If you're looking to hire a Digital Agency to build your new website there are a couple of things that we would suggest you check out first.

1. How long have they been around for and what expertise do they actually have
2. Check out their portfolio to see the kind of work they've done
3. What do their success stories look like
4. What do their customers say about them
5. Do you feel comfortable with them and do you feel they can deliver
6. Where are they located
7. Decide on your budget. Be clear about this and not ashamed to disclose the amount
8. What about the marketing budget?  have you decide how you will market your website
9. Does the Digital Agency offer a FREE consultation to discuss your requirements?

Overall ensure you are both a good fit and that the agency you engage is invested in your success. You want your engagement with your digital agency to be a partnership, as a website will not be successful on its own. Your website needs attention and strategy to deliver results for your business. 

How to determine if you are a good fit: 

1. Don't just ask for a quote via email (sure send this) but if they don't request a consultation or catch up call to understand your needs take them off your list. Every business is different and we all have different goals, so find a company that wants to spend the time to get to know you. 
2. Be open about your marketing budget or figures (only to those companies you feel you can trust. eg: Aussy based businesses that have been around for a while or businesses that have a physical office are a good start ). An agency that acts as your advisor will not sell to you but give your recommendations based on what your goals are and not just give you a $10,000 website if all you need is a landing page with some paid advertising to generate leads. Also, we all have a budget in mind, so being open about this will allow the agency to quickly identify if you are a good fit. For example, some agencies only take on website project above 50k+. 
3. As a business owner, you want results and need to know if your investment gave you an ROI. Ask the agency how they will track your website performance. You don't just want vanity metrics, you need data that drives better decisions based on results. If the agency you are talking about just says, we will put Google Analytics on there and that's it, they may not be a great fit. In saying that, you also don't want an agency that says all the correct things but can not deliver. So if you like everything else about the Digital Agency you are considering, see if they mind having another specialist involved and/or if they recommend anyone. If they're open to collaboration from other agencies or specialist, it's also a great sign they have your best interest at heart. 
4. Make sure you like the work they are doing for their current clients. They may not always show all their recent work on their website, so ask if they can send you some recent examples (Ideally from your industry). Your website design will be your online storefront, so if you don't like the web designs they are delivering for current clients, nothing will change this. Some agencies will offer a 100% design satisfaction (eg: no extra fee if they need to go back to the drawing board), which is a sure sign your agency is super confident in their design abilities and ensures you will get what you want and need.  Also, recent work shows the level of skill their current team can deliver on, as teams can change, so you don't want to be looking at work from 1yr ago. 

Any further questions, feel free to connect on LinkedIn or drop me a line on our company website. 

Kind regards, 
David. 

If you want to hire a digital agency or web development company to build your business website. Then you must ensure that they have knowledge and experience in the same field and they are a verified member of the agency. 
Also you must check their review through various freelancing platforms from where they used to get work as well as research directories like goodfirms, clutch etc so that you are sure before awarding them work. 

Now if you select any agency to work with then must discuss your requirements clearly with payment and project delivery before award the job to the person. 

We, Webgensis are also a Web Development Company India and have specialization in developing websites with Php, WordPress, Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, Responsive, Bootstrap, SASS, LESS, Scratch to HTML/WordPress.

So if you have any query or want to discuss a project, we are ready for it and ensure you with with our work quality. 

This answer comes from my digital agency, but I think this is objective.
Firs, never buy anything from anyone withput beig able to specify it i terms of performance - you wouldn't buy a car like that so why wooud you buy a website in that way? So firstly, Get your performance specification defined for mobile and desktop and be careful t specify the Internet bandwidth in the test regime. Some agemcies will sell you on appearence and give you a website sl slow it's no damn use.
Secondly, you should have a good iea of what your website should look like - but don't be stubborn - you should make  match between speed and appearence and function.
Make sure the agency doesn;t quote you an apparently great price but then you need so many 'add-ons' it costs a lot more in the end. Specify what pages and functionality you want.
If you want to maintain your website yourself, make sure it's made on Wordpress - far and away the best choice. The ask how much for 2 hours training if you need it.
Also ask if there are any annual fees for plugins when sing software. Mosrt designers will use free plugins but if you have special needs, then paid plugins should be use d- don't let your supplier fit pirate parts!

Make sure you can have twp or three iterations of the website at the quoted price - the first iteration is almost never what you thought you described!

Finally, for the actuakdesign - do speak with w designer if you are not yourself competent - you have a few seconds to capture a visitor so speed and peearence are critical.

That's just a fast mind-dump. Hope it helps you a little and best of luck to you.
PS - Final advice - NEVER let a agency bury you in geek-talk - ever! The agemcy's job is to turn your request into a website, not to teach you techno-geek!
 

You should always look for the portfolio, certifications (if any), and whether they are a good partner for your business for your website development project. The agency should have a clear timeline, deliverables, and offer client support even after site deployment.

Francis Kim
Francis Kim Digital Development