RFP & Procurement FAQ. Answers before you issue.

The questions we get most often from committees, procurement officers and executive directors who are about to put a website project out to bid — answered plainly, including the ones where the honest answer is that it depends.

We grow your business with

CROturn traffic into leads

SEOrank & get found

GEOwin generative search

AEOget cited by AI answers

Before you issue

The most useful thing you can do is specify tightly

The single biggest cause of unusable RFP responses is a scope that lets every vendor bid on something different. If one proposal includes content migration and another does not, the prices are not comparable and the low bid wins for the wrong reason.

If you are still drafting, our website RFP template covers the sections worth including. You are also welcome to send us a draft before it is published — we will tell you where it is ambiguous, with no expectation that we bid.

Submitting

Submission and process

How do we send you a solicitation?

Through submit an RFP, which takes the document plus addenda and evaluation criteria. If your packet is larger than the upload allows, email it to hello@eseospace.com with your organization name.

How quickly do you respond?

We give a bid or no-bid decision within two business days of receiving the documents. If we are not bidding we tell you why, and where useful we point you toward someone better suited.

Will you bid on a solicitation with a short deadline?

Sometimes. It depends on the scope and what else is in flight. We would rather decline than submit a proposal we cannot stand behind, so we will tell you honestly rather than filing something thin.

Can we talk before the deadline?

If your process permits contact, yes — a clarification call usually improves the proposal for everyone. If it does not, we work from the written document and submit questions through your official channel.

Evaluating

Evaluation and comparison

How should we compare proposals that are priced differently?

Normalise the scope first. Ask every vendor to price the same defined deliverables — content migration, accessibility testing, training, post-launch support — as separate line items. Differences in total price are usually differences in what was included.

What should a proposal contain to be scoreable?

Fixed pricing against your line items, a real timeline with dependencies, the names of the people doing the work rather than a capability statement, references you can actually call, and a direct response to each evaluation criterion in the order you listed them.

How do we tell whether an accessibility claim is real?

Ask how it will be verified, not whether it will be met. A serious answer names automated testing plus manual keyboard and screen-reader passes, and describes what documentation you receive. "We follow best practices" is not an answer. See accessibility audits.

Should we require a fixed price?

For a defined scope, yes. Fixed pricing shifts estimation risk to the vendor, which is where it belongs. For genuinely open-ended discovery work, a fixed-price discovery phase followed by a fixed-price build is usually fairer than an hourly blank cheque.

Requirements

Compliance, ownership and registrations

Can you meet WCAG or Section 508 clauses?

Yes. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA and verify with automated plus manual testing. Where a solicitation names the federal standard, Section 508 compliance explains how the two relate.

What vendor registrations do you hold?

Tell us which registrations or portals your process requires and we will confirm our current status before bidding, rather than claiming coverage we would then have to walk back.

Who owns the site and the content at the end?

You do — accounts, code, content and hosting arrangements, with written documentation of the architecture and editing instructions. Ownership is not conditional on staying with us for maintenance.

Will our existing URLs survive?

That is designed for rather than hoped for. Every URL is mapped before launch so archived notices, agendas and grant materials keep resolving.

What happens after award?

Discovery, then a build in reviewable stages, accessibility tested before launch, then documentation and training. The public sector pillar sets out the full solicitation-to-award path.