Before you hire a Sarasota web designer or SEO agency, ask who will own your domain, website and Google accounts, who will do the work, how you’ll be able to measure results and what happens after launch. The answers tell you more than any portfolio, because they show how the agency works once the contract is signed.
We answer these questions for business owners at our Bee Ridge Road office, and this list is what we’d ask if we were the ones hiring. Each one explains why it matters and what a good answer sounds like.
Ownership and access
1. Will my business own the domain, website and content?
Your domain should be registered in your business’s name, with you as the registrant, even if the agency manages it. ICANN warns that a developer can register a domain under their own details even when the client paid for it, which makes leaving later much harder.
A good answer: “The domain is registered to you, you get the login, and you own the design, code and content once the project is paid for.”
2. Who owns my Google Business Profile, Search Console and Google Ads accounts?
Only owners of a Google Business Profile can add or remove other users, so your business should stay the primary owner and give the agency manager access. For ads, Google’s policy for third-party partners says you’re entitled to your account’s cost, click and impression data.
A good answer: “You own every account. We ask for access, and you can remove it whenever you like.”
3. Where will the site be hosted, and what happens if we part ways?
Some agencies build on systems only they can run. That’s fine if you know it upfront. Ask whether you can move the site to another host or developer, and what you’d receive: the code, the content, a database export or just a copy of the pages.
A good answer: a plain description of the hosting setup and a written handover process, without exit fees for files you already paid for.
The people and the process
4. Who will actually work on my project?
Ask whether design, development, writing and SEO are done in-house or sent to freelancers or overseas teams. Neither is wrong, but you should know who you’ll talk to and who makes the changes.
A good answer: names and roles, and one person you can call.
5. Can we meet in person?
Plenty of Sarasota businesses work happily with remote agencies, but a local office makes reviews and planning sessions easier. Several agencies that rank for “Sarasota” searches have no office here, only a city landing page.
A good answer: a street address you can visit, or a clear explanation of how meetings work if they’re remote.
6. How will I review the website before it goes live?
You should see the real site taking shape, not just a static mockup, with set points to give feedback before launch.
A good answer: “You get a shared preview link, we agree the pages and content first, and we plan review rounds and a launch date together.”
7. Who writes the content?
Content is the most common reason website projects stall. Ask whether the agency writes the copy, edits yours or expects you to supply everything, and whether the writing is planned around what your customers search for.
Search and results
8. What SEO is included at launch, and what costs extra?
A new site should launch with the basics: a unique title and description on every page, a sitemap, structured data that describes your business, fast pages on mobile and redirects from your old addresses. Ongoing SEO, such as new content, link building and local search work, is usually a separate service. Make sure you know which is which.
9. What results do you guarantee?
This is a trick question. Google’s guide to hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, and warns against agencies that claim a special relationship with Google.
A good answer: clear goals, such as more calls, forms or bookings from search, with an honest explanation of what affects them.
10. How will you get us into Google Maps for our area?
For most local searches, a map of nearby businesses appears before the regular results. Google ranks those listings on relevance, distance and popularity, so ask how the agency will improve your Business Profile, reviews and listings, not only your website.
11. How do you handle nearby towns like Venice, Lakewood Ranch or North Port?
If you serve more than Sarasota, the agency should show those areas accurately. Watch out for a plan to copy the same page for every town with the name swapped: Google’s spam policies treat those as doorway pages.
A good answer: pages only where you have something real to say about the area, plus the right service area settings in your Business Profile.
12. How do you collect reviews?
Since October 21, 2024, the FTC’s rule on fake reviews bans fake reviews, including AI-written ones, and paying for reviews that must be positive or negative. Google’s review policy also forbids asking only happy customers, a practice called review gating.
A good answer: “We help you ask every customer, make it easy to leave a review and reply to all of them.”
13. How will you prepare us for AI search?
Customers now ask ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and Google Maps’ AI features for local recommendations. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found 45% of consumers had used AI tools for local recommendations. An agency should be able to explain how your pages and business details get cited in those answers.
Reporting, seasons and after launch
14. What will you report, and how often?
Rankings alone don’t pay bills. Ask to see calls, form submissions, bookings and where they came from, and ask whether you’ll get your own login or just a monthly PDF.
15. How will you plan around Sarasota’s seasons?
Demand here swings hard. In Visit Sarasota County’s 2025 fiscal year, hotel occupancy averaged 78.9% from January to March and 49.2% from July to September. A good agency times content, offers and ad budgets to your busy and slow months instead of running the same plan all year.
16. What happens during hurricane season?
Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and Hurricane Milton came ashore on Siesta Key in October 2024. Ask how quickly the agency can post closures, change your hours on Google and update your website when a storm is coming, and whether your site will stay online if you lose power.
17. What does it cost to keep the site running?
Ask about hosting, maintenance, security updates, small edits and how changes are billed after launch. Our guide to what a web design quote really includes lists the costs that quotes most often leave out.
Put these questions to work
Ask every agency on your shortlist the same questions and compare the answers side by side. If you’re still building that shortlist, see our pick of the best web design companies in Sarasota and the best SEO agencies in Sarasota.
We’re happy to answer every one of these for your business. Visit our Bee Ridge Road office on a weekday, call (239) 610-9638, or see how we handle web design for Sarasota businesses.
