Choosing a good design and development firm is like finding a good builder. Plenty are out there, but how do you find the good ones? Before contacting, decide on the limits of your budget and know what you want. Don`t forget that your website is an investment, with servers as your introduction, selling tools, and image recognition.
Ask yourself:
- Do you want a corporate brochure, an information site, a magazine site, or an online store?
- Do you want database access to store product details that can be searched and displayed online?
- Do you want an animated website with moving graphics and user interaction?
- Do you have all the information that a designer would need?
Although your first impact on the firm will usually be their own website, make sure you look deeper into their portfolio. Every designer can produce one great website - but can they produce twenty great websites in succession?
- Is their portfolio of work sympathetic to my business?
- Do I like their style of design?
- Do all their websites look the same?
- Who Is?
No, that`s not an incomplete statement. It`s the name of a directory that you should familiarize yourself with. Using the WHOIS database, you can search for information about an existing domain name, such as the owner, its registered number, and other helpful information. The WHOIS database will provide you with the contact information of the person or organization that registered the domain name you are inquiring about. You can check it here.
If you have any doubts about the size of the firm, mainly speaking, the size of the firm provides you with no indication of the quality of work they can produce or the services they can provide.
There are a lot of freelance web designers who can produce far superior work to large companies, but there are also freelance web designers who charge much more than large companies. Don’t let your preconceptions about the size of companies get in the way of the facts.
How much will they charge me for website design?
Website design firms can have very different ways of charging. Some may charge high set-up costs and low recurring fees. Some will pull in customers with a low set-up cost and then charge high recurring fees, and then it is not easy to pull back.
Bear in mind that most professional web design companies work on a bespoke basis - and will therefore not be able to publish specific prices. They will, however, be able to provide you with an approximate figure based on a technical and/or design brief. They should also be able to provide you with an indication of their hourly/daily rate.
When you contact a designer or developer, the important questions to ask are:
- Is the firm full-time? Some ‘hobbyist’ designers build webs as a second or weekend job.
- Can you contact them during working hours? Again, this will show if the web design company is full-time or part-time.
- Do they have their own web domain? Any self-respecting designer will have their own web domain. If not, you should ask why not.
- Do they charge for an initial consultation? Some companies will try to charge a fee to discuss your requirements; others will try to do business over the phone; others will offer a free initial consultation and build further consultations into the contract's price.
- What is the firm's main revenue? Some companies offer websites in addition to their main business. Some graphic designers and printers have branched out into the web design business. Nothing is wrong with this, but they should ensure they understand the technical issues.
- Can they build what you want? Do they have the right resources and technology? Do they offer web hosting and diagnostics for your requirements? How do they plan to assist you in promoting your website?
- What kind of support do they offer when things go wrong or need changing? Do they charge for support?
- What are the addresses of their reference sites? You must see some published work. Starting with the design company’s own website and some of their clients.
- Do they have clients willing to talk to you? Is their service of a standard that their clients will recommend them? If they are good and competent designers, they should have clients prepared to discuss their experiences.
- Can you visit them at their offices? You must build a relationship if you entrust an important part of your firm strategy to a stranger. You can get a good website if the designer understands your business, products, or services.
