Whether creating your first website or redesigning an existing one to look and feel more current, a good web design firm will provide you with the perfect online presence to complement your brand. But it begs the question, how can you choose a good web design agency in the first place?
However, you must adjust your website as your company develops and expands. When attempting to incorporate new modifications into a template, you will need help.
Only professional web design firms can assist you in reinventing the wheel without breaking the design. Today, there are several web design firms on the net. Choosing a web design agency involves conducting extensive research and screening organizations based on several criteria. However, you may make things easier by following these tips.
10 tips for choosing the web design agency:
Make a list of your website’s goals and needs
Before you start looking for web design firms, you need to know what you want your website to do and what features it MUST have to help you reach your goals. After all, your website is a marketing and business tool, not just a gorgeous design.
Examples of things your website could do:
- Create leads for your company.
- Sync with your CRM, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, or any other major CRM software;
- Integrate with your marketing automation technology, such as Marketo, HubSpot, or Pardot;
- Connect with your email marketing platforms, such as Emma, Constant Contact, or MailChimp;
- Collect donations or payments, including subscription-based (recurring) donations/payments
Allow users to fill out forms directly on your website and send them to your team.
Examples of features your site may require to assist you in achieving the above:
- E-commerce functionality;
- Safe online forms (and HIPPA compliance if you’re in the healthcare sector);
- An SSL certificate with the HTTP protocol;
Your website is an extension of your business and should assist you in reaching your goals, whatever they may be. Having a list of your goals, wants, and nice-to-haves can help you and the web design businesses you interview to ensure your site is customized for you.
Experience
When it comes to experience, you’re seeking two things:
- How long have they been an agency? Are they well-established or new?
- Do they have experience designing websites for your sector that generate results, websites you enjoy, and websites with the features you want for yours?
Your agency partner should have systems to simplify the design and development process, support your website after it goes live, continue marketing services to help expand your business, and have a team of qualified specialists to assist your website fulfills your objectives and needs.
Availability – Ask about who will be handling your account.
Everyone has heard of the ‘unavailable’ web design firm, so get a phone number, not just an email address (especially if it’s a premium rate number). Inquire with the design firm about the turnaround time for email responses. Remember that if you have an urgent modification, you must be able to get it to the design agency as soon as possible.
Agency Culture
The culture of an agency will reveal a lot about its working style and personality. Ideally, you should pick an agency that has the same personality as your organization so that you can easily cooperate and work together throughout the web design process.
You may investigate agency culture by:
Looking them up on social media – Do you see a lot of happy smiles on their Instagram feeds?
Examining team pages: Do they highlight their team’s ability and expertise?
Community participation – Do they participate in their community?
Do they outsource their work?
Check to see if your project will be created in-house or outsourced. Request a meeting with the design or technical team. If work is going to be outsourced, find out where you can contact the team. Many businesses have an account management team and an outsourced development team. The issue with this scenario is the poor quality of the job done. Does the account management staff review the back-end code? Is it compliant with current rules and regulatory requirements?
Portfolio
The portfolio of a web design agency is the next best way to asses capabilities and skills. Just be sure you’re looking for more than just good-looking websites. A good website that is difficult to use can never surpass a good simple website.
Portfolios will provide insight into creativity, industry experience, complicated coding abilities, and more. When examining portfolios, keep the following points in mind:
- Do they create mobile-friendly websites?
- Do they keep up with the current web design trends?
- Are all the websites the same in structure, navigation, artwork, and so on?
- Have any of their websites received any awards?
Read Testimonials & Online Reviews
In addition to their portfolio, read testimonials and internet evaluations about the web design firms you’re considering for your new website. The reviews are an excellent method to assess clients’ satisfaction with their websites, the level of customer support they experienced while working together, and if they mention certain team members by name.
Look for reviews on Yelp, Facebook, and Google. Also, check to see whether they promote testimonials on their website. However, if the only place you find reviews is on their website, do a bit more research before arranging a meeting with them.
Check out the agency’s terms and conditions.
This is crucial for avoiding complications later on. Pose questions like:
- Are there any hidden expenses, such as setup or holding fees?
- Can you accept staged payments for your web project?
- Are upgrades and maintenance included in the website design fees?
- Are bug fixes paid for?
- Will you be given a copy of the source files?
- Who owns the source code?
- Are the files backed up?
Find out how big the team is.
You want your web design firm to be large enough to guarantee that your company is not overlooked if your account manager is ill or on vacation. Do you favor a larger, more resourced agency or a smaller, more flexible agency? The basic idea is to pick a web firm that matches the scale of the jobs and projects you want. If you have 5000 employees but have a few marketing and development needs, you may only need a 5-10 person agency. A larger agency may be ideal if you have 100 workers yet rely significantly on outsourced assignments.
Age of Agency
Age isn’t always an issue, but it may be in this field. The web has seen numerous changes quickly; if a website design and development company in california agency has been in business for five years or more, it has been successfully managed. Many companies have boomed and busted on the internet; those that survive are well-run.
Conclusion
Choosing a web design agency is a complex task. Take your time (or as much as your schedule allows) to research web design providers for your company and project. Your website is the first impression a potential consumer will have of your brand and business; it’s worth the study to locate a web partner to help you reach your online goals.
