Checklist

Twelve questions to ask before an agency builds your site in Astro

The questions that decide whether an Astro build will still be easy to run a year after launch, each with why it matters and what a good answer sounds like.

A modular facade in blue pixel dither, captioned Before the build

If an agency has proposed an Astro website, most of the risk sits in the parts of the proposal nobody reads twice: who edits it, who hosts it, who fixes it. These twelve questions cover that ground. Tick each one when you’ve had a straight answer, and take any unticked question into the scoping call.

The questions apply to any Astro build. We build ours on Lumos for Astro, which settles the design-system questions early, but the editing, hosting and support questions are the same whatever framework the agency uses.

When each question gets answered

Most of these belong before the contract, and the last three before the launch date

  1. ProposalQuestions 1, 2, 5, 10Editing model, sections, framework version, hosting owner and cost.
  2. Scoping callQuestions 3, 4, 7, 11Preview, rollback, custom parts, who updates what.
  3. BuildQuestion 6A section shown with short and long copy, on a phone.
  4. LaunchQuestions 8, 9, 12Forms tested, redirects checked, tracking live.
  5. Month 12Every answer, re-readThe site should still be easy to run without the agency in the room.
Our sequence. Any question left open at its stage becomes a scope decision before the next one.

Editing

  • Who publishes the next article, and can they do it without a developer?Astro sites can run on Markdown files in version control or connect to a CMS. If the answer involves a developer for every post, your blog stops the first month they’re busy. Good answer: a named editor and a live demonstration of them publishing a post from start to finish.
  • Can the marketing team build a campaign page from existing sections?Landing pages are the most frequent request after launch. Good answer: a library of sections the team can add, reorder and remove, shown working before the build is signed off, with the limits stated. “Anything is possible” is not an answer.
  • How do we preview a change before it goes live?Without a preview step, every edit is a production edit. Good answer: a preview link for each change, on its own URL, and a named approver. On an Astro site this is usually automatic with the hosting, so an agency that can’t show it hasn’t set it up.
  • How do we undo a bad release?Something will go wrong at 5pm on a Friday. Good answer: rollback to the previous release in under five minutes, by someone on your side as well as theirs. Ask them to do it in front of you.

Design system

  • What framework version does the build start from, and who reviews updates?Lumos for Astro is at version 0.0.3 and its components change between releases. Good answer: the starting version written into the scope, and framework updates reviewed as a diff before they’re applied to your site, never pulled in automatically.
  • Can I see one section with short copy and one with long copy?A section that looks right with the demo headline and breaks with a real one is the most common design-system failure. Good answer: the same section shown both ways, on a phone, with a headline twice as long as the one in the design.
  • Which parts are custom, and which come from the framework?Custom components cost more to build and more to maintain, and they’re the parts a future developer has to learn. Good answer: a list, with each custom component justified by a business need such as a pricing calculator or a CRM-connected form.

Connections

  • Where does each form send its enquiries, and has a test one arrived?A form that posts to nowhere loses leads silently for months, and a static site has no server catching them by default. Good answer: every form named with its destination, and a test submission you received yourself, in your own inbox or CRM.
  • If we’re replacing a site, what happens to the old URLs?Every old page that returns a 404 is a lost ranking and a broken link somewhere you don’t control. Good answer: a redirect map covering every indexed URL, checked against Search Console after launch, with the count of redirects in the handover.

Hosting and support

  • Who owns the hosting account, and what does it cost per month?The account should be in your name with the agency given access, so the site survives a change of agency. Good answer: your account, their access, and the monthly figure in the proposal. For most static Astro sites on Cloudflare Pages that figure is zero, so a large hosting line deserves a question.
  • Who applies security updates, and how often?An Astro site has dependencies that need updating, and a site nobody touches for a year is a site with known vulnerabilities in it. Good answer: a named person and a cadence, monthly or quarterly, written into the support agreement.
  • What gets measured after launch?A site with no conversion tracking cannot tell you whether it works, and “traffic is up” is not a result. Good answer: the two or three actions that count as a lead, each tracked and reported monthly, with the first report date agreed before launch.
Who owns what after launch

The accounts that should be in your name, whoever built the site

AccountOwnerAgencyIf it's the other way round
Domain registrarYouAccessYou can lose the domain
HostingYouAccessThe site goes with the agency
Code repositoryYouAccessA new developer starts from nothing
CMSYouAccessYour content is in someone else's account
Analytics and Search ConsoleYouAccessYou lose the history
Form and email serviceYouAccessLeads route through a third party
Blue means the account is in the client's name. Lime means the agency holds a seat or a token inside it. This is how we set up every build, and it costs nothing extra to do it this way from day one.

What to do with the unticked ones

Keep the ticked list with the proposal. The unticked questions are the scope conversation, and an agency that answers them well in writing will usually run the project the same way. An agency that gets vague on hosting ownership or rollback is telling you how the support period will feel.

Two of the twelve are worth a hard line. If the editing demonstration (question 1) or the hosting ownership (question 10) can’t be settled before signing, don’t sign. Everything else can be worked out during the build.

Read about building Astro websites with Lumos, what Source by Webflow may change for this kind of site, and how we run website delivery.