Date: 1st September 2009
Title: Finding The Right Web Design Company
One of the first pieces of information that people ask for these days is your company website address. It’s expected that every company should have a presence on the internet and the companies that don’t are generally looked down upon.
I've been designing websites and online marketing strategy for several years now and in that time I have seen lots of examples of just how much benefit companies can gain from having a professionally designed and built website.
Ok, so it is true that anyone can put together a website these days, however the chances of that website representing your company in a professional fashion are very slim indeed and yes you can get websites for companies calling themselves “website designers” for less than £500, these are usually low quality, poorly built template websites that a thousand other companies could also be using.
Now let’s get on to the important stuff. When looking for a web design company to design and build your website, ecommerce, cms or blog website you need to look at their company profile, case studies and most importantly portfolio of work.
Create a shortlist of companies that you like the sound of and quality of work. It’s always a good idea to give the company an idea of the work that you like the look of in their portfolio when you call to discuss. Decide what you require, it doesn’t have to be technical. List things like “updates every 3 months”, “pages that you will want on the website” and ask the company to put together a quote or if possible a proposal (they may need more detail for this).
In my opinion at the moment the most important thing when working with a company to create a website is the online marketing strategy. Do they have solid case studies of online marketing strategy that they have worked on for clients? In the majority of websites that we create the company wishes to be found though search engines. Therefore it's vital that a full online marketing consultation is carried out before any design work is started. After all, it is pretty pointless having a website that no one can find your company for.
Shaun Gilbert, Director - Born Ready Design & Marketing
