Anything connected to creativity can not have a fixed price. We all know that. But due to the lack of technical knowledge and the ways to market online, users are often charged with a high price. Even, there are instances when users end up with nothing remotely similar a piece they have asked for. So, if you have decided to take your business online, and are dealing with a web designer for the first time, you should look for the answers to these ten questions discussed below.
Freelance web designers promoting themselves on social media channels is common. Some companies only exist virtually and don’t have a physical location but present themselves as registered businesses. Hiring such a company can be beneficial for a start-up as they are affordable compared to alternatives.
The problem with virtual-only, non-registered companies is their level of support. If there’s an issue and you need assistance, you won’t have a physical office you can visit. You’ll be reliant on them getting back to you. It may even leave a project unfinished. To ensure accountability, always try to only work with registered companies.
Before making the payment, find out what’s included in the package. An important element would be if the package comes with domain and hosting. Most companies are reluctant to share the cpanel details when you decide to stop receiving their services. They have other domains parked in their cpanel, so it’s always better to buy the domain and hosting yourself. Without the cpanel of your hosting, you won’t be able to make any changes to your website.
Ask the service provider to book the domain and hosting with your name so that you can switch domain and hosting providers easily in the future.
Go through the websites of marketing companies you’re considering and see whether they are focused on only web design or digital marketing solutions. The benefit of hiring a one-stop digital marketing service provider is that they know the online marketing trends, industry best practices and customer behavior.
There is no such thing as a one-time SEO set-up. SEO is a part of online marketing which means for it to have results, it needs to be continuous. Developers can set-up SEO favorable conditions initially but it needs to be continuously changed based on user behavior and current SEO trends data for it to be successful in the long-run.
It’s very important to know what type of projects the company you are considering has completed. Such information will inform you of their quality of work. Ask whether they have previously worked on projects related to your industry. If so, try and contact the clients and ask about their experiences working with the agency.
Before assigning the project to a web designing firm, ask about the platform that they are going to use. There are various types of CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, Magento that can provide you with a dashboard to make necessary changes. Some platforms allow for a custom dashboard with coordinator or cake php framework. Do some research on the CMS platforms available to learn which ones suit your requirement best.
A fully custom design is very important if you want to add new features to your website in the future. There are agencies that customize a suitable theme to save time and cost. But, themes generally have restrictions when it comes to major modifications. If you want to have a fully customized website, it’s better that you ask for the raw file of the design and tell them to get in touch with you during the design process. You also need to ask how many design revisions they will provide, if there’s extra charges for more revisions, and what if some section changes are suggested.
The quality of a website design can not be determined only by its aesthetic elements. It’s going to be marketed on search engines so it should meet the requirements for good ranking. This is where the speed of your website plays a major role. Google prefers sites with a fast loading speed. So, ask the agency to provide you the URLs of some fast websites designed by them. Check, their speed with Google PageSpeed Insights and make your expectations clear to the developers.
When asking for a quote, always make sure to scan the document for any suspicious charges. Specifically, look for terms like “minor changes fees” and “major changes fees”. Also ask if they would use free or paid images for the design. If you are going for a monthly or a yearly support plan, get a written document of the services that they will provide during the tenure.
Testing is a critical part of the web designing process. Before the launch, you need to ensure that all the links, buttons, effects and functionalities are working properly. Your site should work fine on every browser and devices so the web designing agency should run various tests. They need to provide you with a checklist to ensure that everything is fine with your website and it is ready to launch.
These are the most pertinent questions to ask your web designing company during the interview. Write down your requirements and prepare a set of additional questions that are important to your business.