are only one element of a good website — and often the least important from a business perspective. Here are 8 things you must verify before choosing a vendor.

1. Check the live sites — not the screenshots

Every agency shows the best-looking screenshots of its work. But a screenshot doesn’t reveal speed, SEO, or usability. Visit every site they show and check:

• Does it load fast? (Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights — just paste the URL)
• Does it look right on mobile?
• Is the SSL certificate current? (Green padlock in the browser)
• Does the site work at all? (Unfortunately, parts of many portfolios point to sites that no longer exist)

2. PageSpeed scores — the technical minimum

Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) returns a 0–100 score for page speed. This directly affects SEO and bounce rate. What the scores mean:

• 90–100: Excellent. The site loads almost instantly; Google treats it as a priority.
• 70–89: Good. Acceptable, but there’s room for improvement.
• 0–69: Poor. The site loads slowly, which directly hurts SEO and conversion.

Check PageSpeed scores for at least three sites from the agency’s portfolio. If the average is below 70 — that’s a warning sign.

3. Responsiveness — mobile-first is a standard, not a bonus

Over 65% of internet traffic in Poland comes from mobile devices. Check every portfolio site on a phone (or shrink your browser window). A good site should:

• Have legible text without zooming in
• Have buttons large enough to tap with a finger (44px minimum)
• Have no horizontal scrolling
• Load in under 3 seconds on LTE

4. SEO — are the portfolio sites even indexed?

Type into Google: site:portfolio-domain.pl. If the result is 0 pages — the site is not indexed, which means it’s invisible in search. That’s a major technical failure.

Also check whether the portfolio sites appear in Google for their main keywords. Call one of the businesses in the portfolio and ask: “Does the site this agency built for you actually bring in customers from Google?”. That’s the best SEO quality test you can run.

5. Design originality — custom or template?

Ask directly: “How many sites in your portfolio use the same template/theme?”. Some vendors sell you a “custom design” that is really a lightly tweaked WordPress theme worth 59 dollars.

Symptoms of a template:

• Very similar page structures across different clients
• Identical sections (hero, about, services, contact) in the same order
• The same fonts and button styles everywhere
• Identical “icon + text” placeholders in the “why us” section

6. Delivery time and communication

A portfolio won’t tell you what the collaboration is like. Ask about:

• The actual delivery time of the last five projects (not the “average” or “minimum”)
• Communication process: Who will be your point of contact? How often will you get an update?
• Revisions: How many rounds are included? What happens when those are used up?
• References: Can you speak with 2–3 clients from the portfolio?

7. Code ownership and copyright

Before you sign, verify:

• When ownership of the code transfers: After full payment, or earlier?
• Access to source code: Will you get access to the repository?
• Hosting lock-in: Does the site work ONLY on the agency’s infrastructure? What happens if you part ways?
• Contractual penalties: What are the consequences if the agency misses deadlines?

8. Pricing transparency — what’s actually included?

Ask for a detailed quote with a line-by-line list of what’s covered:

• Graphic design (UX/UI)
• Development (how many subpages?)
• Copywriting (who writes the content — you or the agency?)
• SEO (on-page, schema markup, sitemap, robots.txt)
• Hosting and domain (for how many months/years?)
• SSL certificate
• CMS training
• Post-launch support (for how many months?)

If the proposal doesn’t spell these out — request an updated quote before signing. Hidden costs are the single most common source of unhappy outcomes with web agencies.