subject: What To Consider When Choosing A Website Design Company [print this page] Choosing a website design company is a crucial decision that every forward thinking business needs to make at some point. Whether it be a re-design of their existing site, or the creation of a completely new one, the importance of this decision can not be understated. The reason why? Well, put simply, a good website will bring in more business, and a bad one will drive away prospective customers.
So, how can a business be sure that they are making the right decision when choosing a website design company?
Firstly, it is important to establish what exactly is required from the website. If they are unsure about this, or even if they just want to confirm that what they think is right, then they should set about researching their target audience. To do this a business should contact some of their existing customers and ask them a straight question - what information and features do you expect to see on our website?
Having established what is required, creating a shortlist of website design companies is the next step. Such a list can be made by simply searching on Google for terms such as "website design companies" or "website designer". Lots of results will be brought up, so a little time will need to be spent looking through the websites of these companies and seeing what they have to offer.
A shortlist of around 10 website design companies should be made, and these companies should then be contacted so as to find answers to the following questions...
- Do they have an extensive and impressive portfolio?
- Are they flexible as to the types of websites that they can design?
- Are they willing to let any of their past clients be contacted?
- How structured is their planning process?
- Are they available to start work in the near future?
- How much of the work do they do themselves and how much of it do they outsource to others?
- Do they offer assistance in getting websites listed in the major search engines?
- Do they offer the setting up of a blog as part of their design packages?
- Who owns the intellectual property rights for the finished website?
- Will they maintain the website after the initial design?
- Do they charge an hourly rate or a fixed fee?
- At what milestones do payments need to be made?
- Will they guarantee and stick to the deadlines in place?
The answers to these questions should be used to narrow down the shortlist to 3 or so companies, who should then be asked to give a final quote. If they are told beforehand that quotes are also been sought from their competitors, then their own quote will normally be more competitive. As for a general ball park figure, a well designed 10 page website, will cost an average of $2000. Businesses should be cautious about proceeding with a company that offers to design a website for much less than that figure because the quality of the final website may be questionable.
