Investing in a new business website is a big decision and can be a very costly proposition. So, before deciding which web design company you are going to hire, make sure to know what exactly you will get and how it will help you in expanding your business.
To enable you to choose the right firm, we have made a list of questions that you can ask your potential design firm today. Try them for better results.
1. How big is your team and how much experience do you have?
A good company is that which has a full team with them; development team, design team, testing team and as well as the marketing team. A large number of design companies do not offer the development and marketing services which are vital needs in the handling of your project.
You should also ask how much experience the organizations have in the designing. Experience is the key here. A company, been long in the business and which has done same tasks like yours will effortlessly have the capacity to deal with your project and will give you the wanted results.
2. Which is the field you specialize in?
Nowadays, website design companies are a complete package. They can do all development and design work along with testing and even have their own digital marketing teams as well. You have to see whether the companies you are investigating have every one of these services or not and how great they are with their work.
Web design and development is a vast field and there are a lot of domains in this field, for example, e-commerce website development, community building website development, mobile device websites and so on. Try to find out a company who has experience of working in the same domain as yours. For example, if you want an e-commerce website, try finding out a company that has experience in delivering such project earlier.
Ask for their specializations and check out the work done by them. If possible, ask for the links to websites developed by them and select accordingly.
The developers at Seasia Infotech have developed hundreds of websites in past 17 years. The list starts with real estate verticals to healthcare and from government verticals to e-commerce. Detailed estimated breakdown of projects based on different verticals are given below:
- No. of websites developed related to Healthcare Industries – 70-80
- No. of websites developed related to eCommerce Industries – 100-150
- No. of websites developed related to Real Estate Industries – 70-80
- No. of websites developed related to Geo-location and navigation – 80-90
The developers here have made their hands dirty and feet wet with everything in web development and designing. So, if you are looking for a reliable organization to work with, look no other company than Seasia Infotech.
3. Can I know the process that you will follow while handling my project?
Inquire the working procedure of your website design company. Every design firm has their own internal website design process which may fluctuate from each other. Generally, there are five phases of website design process and these are:
- Research and Planning
- Designing
- Developing
- Testing
- Launching
Get to know who will be the project manager or the individual staff who will be engaged in your project. Ask him/her if you could get the continuous updates and report of your project from time to time with the goal that you can know the progress of your project and as well, give your essential feedback to them.
4. Will my project be dealt with completely in-house?
It is found that a lot of website design companies outsource their project from other companies. Generally, the development part of the site is left to be done by the third party organization. You may just care about the project completion and be okay with your project being out-sourced.
It may not look like an important issue but rather, it is most likely an issue to consider. If the potential agency is outsourcing their tasks then, do discover to whom they are outsourcing it and ensure that your project is finished on given due date inside your financial plan and meets every one of your necessities.
5. How would you base your pricing? Will this be hourly, or flat-fee depending on the task? What is your payment policy?
It is a normal practice in this industry to do a little analysis in advance, underbid a task and after that raise, the cost on customers as the website is being built. A lot of web design company companies do this. But, the best company is that who tells you clearly about their payment options and overall cost that is required for the completion of your project, before starting the tasks.
Nowadays, software companies utilize two approaches for pricing and these are: fixed and hourly. If a client hires a company on fixed price, the company will charge a predefined cost for the venture. In this case, a client cannot make changes to his requirements while the project is in development.
While on hourly basis, a client can make changes to the requirements and the company will charge them depending on the time and potential they have given while accomplishing the client’s goals. So, make sure to clarify which pricing method you are going to use before hiring any software development company.
While the hourly billing provides you more flexibility and clear communication with your developer, a fixed price billing mode helps you in managing your budget effectively. Both the payment modes have their own advantages and disadvantages. So, you should select depending upon your requirements and budget.
6. Do you have an SEO expert in your team?
If a website is a vehicle then SEO is the fuel for it. Without fuel, a vehicle can't run and is of no use. Additionally, just building website won't bring your business what you need. Without doing SEO and positioning high in web crawler, you will never have the capacity to find the business or your potential customers.
Find out if the team you are hiring has knowledge of SEO friendly web design or not. A few companies (like we at Seasia Infotech) also provide content writing services which are an added advantage for you. They provide you content as per your requirement & design layout and you don’t need to hire other companies for making adjustments to content as per the site design.
While developing a website, it is necessary to keep in mind the aspects of SEO to rank higher in search engines which will result in higher traffic to your website.
7. Will my website be mobile friendly?
A responsive website is a site which can be seen on all gadgets like desktop, mobile, tablets, and so on. Google has affirmed that more searches are found on mobile as compared to desktop. After Google Mobile-Friendly Algorithm, Google has been giving priority to those websites which are mobile friendly. Find whether the team you are going to hire is very much aware of this update and request them to make your site mobile friendly.
8. Will I have the capacity to make improvements to my site in future?
Once your website is built, you may need to update it in future. To do that, you must be familiar with your website and should be agreeable to make update yourself. Some of the design teams prepare you or your staffs and enable you to make future updates through CMS but, the remaining does not enable you to do as such. They just enable the changes to be made by themselves with an extra charge. So, you have to discover the approach of your potential web design organization on this.
9. Will you completely custom design my site or utilize the customized theme?
Above all, you have to know the difference between the custom and the customized theme. In a custom-built site, each pixel and format is constructed by the firm itself and you get the website absolutely hand-coded by the qualified engineers of the firm. It will be unique and you will be the only person supporting it on the web.
Though, the customized theme can be utilized by anybody. It is affordable as you have both the free and premium options of the theme. Numerous website design firms utilize customized themes to develop a site which is less demanding, quicker and affordable way. Ask your design firm how they will build your site and tell them your interests as well.
10. Can you provide your client references?
Experiencing the customer references is an ideal approach to know how proficient your potential web development and design organization is. Approach your web design organization for references or you can also check them on the web. If the organization is well reputed and been in the business for long-time, you will surely get the customer reviews somewhere. See how happy their old or existing customers are with their results and services.
With the above mentioned 10 questions, you are definitely going to find the best web design company and will maintain a strategic distance from the major pitfalls which is the main reason of the failure of many projects. Try not to be very quick in finding the website design organization, take as much time as is needed. Pour all inquiries that you have to the potential website design firm and after you get every one of your questions cleared and if you believe you can trust the firm at that point, hire them.
