Choosing the right website designer is crucial to the success of any web development project. One must check out their skill level, design expertise, project management skills and get a sense of what it would be like to work with them during the website build and for years after as you return to them to add new features to your website as required.
In today's business environment a website is very close to the centre of your marketing and customer service efforts. There are more than one billion websites live on the web and hence an ordinary website won’t offer you the connection with your audience that you are looking for.
A good website must to be aesthetically pleasing, functionally engaging and eventually rank well on the Search Engine Results Pages to help you stay ahead of your rivals in getting new sales leads from Google searches. Not surprisingly you need to be extremely choosy when hiring the services of a web designer and you need to carry out an in-depth analysis of their track record and expertise.
Here we shall take a look at few points you should consider and they will will help you choose the right designer for your project.
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Know What You Need – Your search for a good web designer starts with knowing your own needs. Are you looking to get an online store developed or do you simply plan to create a corporate site highlighting your business services. Equally you could be planning a unique project with website access and processing of live data on a number of 3rd party databases or any number of other custom software developments. Once you know what you are looking for your job of searching for the right web agency will become easier as it will rule out a host of web design companies that don't have any expertise in the project area you are interested in.
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Ask for References – It is one of the best ways to find the right web development agency for your needs. Your colleagues and business partners could also recommend web design companies that they have worked with in the past and have been impressed with. Their experience in choosing a web agency offers you first-hand insights into those companies skills and expertise and that will help you make a better decision.
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Website Build Systems Knowledge – There are dozens of website Tools, Frameworks and Content Management Systems that are used in the website development industry. While some work great for Corporate Websites others are good for Online Stores and smaller Portfolio Websites. Depending on your needs you should consider the suitability of the various website design agencies based on their systems knowledge and experience. This will help you choose the right web designer team for your project based on the content management system, code framework, database preference etc that you have. If you have no preferences or knowledge in their area then get the web agency to explain to you the advantages and disadvantages of the various different website build systems.
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Core Competences – Don’t equate web development solely with the process of designing a homepage theme. There are many other things that make a successful website including Copywriting, Search Engine Optimisation and Digital Marketing. Does the company have competence in all these services? Do you need a web agency with knowledge in all these areas? You need a comprehensive web presence so you need to work with a web company that offers you end-to-end web development solutions if that's what your project needs. Its best to discuss this with each of the web design firms you're speaking with – ask them to explain what they can do for you outside of the website build itself.
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Unique Web Designs – There are a lot of web design companies that merely customise free or premium web templates while other agencies design a website design from scratch. You need to make sure that the website designer you hire can design a website from scratch if that's what your business needs as this ensures a unique brand and look on the web that will attract the attention of your website visitors and prospective new clients.
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Check Their Design Portfolio – One of the best ways to know a web companies strengths is to take a look at their design portfolio. Here you will get a glimpse of what they are capable of and if they can deliver the kind of results you are looking for. Visit these portfolio websites to get a look and feel of the actual live websites and if you are impressed you can take the selection process forward with the web agencies that had the most impressive portfolios.
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Interview The Designer – You should always interview the website design company before hiring them. The success of your project is dependent on the skills and the expertise of the design team and not on the name and fame of the agency. Speaking on the phone is fine but a face to face meeting with give you a lot more information. Share with them a problem or an idea and ask for their suggestions and solutions. A good designer would always impress you with his/her reply. Ask them a number of questions and pose a number of problems to them and you'll start to get a sense of which companies you'd like to do business with.
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Mobile Compatibility – For a lot of businesses the bulk of their website traffic will come from mobile devices and hence you are well advised to get a mobile responsive website developed. If you have an existing website, now is a good time to inspect you website statistics and see what percentage of your website visitors are on a smart phone. When you are interviewing the website design company you need to make sure they have the expertise to develop websites that would offer users a really engaging user experience irrespective of the particular internet device they are using. For a lot of websites the content displayed on the mobile device is different to that displayed on a PC so you need a website team that can talk to you about mapping out your website content and work with your business as you plan your PC and smart phone website experience.
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Avoid Falling Into The Price Trap – As a rule of thumb never let price become the most important factor behind your choice of a web design agency. A cheap website which is built quickly and poorly is not what you want. ‘Quality never comes cheap’ and hence choosing the agency offering the cheapest quotation is often a recipe for disaster. Price is obviously a very important consideration but there are other important factors too. Ideally price should be your last consideration after the agency addresses all your other requirements.
Remember, all of the above points will have a huge bearing on the outcome of your web project and hence you cannot afford to make any compromises. The ideal situation is to have a good balanced package in front of you where each of the above requirements has been addressed to your satisfaction.
Compromise will also be part of an agreement but you need to work on the deal to make it a good deal. Do your homework too so that each web company knows that you have other options and quotations to consider.
