How to choose a web agency in French-speaking Switzerland

Look for a team you can work with after the pitch

Choosing a web agency is a decision about how your business will work with another team. The finished website matters, but so do the conversations that get it there: who turns a vague requirement into a clear task, who flags a missing dependency and who answers when the contact form stops working.

In Geneva, Lausanne and the wider French-speaking region, you can work with freelancers, small studios or larger agencies. Size alone tells you little about suitability. A simple business website may need a small, responsive team. A complex platform may need several specialists and a different support arrangement.

Your aim is to find a provider whose skills, process and capacity match your project. Use the same brief for every candidate, ask for evidence and get the important agreements in writing.

Write a brief that fits on a page

You do not need a technical specification to start. Explain what the business does, who the website is for and what a visitor should be able to accomplish. Include the current site if there is one, the functions needed at launch and any systems that must connect to it.

State the languages you can realistically maintain. An English-speaking customer in Geneva may need different examples and terminology from a French-speaking customer in Lausanne. The agency should explain how writing, review and language links will be handled, rather than treating a second language as a checkbox.

Be clear about your constraints too. Mention the budget range, any fixed event or deadline, and who will approve the work. If the deadline depends on a new product launch, say so. If you still need photography or copywriting, include it. Hidden dependencies make proposals harder to compare.

Our website preparation guide gives you a practical starting point. The brief can remain short as long as the unresolved decisions are visible.

Test the portfolio as a customer would

Open a few live projects on your phone. Can you understand the offer without hunting for it? Is the text readable? Does the menu work? Try finding a phone number, a service detail and the next action. Screenshots show visual decisions; using a live site reveals the rest.

Ask what the agency actually contributed. It may have designed the identity, built the site, written the copy or maintained a system created by someone else. Each is legitimate work, but they demonstrate different skills. A clear answer helps you judge the experience relevant to your own brief.

Results need context. If a case study gives a percentage improvement, ask what was measured, over which period and against which baseline. A claim about more traffic does not establish more suitable enquiries. If the evidence cannot be shared, the agency should describe that limit rather than presenting an unexplained number.

For Navanem’s own work, start with our projects and the scope described on each page. Apply the same questions to us as to anyone on your shortlist.

Ask the people doing the work to explain the process

Find out who will be your contact and who will handle design, development, content and quality checks. If some work is subcontracted, ask how the agency coordinates it and who remains responsible for delivery. The practical issue is accountability.

A useful process has visible decisions. You should know when you approve the page structure, when designs become development work and how changes are handled after approval. Agree how feedback is collected so contradictory comments do not turn into repeated revisions.

• What material do you need from us before work can start?
• Which decisions will we approve, and at what stage?
• How many revision rounds does the proposal include?
• How do you estimate a request that changes the original brief?
• Who tests the site, and what evidence do we receive before launch?
• What happens if either side misses a dependency or a deadline?

The answers should be understandable without specialist vocabulary. An agency that explains trade-offs clearly gives you a better basis for making decisions throughout the project.

Make the technology recommendation earn its place

Ask why a particular CMS or framework suits the people who will update the website. Have the agency demonstrate a normal task: changing a service description, adding an article or replacing an image. A technology pitch becomes much more useful when you can see your own workflow.

Discuss maintenance and handover at the same time. Who applies updates? Where is the source kept? Can another competent provider take over? What licences or hosted services does the site depend on? These questions matter even when you plan to keep the same agency for years.

Different approaches can be appropriate. A familiar CMS may fit a team publishing regularly. A content-focused site may benefit from a simpler public delivery setup. A portal may need application features. Our WordPress, Astro and Next.js guide explains the differences without assuming one tool belongs on every project.

Clarify control of the domain, accounts and files

Request a written account list before signing: domain registrar, DNS, hosting, CMS, analytics and any third-party services. For each, identify the account holder, who has administrative access and how access will be handed over. Keep recovery details in a company-controlled location.

Do the same for deliverables. The contract should distinguish the custom work, your content, open-source components, licensed assets and services rented from another provider. Ask what you receive if the relationship ends, in which format, at what cost and within what agreed process.

Source code access alone does not make a handover straightforward. Another developer may also need build instructions, configuration details, a content export and an explanation of integrations. Ask for enough documentation to operate the actual site.

These are practical procurement checks. The rights and obligations attached to your project need to be set out in the agreement; ask a qualified adviser to review terms you do not understand.

Compare the same project, including the following year

Put proposals side by side and mark where they differ. One may include copywriting and content migration; another may assume you will do both. One may include a training session; another may include only a login. A lower total can simply mean less work has been priced.

Separate the build fee from hosting, maintenance, subscriptions and optional improvements. Ask what the support arrangement actually covers: business hours, ways to report a problem, severity levels and any response commitment. A promise to “look after the site” needs more detail before you can budget for it.

Our guide to website costs in Switzerland provides a useful comparison list. Give each agency a chance to clarify an omission in writing. The quality of that clarification is part of the selection process.

Be careful with guarantees that bypass the work

A provider can commit to deliverables it controls, such as a tested form or an agreed launch checklist. Search rankings and customer buying decisions depend on more than the agency’s work. A promise of a guaranteed first place deserves scrutiny. Google’s own guide to choosing SEO support warns against ranking guarantees.

Other reasons to pause include an unexplained rush to sign, a proposal that leaves essential accounts inaccessible, or recurring charges that only appear late in the conversation. Raise the specific concern and judge the response. A provider willing to make the terms clearer is giving you useful information.

Choose a team that can disagree constructively too. If a requested feature adds maintenance without helping your customers, you should hear why and see an alternative. Agreeing to everything at the sales stage can leave difficult decisions until the project is already under way.

Decide what a local relationship needs to provide

Working nearby can make workshops and coordination easier. It does not replace technical capability or a clear contract. Ask how the agency handles in-person meetings, remote reviews and bilingual approvals. Choose the arrangement that fits your team’s availability.

For a Swiss business, useful local knowledge includes how your customers describe services, which languages the site needs and how to present contact and service-area information accurately. Avoid assuming that inserting the names of a few cities establishes that understanding.

Before making the final choice, speak to the intended project contact and walk through one real requirement. By then, you should be able to explain the scope, the main trade-offs and what happens next in your own words.

Questions for your shortlist

Should I choose a freelancer or an agency?

Choose the skills and continuity your project needs. Ask how absence, specialist tasks and support are covered. A small provider with a clear plan can be a good fit; a larger team still needs explicit responsibilities.

How many proposals should I compare?

A manageable shortlist is more useful than a large collection of unrelated prices. Give each candidate the same brief and allow time to ask questions. Compare the clarity and fit of the answers as well as the totals.

What should be settled before work begins?

Scope, deliverables, price assumptions, approvals, payment stages, change handling, account access and after-launch responsibilities. Keep unresolved items visible and agree how they will be resolved.

To discuss your own brief, contact Navanem. We can work through the requirements and explain how we would approach them.