How do I choose a web design agency in Miami?

Who owns the website if I leave?

Settle this first. It decides what a bad fit costs you later, so do it before anyone shows you a design. Ask any agency, in Miami or anywhere else, three things: who is the registrant of your domain name, what you keep if you leave (the design, the content, the files and the accounts), and whether the site can be moved to another host. If they can’t answer all three plainly and in writing, don’t sign.

Our own answer is on our terms page: unless your services agreement says otherwise, you own your final deliverables once they’re paid for. The longer version, with the three ways a handover can go, is in who owns my website if I pay monthly.

How do I compare quotes from different agencies?

Compare what’s included. A build quote that looks cheap can leave hosting, fixes and the next round of changes to you, while a monthly plan folds those in and looks bigger over a year on paper. Ask every agency for two figures in writing, what you pay once and what you pay each month after launch, and for a plain list of what each one covers.

Ours are public. Living Website is $297 a month with a one-time $749 setup fee, the setup fee is waived on the annual plan, and month-to-month plans cancel any time. Hold every quote to the same test, ours included.

Where can I find reviews I can trust?

On a platform that tells you how it polices them. Google’s rules for reviews on Maps forbid reviews “paid for, directly or in kind” and forbid a business to “selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”, as Google’s fake engagement policy spells out. In the US, the FTC announced a final rule in August 2024 that bans fake reviews, including AI-generated ones written in the name of people who don’t exist, and lets it seek civil penalties from businesses that knowingly break it.

The order agencies appear in on a directory is a separate thing from the quality of their reviews. Clutch, a directory of agencies and their client reviews, sells an advertiser tier with “priority placements” on its service pages and gives verified profiles more visibility than unverified ones, while saying its awards rest on client feedback so companies “cannot buy their way in.” Read the reviews themselves. The useful ones name the project and say what the agency actually built.

Do I need my website in Spanish too?

If a real share of your customers call or message you in Spanish, yes, and the Spanish pages deserve the same care as the English ones. Google recommends a separate web address for each language version of a page, rather than cookies or browser settings that swap the language on a single page. So ask an agency two things: where your Spanish pages will live, and who reads them before they go live.

Our site keeps them apart. Every service page has its Spanish version at its own address under /es, and we build client sites in English and Spanish.

Which promises should make me walk away?

Any ranking with a date. Google’s guide to hiring an SEO says “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google,” and Google’s Business Profile help adds that “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” Never pay anyone who guarantees you will rank and sets a date. The same goes for a guaranteed number of leads.

How do I judge a new agency with no reviews yet?

Ask it plainly how many clients it has and what it has actually built, because a straight answer to that question is worth more than a gallery of polished concepts.

Forward Dawn is new, and we run our own site as our first client. We’re based in Miami and work across Miami-Dade and Broward, from Fort Lauderdale to Homestead, and remotely anywhere in the US. Put the questions on this page to us too, and hold us to the answers.