It is extremely important to choose the right web design agency for your business. The selection of a web design agency is not a one-time decision. Instead, it should be done carefully to achieve a long-term business relationship. This is because the choice of a web design agency will determine the success or failure of your business website. It is essential that you choose a web design agency that can offer you the best services at reasonable rates. It all comes down to value for money.
We propose asking yourself the following five questions to narrow down the pool of possible web designers before starting your hunt.
5 Things to Think About Before Making a Website
We recommend that you take a step back and think about what you really want from your website. This will help you make the best decision possible. These questions can help you choose the greatest web design company;
- What does your business offer?
Websites come in many different forms. What kind of website do you really need? What business do you work in? Do you offer a service or a product for sale? Before you look for people to help you, it’s important to know who you are as a business and brand.
- What are the goals of your website?
Plan out what you want to achieve. When people visit your website, what do you want them to do? If you’re new and trying to get people to know your brand, you’ll need a very different plan than if you have an eCommerce website that gets a lot of traffic.
- For whom are you writing?
Who’s visiting your website? Do you have a particular type of business in mind? What draws in one group of people might turn off another, so it’s important to know who your audience is ahead of time.
- How much money do you have?
As with anything, you get what you pay for. Don’t start with the biggest web design firms if your budget is minimal.
- When do you have to be done?
Have a rough date in mind before looking for a web designer. Do you need the website to be up and running by a certain date or time? Can the project be broken up into parts if the deadline is short?
Selecting a Web Design Company with a Point of Difference
Determine Your Website’s Purpose and Objectives
Before searching for web design services, know what you want your website to do and what features it must have. Websites are commercial and marketing tools, not just attractive designs.
Your website may perform the following:
- Lead generation
- Sync with Salesforce, HubSpot, or another CRM
- Connect to Pardot, Marketo, or HubSpot
- Connect with Constant Contact, MailChimp, or Emma
- Gather payments or gifts, particularly recurring ones
- Allow users to submit forms on your website
Examples of website features to achieve the above:
- User-friendly navigation, SEO-optimised content, and conversion-optimised websites; Secure (and HIPPA-compliant) online forms; Ecommerce
- SSL and HTTPS
- You should use your website to accomplish your goals, whatever they may be. List your goals, needs, and nice-to-haves to enable web design businesses to customise your website.
Before contacting an agency, evaluate your budget and timeframe. Having a range will help you acquire reasonable web design prices. If you need a website in 2 weeks, you’ll need an agency with availability today, not in 3 weeks.
Look for and Evaluate National and Local Web Design Agency Partners
Local web design agencies have a better understanding of the local market and can provide services that are more customised to your business’s needs. National web design agencies offer more flexibility. You may be able to choose from a wider range of services, which could include eCommerce, mobile app development, and social media marketing.
There are also differences in cost between local and national web design agencies, depending on what you need and how long it takes to create it.
Review Agency Portfolios and Experience
Experience, agency culture, and portfolios are vital in choosing a web design partner. These three items can tell you how your project will be managed, if it will fulfil your goals and requirements, and if it’ll be a solid web design agency.
Experience
Experience means;
- When did they start? What’s their status?
- Have they built websites for your industry that achieve results, that you enjoy, or that have the functionality you need?
- The agency you choose should offer easy design and development methods, ongoing marketing services to help you grow your business, and a team of qualified specialists to make sure your website meets your goals and needs.
Portfolio
A web design agency’s portfolio shows its talents and abilities. Look for more than pretty websites. A beautiful but difficult-to-navigate website will never outperform a respectable one.
Website creation portfolios show creativity, industry experience, and more. When examining portfolios, look for:
- Mobile-friendly websites
- Websites that follow web design trends
- Consistent structure, navigation, images, etc.
If you enjoy an agency’s work, but they don’t work in your industry, ask what they can do for you. While you want someone with industry experience, you must appreciate their work.
Amount of Clients
Knowing an agency’s number of clients is helpful. Just because an agency has many clients, it does not mean that their quality of work is of a high standard. You need to look at their portfolio to find this out. Are they creating template websites that take less time to build? Or, do they have enough resources at their company to create more custom websites of high quality?
Review Customer Feedback and Online Testimonials
In addition to their portfolio, read testimonials and online reviews of the web design companies you are considering for your new website. The reviews are a good way to find out how happy customers are with their websites, how good the company’s customer service is, and if any specific team members are mentioned by name.
Google, Facebook, and Yelp are excellent resources for customer reviews. Check to determine if the website prominently features customer testimonials. If their website is the only place you can find reviews, you should do more research before setting up a meeting.
