How to choose the right web design company for your company website.
There are thousands of web design companies to choose from, how are you expected to choose the right one? Get it right and your business will flourish, get it wrong and your business will suffer and could even fail.
No pressure then
Firstly it is reassuring to note that there are some excellent web designers to choose from, unfortunately there are a few not so good ones that you should avoid, if you follow this simple guide you should vastly improve your chances of getting the decision right.
Before you approach a web designer you should have a clear idea of what it is you are looking to achieve. You should also understand that the success of your website will depend on how much you are prepared to put in to it. I am not just talking about budget; you should expect to contribute in terms of time and content.
If you have no idea what you want, a good place to start is by looking at your competition, see what their websites are offering their customers. This is the benchmark and you need to aim higher if you are going to gain a competitive advantage.
OK , so you now know what you want, let's start the search for a web designer. Not surprisingly the best place to find a website designer is on the Internet using a search engine or browsing a directory. There will be no shortage of choice so I would suggest using targeted searches to narrow down the results. If you want a local designer then you should add the name of the town or city and if you want specific features you should also add these.
As you start browsing through the web design companies websites, bookmark the ones that you get a good feel for, I would suggest an initial list of no more than ten which you then need to get down to a maximum of four.
From your list of ten web design companies, you should firstly visit their contact page and make sure that there is a full postal address, a landline number and an email address or contact form. Companies that do not publish full contact details usually do so for a reason and you may find it difficult to contact the company in the future if there are problems. Discount any company that does not publish full contact details. A word of warning here, it is very easy to set up a virtual office with an answering service so do not assume that because a company has an address and a landline that they actually exist in that location.
Visit the portfolio or design gallery and check out the websites that the company have already designed. Are the designs varied or do they all look the same? Most importantly, do you like the designs and do they reflect what you are looking for?
If you are looking for specific technologies such as an ecommerce website, are there examples or case studies in the portfolio?
Hopefully you have now gotten down to a shortlist of four website companies. Time to pick up the phone. I would advise against using contact forms or email for an initial contact unless that is to ask the web design company to call you. By calling the web design company you will get an immediate impression, did they answer the phone politely, was the person answering the phone able to help you? Ask to speak to a design consultant to discuss your project, you may not be able to speak to a designer on your first call as depending on the size of the company, one may not be available but you should request a call back. If they don't call back then don't chase them, move on as they clearly do not value your business.
During your first conversation you should establish your requirements in only the briefest outlines, what you are looking for is a designer that is going to ask you lots of questions about you and your business and what it is you are looking to achieve. A good website does not just look good, it needs to deliver value to your business and good designer needs to establish not just what you want the site to look like but what your goals are.
Once you have supplied enough information to the designer, they should be able to issue you with a quotation, a verbal quotation is fine for now but before proceeding you will need it confirming in writing together with full terms and conditions.
It is important to establish that you will own full copyright to your website and will be provided with the files on disk so you can re establish your site if there were problems in the future such as the web design company ceasing trading. You should also ensure that any domains are registered to you and not the design company. You would not own the copyright to any stock photography that had been used or third party code such as JavaScript.
If deadlines are important then you should discuss how long your design will take and if it is critical then you should have it written in to the contract
So depending on how your initial conversations went you will now have up to four quotations and an impression of each of the design companies that you have spoken to. You may at this stage have enough information to make a decision, one company may stand head and shoulders above the others and the decision is simply a no brainer.
If you are still undecided then you should arrange a meeting with the companies that are still left on your shortlist. A face to face meeting will establish if you are compatible and will enjoy working together.
Great − so you have now chosen a designer, get your quotation in writing together with the terms and conditions. When you place your order you should expect to pay anything from 10 − 50 percent as a deposit, under no circumstances should you pay all of the cost up front. For larger projects there may be milestone payments.
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