Due to recession, many people are looking to start their own businesses. Most of the start-up companies will spend some time and money to develop websites to increase their web presence. If one is not trained in web design and internet marketing, he or she will not know how to choose the right web design agency to develop their website. In this article, let me share with you 5 tips to choose the right web design agency.
1. Find out how much the agency is charging you. There is no fixed cost when it comes to web design. It all depends on the complexity of the website. So the first thing you should do is to ask how much the web design agency is charging you. You will want to have an agency work for a fixed cost rather than on hourly rate. Working on a fixed cost will definitely save you more if you are development a website from scratch.
2. Shortlist a few agencies to speak further. By doing a search on Google, you will find many web design agencies offering development services. You should visit their websites and shortlist a few companies to speak further so that you will not waste your time and theirs.
3. Ask to look at their portfolio. Every established web design agency will have a portfolio to show you. So take a good look at the websites that they have done. If the websites are live, ask for the URLs and play with the websites. Shortlist those that produce designs that you love.
4. Conduct a research. After you speak to a few agencies, conduct a thorough research on these agencies using Google to see if there are good or bad comments about them. Another way to conduct research is to contact the owners of the websites that the agencies have produced and ask them about the work.
5. Choose an agency that is located in your city or country. I am not against offshore companies. I just prefer to have a face to face meeting with the team that is handling the project. It is a lot easier to discuss ideas and bring your points across to them. And if anything goes wrong, you are still able to visit their office and rectify the problem.
Your website is your marketing brochure and you cannot afford to have a below-par website if you want to create a good presence online. Therefore, make sure you choose a reliable and capable web design agency to work with.
Cheow Yu Yuan is the co-founder of OOm, an online marketing agency providing web design service.