Website work in the Azores: what to ask before you accept a proposal

Most proposals I get shown compare the price and a design. The design matters. What is missing, almost every time, is the list of what is actually finished on the day the site opens to the public.

I work from São Miguel. These are the questions I answer in a proposal myself, and they are worth asking whoever you hire.

1. Which pages exist, and what each one is for

"A company website" is not enough. Ask for the list: home, each service, about, contact, and whatever else is needed. For each page, one sentence on what the visitor should understand and what they should do next (call, book, ask for a quote).

A Business Website of mine sits between 5 and 8 pages for that reason. Fewer than that, when there is a single offer, is a landing page.

2. Who writes the text

If the text says "your company is a leader in solutions", the site looks finished and says nothing. The text has to name the service, the area, and how to ask. Ask whether the copy is written from a brief, whether you review it, and how many rounds of changes are included. In my proposals that is one round on a landing page and two on a site.

3. Phone, speed, and what Google can read

Ask to see the test site on a phone, not only on a laptop. Ask whether images are compressed, whether each page has its own title, and whether the form actually arrives in an inbox. "Full SEO" without a list (titles, speed, a sitemap, a Google Business Profile) is a sentence, not a piece of work.

4. Can you change the opening hours without opening a ticket

Prices, holidays, a photo. If every change waits on the developer, the site goes stale the next summer. Ask what the company can change on its own and what stays with the person who built it.

5. What is left out

A shop, payments, booking tied to the clinic's software, copy written from nothing when there is no material. If it is not on the "left out" list, it will show up halfway through as an extra. I write both lists in the proposal: what is in, and what is out.

6. The month after launch

Who fixes a broken form the week after? Is there a monthly plan, like maintenance from €79, or is every fix a new quote? Both answers are fine. Finding out on the first breakage is not.

If the proposal is cheap and does not answer these six, the cheap price is postponing the conversation. Ask for the list in writing before you pay the deposit.