Web design is an integral part to providing a great user experience. It allows for an ease of use, and a satisfaction for both yourself and the clients that use your website. Having good web design is also about branding and looking your best. Making a great first impression is number 1 on anyone’s list, and having a great digital business card is always going to leave a memorable impression on any person, especially the ones you are trying to wow with your excellent products page, your helpful call-to-action buttons, and your charming logo. So given that there are mountains of companies out there that provide web design, we thought it best to give 8 helpful tips to help you decide. Choosing a reliable web design company is going to be as important as having a website at all for your business. It’s important to get this part right, and we’re here to help. So here are 8 tips to help you select the right web design company that is reliable and a great fit for your business.
1. They listen
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood” are the words that are written on Stephen Covey’s groundbreaking self-help book ‘7 habits of highly effective people’. If you are in a meeting with a company and you bring up ideas, and they listen, respond with questions and ask for as much information from you, then that is a start of a great relationship. It is important that the business does listen to your ideas and is excited by them too. Everyone can rest easier and all parties are winning if the expert in your business has an idea to be considered about how they want their website to look.
2. They have some ideas of their own
Now, it is definitely important to have a company listen to you, but there’s always a balance to be struck with the working relationship. After all, you are hiring a company who are supposed to be experts in their field to help you design a website as close to what you want, with a level of expertise that you don’t have. So, what’s important here is to identify that the people you work with know design, the way you know your business. Always be open to their feedback, and aware that they will know things that you don’t. So, be open to having your website created how you would like it to be, but also be respectfully interested in the advice they may have for you too.
3. They use tools like a pro.
A really quick way to identify whether this web design company knows what they’re doing is to make sure they know how to use a content management system (CMS). If they are proposing creating a your website on Wix or Squarespace, then we recommend you find someone else. WordPress is the most popular CMS out there, and going with a company that knows their way around it, is always a good sign of a company that knows what they’re doing.
4. They have a portfolio
Case studies and portfolios are a great indication that this web design company has been around, and knows what they’re doing. You’ll be able to view excellent versions of their work online. You will have visibility of these websites and should see reviews and testimonials on Google. It is important to not only verify that a company does good work, but to hear from past clients that they are satisfied with the service they received is always going to help you make an informed decision.
5. The company knows what your website is for
Here we want to stress an important benefit of websites in general. They drive conversions. Conversions are calls, emails, booking forms, any area of a site where people can take action to engage with your business. A website is designed in general to optimise for conversions and also look damn good doing it. So making sure that your company in question can tell you about some of the Conversion rate optimisation tactics you googled will be very important. Knowing about proper design layout is always a plus, and getting that design layout married with call-to-action buttons and sticky menus is going to show you that that company could be the right fit.
6. They don’t sell themselves short
Now, budget is going to be an important aspect of who you go with. You need to be prepared to spend a little bit because websites are incredibly important for your business. Expecting to get a high quality website for cents on the dollar is not how to get good web design. We suggest that you keep in mind the return on investment a website can provide for you. It may feel expensive at the start, but if done correctly, your website will drive traffic and conversions that will help you make that money back. A website that you get quite cheaply may be missing some vital aspects of CRO, on-site SEO, or may have poorly executed web design. Some website development companies do have subscription options that can be a cost-saver in the long run. You pay less at the start, but have ongoing support with that company, not to mention a great working relationship that are there to support any other implementation changes to your website in future. For instance, you may have a static website that you want to change to an e-commerce website. You don’t have to hire a new company, the same one that built your first can implement those changes for an additional cost, leaving you as a happy customer.
7. Find the right cultural fit
You should always be sure to try and establish a strong rapport with the web design company. Making sure that you feel like you all can get along, and that they understand your business is going to be just as important as their skill set.
8. Know who is doing the work
A web design company will have. Workers both local and international. Making sure your web design company has specialists in the fields you need is going to be very important to you and your business. Knowing that they not only have the information to show they know what they’’re talking about, but a team that can handle any request, is going to be a big win for you and a big win for working relationships for your business.
