When selecting a web design agency for your website project, apart from looking at their portfolio and reviewing their client testimonials, the following ten topics are a must to include in your checklist:

1. Content Management System (CMS) - open source or commercial? Commercial CMSs would lock you into a contract with maintenance fees. Best open source CMSs are Joomla and Drupal. WordPress is still suitable for simple websites but not recommended for more complex websites. Read more about differences between these CMSs in this blog post. Most open source CMSs are easy to use and do not require a lot of training. They also allow users to manage and update content on their website without the help of a web developer. However, you need to keep them up to date. With Joomla, for example, upgrades after version 3.0 are extremely easy to implement. For most CMSs, upgrades within a given release can be implemented with a click of a button. But this is not the case when a new release version becomes available.  Make sure you ask whether your web design agency provides regular CMS upgrades and what the terms and limitations are. 
2. Website Hosting - it is not advisable to store all eggs in one basket. It is best to select specialized service providers, i.e. those who specialize either in hosting or in web design. Find out if your web design agency can recommend a trusted website hosting company. Most hosting companies look equally qualified when you read information on their websites, but things can be very different in practice. Find out if your web design agency will assist you with moving the website from one hosting company to another if necessary.  Sign up for a free website monitoring service (such as GTmetrix, for example).
3. Security - security issues can originate with your website and with your server (hostig). Some hosting companies provide sufficient disaster recovery services in case of a hacking attack. But some don't provide any. Find out what is included in your package. In terms of your website, find out what security measures will be put in place by your web design agency and what support you can get from them - and what the terms are - in case of a hacking attack. 
4. Speed - if you are using a web content management system (CMS), any CMS, your website will be slower to load because advanced CMSs contain a lot of files. This is normal and to be expected. However, if a website is large and contains a lot of images and if your hosting plan does not provide for optimized speed, your website may load at a sub-optimum speed. In order to remedy this, there is a number of techniques that can be implemented on your website that can improve its loading speed dramatically. Find out what is included with your website package.
5. Mobile and Tablet Technologies - find out what optimization your website agency provides for mobile devices. Make sure you understand the difference between a "custom mobile layout" and simply a "responsive" website. Both are good options, but you need to know what you are getting and for what price. Joomla Bliss' customers do not pay anything extra for a responsive website (we provide this by default) only for a custom mobile layout.