How to check a web studio's portfolio before you hire: 12 questions (tested on our own 22 projects)

What should every portfolio project be labelled: client, concept or internal?

Look past the visuals to provenance first: three kinds of work sit side by side in many studio portfolios, often unlabelled, and each proves something different.

No label is a warning sign in itself. The warning sign is a portfolio where you cannot tell them apart: a fictional restaurant then passes for a paying client.

What does our own portfolio look like under these labels?

We labelled our own work first. On 24 September 2026 the portfolio held 22 projects: 21 works on the founder's site, tarasovvitalii.com, plus the site itself.

Read honestly: for proof that we can grow a client's search traffic you have one case, so weigh it as one. For proof that we can build a demanding front end you have eight concept sites and several live products to test. That is easier to judge than twenty-two logos.

Which 12 questions should you ask about any portfolio?

Ask them about the three projects closest to yours. One published rubric gives results 40% of the score, so count only results you have verified.

Question 12 sorts studios fastest. Every VITON¹³ case has a “What this does not prove” section; ask other studios for the same.

How do you verify a live site yourself in 10 minutes?

You need a phone, a browser and five free tools: two minutes per step, on the live client project closest to yours.

1. Open it on a phoneLoad the home page and one inner page over mobile data, open the menu and fill in a form without sending it. Heavy video headers show up here.
2. Run PageSpeed InsightsPaste the URL into pagespeed.web.dev. Field data from real Chrome users over 28 days appears if traffic allows; “good” means LCP within 2.5 s, INP within 200 ms and CLS within 0.1. The lab score below is one simulated run (90–100 good, 50–89 needs improvement) and varies, so run it twice.
3. Read the sourcePress Ctrl+U (Cmd+Option+U on a Mac) and search for a visible sentence. If it is missing, JavaScript draws the text, and not all bots run JavaScript. Search for the studio's name too: builders often leave a credit.
4. Search the imagesRight-click the main image in Chrome and choose Search with Google Lens; stock matches are fine if the case says so. Check suspected AI images at contentcredentials.org/verify, though an empty result proves nothing: many sites strip metadata.
5. Check the datesFind the domain's registration date in ICANN Lookup and the site's history in the Wayback Machine. A design archived before the studio says it built it needs explaining.

A lab score describes one page on one day: it reveals heavy pages, not whether a site sells.

What did this check find on our own sites?

On 22 September 2026 we ran Lighthouse on our client and concept home pages, mobile with default throttling and desktop.

Two lessons apply to any portfolio. None of the eight reaches 90 on mobile, yet six of seven concepts score 93 or more on desktop: desktop tests flatter the work. All seven concepts also scored 100 for Lighthouse SEO without canonical URLs, Open Graph or structured data: that score checks basics, it is not an audit.

How should you read “we increased traffic by X%”?

A traffic claim has five parts: metric, tool, dates, baseline and evidence of cause. Clicks, sessions and impressions differ, so a claim that does not name one cannot be checked.

Take our own claim. In the SB Excursions owner's Search Console, web search, three months to 17 September 2026, the site averaged about 2.7 clicks a day before 7 August and about 26 from 14 August. (26 − 2.7) ÷ 2.7 ≈ 8.6, so “traffic up 860%” would be arithmetically true but misleading: a tiny baseline, a short period, clicks rather than bookings, and no way to separate our work from new language editions being indexed or the travel season. The case prints “×10” with both averages and calls the cause unproven.

When a studio quotes growth, ask for:

• A screenshot showing the property, dates and search type, or view-only access as a restricted Search Console user.
• Periods of equal length, plus the same weeks a year earlier.
• A dated list of site changes to match against each rise.
• The business number the traffic was meant to move, such as enquiries.

Are concept work, AI images and missing reviews warning signs?

Not by themselves; a concept dressed up as a client is. Our cases say “concept” up front and name sources: seven of our eight concept sites use licensed stock photos or video from Unsplash and Pexels, which a reverse image search should find.

AI images need the same honesty. The VITON XIII BEAUTY key visuals are all captioned as AI-generated, and the NUMBER ONE campaign visual spells the brand “NAMBER ONE”, a generation error its case discloses instead of showing the image. The GELO bottle visual carries Content Credentials signed for OpenAI, and its case says so.

In the US, the FTC's August 2024 final rule exposes fake testimonials, including AI-written ones, to civil penalties. Trust platforms the studio does not control, and a call with a past client. Our case pages quote no testimonials; these checks are our evidence.

What should the quote say once a portfolio passes?

A portfolio shows what a studio has done; the quote fixes what it will do for you. It should name:

• Deliverables by page type and device, and who supplies texts and images.
• Domain, hosting, analytics and Search Console in your company's name.
• A dated acceptance check, such as a Lighthouse run on the delivered templates.
• Review rounds, exclusions, post-launch terms, and how the studio may label your project in its portfolio.

For price ranges, see our small business website cost guide. If you are unsure you need a full site, read landing page vs website first.