So you need a new website for your business? Before you make the leap and buy a new
website there are a few things that you will want to consider. In this article I will discuss them with you.
When it comes to choosing the right web design company for your
website you should always shop around to check out all the available
options. There are tonnes of web design
companies out there, a lot of them selling the same service and most of them
are pretty good at what they do. One that i have worked with in the past and i recommend to everyone is web design south wales, if your looking for a good company check them out, but keep on reading.
However there are some companies out there that will buy a
theme, change the theme logo to yours, switch up the colors and charge you the
same price as some others would for a bespoke website.
One of the most important tips is to check that agencies
past work. You can then see the quality
of work that you could expect from them.
You will also be able to see that persons/agencies unique style. Sometimes you will be able to spot an agency
that uses templates because of all of their sites will look the same.
Now if you want a custom site but only have a budget of a
few hundred then chances are your going to have to go with an agency that uses
website templates. A custom built site
can run into the high thousands, and there is a good reason for that.
Custom website design and development can be expensive,
simply because it takes time, a high skill set and the reward can mean
thousands in extra business for your business.
Custom website design will also make your business stand out from the
crowd as the agency will take into consideration your business goals and
develop a website around those goals.
For example a website built for the purpose of collecting
email signups is going to be designed in a different way than a website that is
designed to sell products online.
Another thing to take into consideration when hiring a web
design agency is their communication.
Quite often larger agencies will have you dealing with 3-4 people at a
time. This works when you are a larger
business, but for small business owners it quite often feels like your having
the same conversations over and over again.
Time is the most important resource, you shouldn’t have to waste your
time repeating the same thing over and over.
Smaller website agencies have a smaller amount of staff and
because of this quite often you will only deal with a dedicated account
manager. That way all of your
communication will be with one person.
Website hosting is something you will also want to take into
consideration. Small business owners
shouldn’t have to worry about the technical aspects of their websites, they are
already busy enough with their own business.
For this reason I highly recommend buying a website from an agency that
will sort all of the technical side of the project out for you. Here at [web design wales] we offer hosting
to all of our customers. This is so our
customers don’t have to deal with technical issues that they don’t understand
or don’t need to understand.
Lastly you will need to consider that different web agencies
specialise in different niches, for example one agency may work with a lot of
medical clients, some may work with estate agents while other agencies will be
experts on booking forms. Then you will
get some agencies that work with a wide variety of clients. We personally tend to deal with more
professional niches such as doctors, lawyers, accountants but we have also
worked on personal blogs and garden equipment stores.
To make sure the web agency can carry out the work your
looking for I would recommend having a good chat with them about your project
requirements. For example we specialise
in [website design for small business] and we always discuss with our clients
what they are looking to achieve with their new site.
With this communication we are able to see what the client
really wants from their new website, and what goals we can set so we can work
on achieving them with our website design.
So to summarise this article, on choosing a web design
company for your small or medium sized business I would recommend:
·
Shopping around
·
Use a agency that doesn’t use templates
·
Use an agency that offers hosting
·
Define your requirements in what you want for
your new site
By following the tips in this article you should now have a
better idea on what to look out for when choosing a website designer for you
your business.
