Top 10 Steps to consider when hiring a Web Design Company for Your Business

It is vital for every business in this technological era to have an online presence in the form of a well-developed website. While social media and free blogs may work at first, a well-designed website places any business in its own league when it comes to professionalism, user-friendliness, uniqueness, trustworthiness and online credibility. While most businesses especially startups may be tempted to venture into free DIY websites, the importance of hiring the best web designer should never be underestimated. Though most people find it challenging to access high quality web development services, here are 10 steps to hiring the best web designer or web designing company for your business website.

1. Know Your Objectives
The first step in hiring a web designing company is to know what objectives your business seeks to achieve by having this website. Since different web development projects usually have different circumstances, goals and opportunities, it is best for the business owner to fully understand their personal goals and expectations for the website. Think about whether to incorporate full ecommerce integration or not. Are you going to want full control for content editing, or will it be static? Are you looking to design a simple brand website or one which incorporates complex features? These are but a few questions a business owner needs to ask themselves so as to narrow down to specific Web Design and web development companies that have the potential to effectively fulfill these needs.

2. Look for Recommendations
There are millions of web design companies around the world and choosing just one from this long list is such an uphill task. Asking friends and other companies who have hired a web designer or developer in the past to recommend the best web development services will help solve this problem. As a matter of fact, you can even ask them to tell you how competent the companies are at their job, and their experience working with them. This saves you from going into business with arrogant web developers or designers who are not ready to put your desires and ideas into consideration.

3. Check Their Online Presence
Web design is all about being able to access a company's site via the internet, and the best web designers and developers should lead by example. In addition to their social media presence, search for their company website as it could help you judge their level of credibility, competence, experience and creativity. A shoddy website with lots of broken links and grammatical errors is a no go for anyone seeking the services of a good Web Development. On the other hand, active social media presence could be an indication of how fast and reliable they are at solving their clients' needs.

4. Check the Web Design Portfolio
A serious web designer must have a portfolio that showcases their previous web design projects. Check them out by following the links to personally judge if their web design projects are clean, professional-looking and easy to use. You also need to check if their style perfectly suits what you envision for your business' website. You must also look out for these websites’ responsiveness and loading speeds as this is mostly determined by how clean and well-written their code is.

5. How experienced is the Web Designer?
It helps a great deal to know how long a web designer or web designing company has been in business. You should also know how many company websites they have designed and developed in the past. For an even better experience working with them, you need to understand the kinds of websites they design whether blogs, information or ecommerce websites among others. You may also want to consider knowing what platforms they use including Joomla, WordPress, Drupal and Magento among others in

comparison to your business' preferences, as well as their area of expertise when it comes to web design/development coding languages including HTML, CSS and JavaScript among others.

6. Look Through Past Client Testimonials
The best web designers and web design companies usually have a display of client testimonials on their websites. Read these reviews and ratings from their past clients to have a better knowledge of their exact experience working with this web designer on their projects. You may also have a look at the web designer's Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram pages among other social media platforms for more reviews and ratings so as to understand just how competent this individual or company is at its job.

7. Consider the budget
No matter how great a web designer is the major decision maker on whether to hire them or not is usually their budget against yours. Are they too expensive or too cheap for what you have in mind? Ask whether their charges are hourly or project based, and let them break the budget down so you can have a clearer understanding of what your business is getting into. It is always good to compare their budget with other web designers of similar caliber so you don't get overcharged. No matter how much you adore their expertise, if they are unaffordable, then it's of no use considering their web development services.

8. Read the Web Designer's terms of service
While most people usually assume this part, it could actually be the one thing preventing you from getting into a painful deal. Reading the web design company's terms of service lets you know their work process and their asset ownership rights, copyright laws and other specific conditions. Ensure that the web designer is clear about signing for your total asset ownership rights to your website to avoid major problems down the road. For any other specific ownership and usage rights, feel free to discuss it with them.

9. Set-up an Interview
whether one-on-one, on Skype or via phone, having a personal interview with the web designer you want to hire will help you connect better with them. As a matter of fact, you’ll also get to understand their personality which does translate to their reliability. You will also be able to determine how accessible and easy they are to work with. It helps a great deal to have a list of important questions prepared prior to the interview.

10. What are your Business' Future Plans?
Are you planning on expanding your business in future, and do you want its website to take this into account? If you may need to add other elements to your website, will you have total access and rights to edit your website? These are some of the discussions you need to have with a web designer before having them work on your business website. By looking into your future plans, you will know if hiring this web designer is a one-time venture or a lifetime contract that will allow them to frequently work on your site even into the future. Discuss issues about site maintenance, hosting and other subscriptions especially if you want to work with them on long-term basis.

The Best Website Development Company is one who puts its client's needs first. While it might be tempting to hire the most famous web designer, you should also be sure that they can fit your project into their tight schedules and multiple projects from their other clients. The web designer should be able to meet self-imposed deadlines and deliver within your project timeline, and not just consider your project as an afterthought. These are just some of the important tips you need when searching for web design and web development services for your business website.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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