Alexandria’s maritime and trade SMEs serve Mediterranean buyers, credibility sites convert. Its coastal tourism season drives hotel and restaurant searches every summer. Most teams miss this part about Alexandria though: the city’s agency scene is thinner than Cairo’s.
Start with proof, not promises
Ask them for two live websites they built for Alexandria or nearby Gulf clients in the last twelve months. You want links you can tap right now, not screenshots. Then open them on your phone. Do they load in under two seconds on 4G? Does the other language read like a real person wrote it? Would you trust that business if it was yours? Past work is the best predictor of your site.
The ownership question that saves you the most money
When the site is done, who owns the domain, the hosting account and the code, and whose name are they in? The only good answer is you, in your name, with logins handed over on launch day. In Alexandria we still see businesses lose their site and their Google rankings because a cheaper developer kept the domain for convenience and then stopped replying.
Try the language test
Ask how they would handle a second language. If the plan is to machine translate the English page, you will not rank in that other language and readers will not trust it. A proper build designs and writes each language on its own.
Twelve questions worth asking before you pay anyone
- Can you show me two live sites you launched in the last year for Alexandria or this region?
- Who will own the domain, hosting and code when we are done?
- Will each language have its own pages that can rank separately?
- How fast will it load on a phone on 4G? Is speed included or is that an extra?
- What is included in this price in EGP, and what is not?
- Is this a template or original design, and which one is in this quote?
- Who writes the words and where do the photos come from?
- Can you connect the site to our billing, stock or booking system if we need it?
- What happens after we launch? How fast do you reply, what is covered, what is the monthly cost?
- Can I meet the people who will actually build it?
- What do you need from us to hit the deadline, and when?
- Can I speak to one past client?
Good companies like these questions. They show you are serious. If someone gets defensive, that tells you a lot too.
Five things that should make you end the meeting
- "Pay us after we build it." Teams that work on spec often stop halfway.
- "We guarantee you number one on Google." No one can promise that. No one owns Google.
- No live links, only mockups or screenshots anyone could have made.
- A price with no scope. If you cannot see what is included, you cannot compare two quotes.
- They want the domain in their name. That is how people lose their website.
What a proper quote looks like
You should be able to read it in two minutes and know: the fixed price in EGP, what is included, the timeline with milestones, who owns what on launch day, and what support after launch actually covers. When you compare two quotes that way, the expensive one often turns out to be the only real one. The cheaper one was a template with no support and a domain in someone elses name.
How we would answer all twelve
We build for Alexandria at fixed EGP prices with the scope written down, and we hand over everything on launch. Our work is public so you can check it yourself. The website, portal and app for Quick Solution Oman are live, with real names and real users.