Vetting a contractor before you pay
Vetting takes a couple of hours and saves months. Most failed projects were visible during negotiations — nobody looked.
Checking the portfolio
Ignore presentation images and open the live sites: do they work, load fast on a phone, and submit a form? A screenshot and a working site are different things.
Ask which part the team actually did, and request a case similar to your task rather than the flashiest one in the deck.
Contract and payment
The contract should specify the actual scope — pages and features, not 'website development' — staged deadlines, revision rules, warranty period, and transfer of rights and access.
Split payment across accepted milestones. Full prepayment puts all the risk on you. State separately that domain and hosting are registered to the client.
Red flags
A price far below market with no explanation, unrealistic timelines, refusal to work under a contract, or guaranteed Google rankings.
And a behavioural one: a contractor who asks nothing about your business. Quoting before understanding your audience and goals means selling a template — which is sometimes fine, as long as you know that is what you are buying.