One of the most difficult things for most business owners is releasing their new website. There are several essential things to consider if you want to know how to choose a web design company for a better response rate on their business website. Many enterprise owners are wise enough to realise that these things should be left to the experts and would prefer choosing a web design company as they bring peace of mind.
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This article will take you through 14 tips to choose a web design company for yourself. But first, let’s know what web design is.
What is Web Design?
Web Design is the design of a website displayed on the internet. It means the user experience side of website development and not software development. Web design was mostly about designing websites for browsers on PC, but website design for tablets and mobile phones has increased so much in the last decade.
What is a Web Designer?
A web designer mostly works on the look, layout and sometimes the website’s content. The look involves the colours, images, and font used. The layout consists of the structure of information and how it is categorised. A properly designed website is convenient to use, pleasant to the eyes and suits the users and brand of a website. Many websites are designed simply so that no extra features or information is present to confuse the user. As the keystone of the output of a website designer is a site that gets the trust of their required audience and eliminating most of the points which frustrate the user should be considered.
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Two of the most used ways for designing a website that is perfect for mobile and desktop are adaptive and responsive design. In Adaptive design, the website’s content is fixed in the size of the layout, which matches the common screen sizes. In responsive design, content moves depending on the size of the screen. Having different layouts for different devices is important to maintain the engagement and trust of your customer. As responsive design might face some issues this way, web designers should be careful and ensure how their work will appear.
Also, if a web designer is responsible for the information present on the website, they will surely have to widen their skills. Still, they will enjoy full authority over the final product.
Choosing A Web Design Company That’s The Right Fit
There is a huge list of web design companies you can choose from. Knowing which one is perfect for your business requirements can be a complicated task.
Choosing the right web design company is a hard task as if you select the correct one, it can lead to a huge jump start in the success of your business.
Your website will be the first impression for most of your customers. It will define your business, and most of the time, it can be the best lead generator for you. Your website will be one of the most important factors behind people choosing to work with you or your opponent.
This is why it is essential to pick a web design company to reach your required audience and impress them. The right web design company will help you achieve your business’s goals and grow it to the highest level.
It is hard and sometimes risky mainly because so many freelance designers and salespeople promise you overnight success and number one rankings on Google.
We will help you, but before that, we want to let you know that Every business has different requirements and goals. Every web design company should first decide if they are a good fit or not before choosing to work with a client. But, for extra precautions, this article will help you know if a web design company is perfect for your requirements.
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Let’s start with the tips now.
14 Tips For Choosing A Web Design Company
1- They Consider Your Ideas
You are experienced in your field. In such a way that you are aware of what you are going to sell, you know your ideas for presenting your business to them. No one other than you knows about your business better. If a design company doesn’t listen to your ideas, you should not consider working with them. The company you choose should be able to listen to your ideas, enhance them, and put them to work.
2- They Propose Their Ideas
Even though a web designing company needs to listen to your ideas, you should be working with someone who has their ideas. They need to challenge your ideas and bring a new point of view to your vision, strategy, and concept. Even though you know a lot about your business, your website should be designed by someone who knows more about this field than you do. If a design company listens to you and creates a replica of your proposed idea, then it is not worth your money. The web designing company you choose must have the ability to bring the experience of their work to match the knowledge you have.
3- Their Marketing Team is Experienced
In some cases, people don’t want to grow their business through their business. It is weird, but people want their website to sit out there. This point is not for you if you are among such people. For people who are not, if you’re going to grow your business through your website, make sure to look for a web designing company with an experienced marketing team.
A web designing company that doesn’t have a marketing team is just like a car without an engine. No matter how good it looks, it isn’t going to be helpful. The internet has been evolving, and it requires active marketing to make sure your website is generating traffic and revenue. You need a website that is not just pretty but functional as well. When a web designing company has a team of designers, marketers, and engineers, you can hire them confidently, knowing that the result will be more than just a good-looking website.
4- They Have The Knowledge Of Using A Content Management System
One of the quickest ways of knowing if the web designing company is still using old methods is if they avoid using a CMS. You need to have a CMS for your website. You will be at a disadvantage in the market if you don’t have a CMS. Any website designing company knows how to use a CMS such as WordPress, Magento, and Drupal. If your website designer is recommending an HTML website, you need to look for a time machine and make them return to the existing decade. If they recommend using Squarespace, Weebly, or Wix, thank them for their precious time and try looking for another company that is not using quick DIY software.
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5- They Are Using Responsive Web Design
Responsive website design is not just a trend, and it is going to stay here. It is the greatest way to design a website nowadays. Even though sometimes having a mobile website separately might be great for you, responsive website design is the best solution. As mobile usage has been growing, you have to make sure your business website is responsive and can be used on all devices easily. Suppose a website designing company doesn’t know about responsive design or is recommending a separate website for mobile. In that case, they are not aware of the current usage in the industry and are not the perfect fit for your needs. The correct design company will surely use it.
6- They Have A Portfolio or A Case Studies
What is the greatest way of knowing what you should expect from a website design company? Just check out their real-life projects, which they have worked on and review their final product. It would be best if you didn’t trust screenshots of the design work they have done. You should witness the live product that is accessible to you. If they share the strategy and goals they have, that is even better. Also, take some time to go through their work and judge yourself if they are a good fit or not. If you don’t find anything of your taste in their work, you should look for another company. Be aware that as you find more exclusive companies, it is okay for their list of clients to be protected or restrictive. You can ask them to show you real-life samples of their work.
7- The Design Team Knows How Crucial Conversions Are
A website designing company should know how to make your website functional and not just pretty. A great website designing company will have a team of experienced people who are aware of the importance of conversion of website traffic to leads. This means they are aware of design layout, usage patterns, colour psychology, information architecture, and call to action. It is not applicable in today’s world that a pretty website makes visitors buy. Your website designing company should be using proven methods of creating a website and scientific data to make it better and grow conversions.
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8- They Are Expert In Multiple Industries
You must be thinking it is great if your website designing company only works in one industry. Because, if they only make websites about cars, they must have detailed knowledge of cars then. This means you will have a cookie-cutter website that will look like fifty other car websites they have made in the last few weeks. A website designing company that is an expert in various industries will probably create the perfect website to reach a wider and more diverse audience. Your website has to be better than all your competitors so it can’t look like others.
9- They Have National & Local Experience
It doesn’t matter if you are a local brand or a national one; you should hire a website design company that is familiar with both strategies. If your website design company has only worked with a local business, there is a chance that your website will not be designed for a larger success level. Website designing strategies are different on a national level than on a local level. The more variety of audiences and techniques a website designer is aware of, the more likely your website will reach your business goals. You should hire a website designing company experienced with both big and small businesses and know how to bring it together.
10- They Are Aware Of The Latest Trends In Website Designing
The worst thing you would expect from a new website is a design similar to something popular around ten years ago. Website designers need to follow the latest trends. Customers will only trust a website if its design is modern, fresh and updated. Big website designing companies always add what has been trending to their websites. A website designer should know what parallax scrolling, responsive design, flat design, and many more elements and styles are. It doesn’t mean that they should add all of the latest trends. It should be balanced between functional and modern.
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11- They Acknowledge & Plan For The Future
The internet was not that famous around twenty years ago. A website was just something you would do with leftover yellow pages. Nowadays, we live in a revolutionised world that has been digitalized and more interconnected than ever. Your website design company should know how to build a website with a bigger picture of the future in its mind. If they don’t understand how off-site SEO and on-site SEO are different, how rankings and traffic are different, and how important link building is, they are not the ones for your business.
12- They Have A Documented Procedure For Success
The greatest website design company has a clear procedure of discovery that helps get successful. It may change when the industry changes, and it may be edited a little for a particular work or different circumstances, but they have a plan to succeed. This shows that the website designing company is experienced enough to make your business successful.
13- They Establish Goals, Improve, and Measure Progression
The greatest website designing company doesn’t stop when the website has been built and launched, and it is where things start taking off. Also, if your website designing company disassociates yourself from them, it is the biggest sign they are not the one for you. Great website designing companies always make sure to fulfil goals, get better in their work, and measure their progression. Nowadays, the moment your website is sitting static, you will lose your business, and your competitor will be in the lead.
14- You Can Trust Them With Great Results
Once your goals are achieved, website designing companies should not be told how to use a strategy. They would work to achieve the goals most quickly and easily to make sure you have a return on investment and go famous. If you feel like babysitting your website designing company, you can arrange a meeting with the company to know better about it. If this doesn’t work, they are not the right fit for you.
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What are the Perks of Hiring an Expert Web Design Company?
While designing a website, the workflow must be such that it brings extra people to the website. You will have to hire a professional web designing company to make sure your website is optimised and can generate some revenue. There are other advantages of hiring a professional web designing company that we will discuss below.
10 Perks of Hiring an Expert Web Design Company
1. A Better Understanding of the Field
It is important to have a strong online business to grow your business. Your Website will be the centre of attraction when enhancing your brand’s equity. But, it is essential to understand the field to form some strategies for your Website. It will help have an engaging website that can have more revenue.
Hiring a professional design company will help design a world-class website with all the required features and functions. A website design company will surely have good experience creating websites, and most of them will be experienced in your field. They can suggest the best workflow according to your goals, and they can help you have a website with next-generation features that will help scale your business.
2. Create Better Designs
You need to have a website with an elegant design to ensure your visitors stay on your Website. It will help get SEO brownie points too. An expert website designing company can use their experience and offer you some designs depending on your Website’s workflow. The designs provided will cover all the latest trends in website design.
3. Have an SEO-Friendly Website
Your Website should adhere to best practices of SEO to make sure the Website ranks higher during the keyword research. The designer will be aware of various things related to SEO while he designs your Website.
If you are using the Drupal CMS, the engineer can use a particular module that is helpful in the SEO of a website. It will make sure the homepage comes up while searching the keyword. It will also help increase your brand’s reach and improve the number of visitors to your Website.
4. You Can Save Time
It is important to get your Website designed quickly. It takes a lot of time to have a design finalised, depending on the workflows you will be having on your Website. If it takes a lot of time to develop a new website, you will lose conversions and visitors.
By hiring an expert designing company, you can make sure that your Website will be optimised and have all the features required to have a better website than your competitors. A professional designing company can create a perfectly designed website in a really short time. Moreover, it will help get your audience quicker and allocate the resources wherever required the most.
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5. Having a Web Design that is Reliable And Responsive
Most of your audience will try to use their Website on their phones. So, your Website needs to be responsive and make sure that the people who visit your Website have a great experience on all devices. A professional designing company can make sure that the Website is reliable and responsible and can be used by all your visitors on all devices.
It is also essential that your Website is perfect. Or else it can take up some time to correct it. An expert web designing company will test all the best practices to ensure the Website is error-free before it goes live. They can also offer website support and maintenance while it is life.
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6. Adapt the Latest Technologies
Your Website must be able to break the clutter by adapting the latest technologies. An expert website designing company will know what features are usually linked with a specific industry. Having the newest features can bring more visitors to your Website and increase the time to dwell on your Website. Both of these things help improve the SEO of the Website.
A website with the latest trends can better a visitor’s experience with your website. You can use these features to know the behavioural patterns of the people who visit your Website and make necessary changes according to the content or the workflow of your Website.
7. It will have Enough Trust Factors
Your Website must have enough trust factors to make sure your Website is reputable. Experts will be making sure to add these features at the right places on your Website. The Website should include trust factors in the correct position to make your visitor trust your Website.
The Website should load quickly and have the correct content. Not only is moving to an HTTPS platform important, but it should also contain Trust Seal on the checkout page. The Website must have needed policies in the correct areas on the Website. Customers will find it easier to connect with your business and provide contact information wherever required.
8. You can be Ahead of your competitors
You should come up with ways to increase the awareness of your brand if you want to grow your business. One of the greatest ways of breaking the clutter and having the workflow designed perfectly on your Website. The functionality of your Website must showcase thought leadership.
An expert website designing company will ensure that your Website doesn’t contain functions that lead to visitors leaving your Website. A properly designed website can increase the visitor count on your Website, including the visitors from your competitors’ sites.
9. Get A Perk of Continuous Support
Did you know that your Website will need the attention of an expert even after it is life? There can be different factors that need to be monitored. This is why all designers have a continuous support plan for all their clients. They can help with ongoing maintenance, customised support, and bug fixes.
You can get continuous support and make the changes depending on the needs of the industry. Moreover, you can get help from professionals to add any new functionality you wish to add to your Website. It is crucial to check the support abilities of a web designing company before choosing them.
10. You Get in Touch with an Expert Team
When you get the services of a professional website designing company, they can conveniently know the goals of your business and suggest needed workflows for your Website. Moreover, they can use their experience and show you a perfect design for your business.
They will also assign a team of expert project managers you will get in touch with. Working with experts will make sure that you get updated frequently on your Website’s progress. Moreover, they will be undertaking the best website design practices and will be undertaking discussions with your team before any crucial milestone.
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What to do before looking for a website design company?
1- List down all the requirements and goals of your Website.
Before looking for a web design company, you should know what you need your Website for and what important features it should contain to achieve all your goals. Your Website is a marketing tool for your business and not just an aesthetic designed showpiece.
A website is supposed to be an extension of a business, and it should help achieve the goals of your business, no matter what they are. Listing all the needs and goals of your business will help make sure your website design is customised according to your requirements.
You should also figure out your budget and timeline before hiring a web design company. Even if you don’t estimate how much web designers cost, having a budget of around $10K to $12K will help you get realistic quotes within your budget. The deadline should also be considered beforehand. If you want your Website to be live in less than two weeks, you will have to find a website design company available and get started asap rather than hiring someone who will take three weeks to begin your work.
2- Research and Review All the Web Design Agency Partners Nationwide and Locally
After listing all your requirements and goals, start looking for agency partners in web design. Look for agencies nationwide and locally, especially if you want someone experienced in a specific niche.
Apps like Google Meet and Zoom have made it convenient to communicate with people around the country or even outside the country. It doesn’t matter if the web design company you choose is near or far from you, but it is better to see their portfolio, services, and culture in real life.
3- Read Reviews & Testimonials Online
It would help if you always looked at testimonials and reviews of a web design agency you would want to work with. The reviews are a great way to know how happy their clients are with their work, the company’s customer service, and if they like a certain member of their team.
You can find these reviews on websites such as Yelp, Facebook, and Google. Also, check if they highlight testimonials on their Website. But, if you see them on their Website only, you better investigate a bit before believing they are true.
4- Check Experience and Past Work.
The three most essential things to consider in a web design company are their experience and portfolio. These three things can help you know how they will be handling your project, if it will meet your standards, and if they are a good fit for your work.
Experience
There are two main things you should consider in terms of experience.
- Since how long have they been working as an agency? Are they well-established or just a newbie in this field?
- Do they have prior experience developing websites for your specific niche, websites that have gotten good traffic, websites according to your taste, or websites containing your required features?
Your chosen company should have procedures to make the designing and development process more convenient and simple. They should also provide support after your Website is live and continuous marketing services to grow and enhance your business. A team of experienced website designers makes sure your Website is up to mark and meets your requirements and goals.
Past Work
The portfolio of a web designing company is also a great way to check their abilities and skills. Just ensure you are not just looking for a good-looking website but a functional one. A cute website that is not functional will never generate traffic as much as simple to use will do.
With the help of portfolios, you can get an insight into their experience, coding abilities, creativity, etc. Following are some things to look for when checking out a portfolio:
- Have they developed any mobile-friendly websites?
- Are they following the latest trends in website design in the market?
- Do all their websites have a similar structure, imagery, and navigation?
- Do they have any awards for their websites?
If you are a fan of their work but don’t have any experience in your field, ask them what they can do for your company. Even if you want to hire someone who has experience in your field, you need to love their work to hire them.
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10 Questions to Ask That Will Help You Choose Your Web Design Company
By following all the research guidelines mentioned above, you probably have a list of considered companies you will interview. Schedule a meeting with Hapy Design and ask them the ten following questions to better understand their services and experience.
1. Do you use a CMS to improve your websites?
2. Can you merge the new Website with third-party platforms like CRM, online payment tools, or event management?
3. Have you ever developed any websites for companies in my field?
4. Can I have a meeting with the team that will work on my Website?
5. Do you offer suggestions and advice on the best things to do to ensure we get as much profit as possible from our Website?
6. Will you be training me on how to use my Website?
7. Do you provide ongoing maintenance and updates on the Website’s security?
8. Do you provide SEO services?
9. Who will be the owner of the Website?
10. Will I be able to shift my Website to some other hosting company if I think of stopping working with your company?
Summary
Picking your web design company is not an impulsive decision. You can take as much time as you can to go through all the web design companies and choose one according to your requirements. Your Website will be the first impression for someone who might be your customer. It is surely worth the time and research to find a web design company to help you achieve your goals and needs.
We hope you got the answer to “how to choose a web design company..” Thanks for reading. If you’re looking for a software development agency, you can Contact Us.
FAQs
What is the work of a web design company?
A web designing company helps companies launch a website for them that is functional and attractive. The best web designing agencies can provide a quick and safe site that follows SEO and CRO so that your Website will be able to generate revenue from the web.
How much does it cost to have a website designed by the best web design company?
Charges of a professional designing company are different, especially when you look at the rates of the best web designing companies in the market. But, you should surely have a budget of $10,000 to $12,000 for a custom website design.
How long does it take to get a website designed by a top web design company?
A website designed by a top design company in the market can take around 4-5 months to complete. It relies on the size, complexity, and requirements of your Website. For accurate timing, you can talk about it with your potential client.