A Website Development and Design Technical Services Agreement with clear responsibilities is not intended to prepare for litigation when something goes wrong. It is intended to establish strong agreement between client and supplier from day one on “what will be done, to what standard, in how many handover stages, and how it will be maintained afterward.” The following 10 key clauses must be addressed individually when signing a website development or design contract:

Timeline

1. Scope, schedule, and acceptance clauses (Clauses 1–5)

Acceptance

  1. Appendix 1 must include a Page Layout and Functionality Itemization: Do not simply write “one corporate website” in the contract. The appendix must list primary/secondary section names, the number of independently designed page templates (such as the homepage, product listing, product detail, and solution pages, totaling X distinct layouts), the number of language versions, and specific interactive functions (such as parameter filtering and inquiry email notifications).
  2. Define the devices and resolution ranges covered by responsive adaptation: Specify delivery of both desktop (1440px–1920px) and mobile (mainstream iOS/Android phone viewports) designs and responsive front-end code, preventing inadequate delivery where “only the desktop version is built and everything is misaligned on mobile.”
  3. Link staged payments to milestones: We recommend a 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 payment schedule tied to actual deliverables (for example: advance payment at signing → approval of key designs → final balance after staging acceptance and source code handover). Avoid paying the vast majority of the fee before seeing any stage deliverables.
  4. Define “reasonable revision rounds” and a “confirmation mechanism after a period without feedback”: Specify the consolidated revision rounds included at each stage (usually 2–3), along with the client's deadline for responding to stage deliverables (for example, one consolidated set of revision requests within 5 business days), so that piecemeal changes do not delay launch indefinitely.
  5. Agree on schedule extensions for late provision of materials: Set deadlines for the client to provide images and text and assist with regulatory filing. If work stops while waiting for external photography or Ministry of Industry and Information Technology filing approval, the overall schedule should be extended accordingly.

Contract

2. Technical quality, copyright, and after-sales clauses (Clauses 6–10)

  1. Include “basic technical SEO and performance specifications” in launch acceptance criteria: Explicitly require independently configurable page TDK, semantic heading tags, correct Canonical settings and sitemap.xml, no duplicate server-rendered DOM, and removal of the staging environment's noindex directive at production launch.
  2. Handover of editable design source files and complete unobfuscated source code: Specify delivery of Figma/Sketch source files, complete front-end and back-end source code, and database SQL files at project closure.
  3. A commitment to proper licensing of third-party fonts and assets: Require the supplier to commit not to use paid fonts without commercial licenses or pirated stock photos in its own designs and code without authorization, and to provide details of font/stock image sources.
  4. Confidentiality clauses and limits on portfolio display: Protect the client's unpublished new product data and trade secrets. For strictly confidential projects, agree that the work will not be publicly listed in the supplier's website portfolio, or will only be shown with sensitive details removed.
  5. A free warranty period and incident response times: Specify a free technical warranty of 3–12 months after launch (fixing code bugs and ensuring normal system operation), and agree on response times for urgent incidents such as an inaccessible website (for example, response within 2 hours and service restoration within 24 hours).