Your website needs to reflect your values, your company culture, your passion for what you do and it has to present your products and services in a compelling way that will drive conversions. On top of that it needs to separate itself from the 1 billion other websites in cyberspace and somehow find a way to appear at or near the top of search results or it will all be for naught. How, exactly, do you do all that? You do it by hiring a web design company that knows its stuff. And how do you find that company? By asking prospective web designers the following 6 questions.
- What websites have you designed and built? – Whoever you hire should have a variety of different sites in their portfolio that demonstrate the depth of their knowledge and expertise. You should also visit those sites using both PCs and mobile devices to see if they load quickly and work flawlessly from end to end on different platforms.
- Why should I hire you? – If a web design company can’t make a compelling argument why you should hire them it suggests they don’t really know why they’re in business. What you want to hear in response to this question is a logical, spirited argument in favor of the company listing their strengths and outlining the benefits you’ll enjoy if you choose them.
- Will you provide a written estimate? – Any reputable web design company should be ready and able to provide you a written estimate of what the project will cost. It’s understood that things might arise that could affect the final cost (for example: companies often decide to add features after the design process has begun) but they should be willing to commit to a baseline estimate.
- Do you have in-house SEO experts? – Without a robust search engine optimization strategy in place the most beautiful, fastest loading and glitch-free website on earth is just another tree in the Internet forest. It’s important that your web design company have in-house SEO experts you can talk to and strategize with as your site is being developed.
- Do you employ a CMS? – CMS is short for Content Management System. With a CMS you can easily swap out one product for another, change prices, add a new product line or create a blog post. Search engines give priority to websites that continually update their content to provide value for visitors and a CMS is the easiest way to do that.
- Who will be my contact on the project? – The web design company should assign a senior manager to be the point person on your project. All communications should flow through this person and you should be able to reach them at any time with questions or concerns. You should also be allowed to meet the people who will be designing and building the site on a daily basis.
Keep in mind too that you should feel personally comfortable with the contact person, since you’re going to have to spend a lot of time interacting with them in the coming months.
