How Do You Find A Good Web Design Company?   by David Baddeley

in Marketing / Brand Marketing    (submitted 2012-01-25)

Everyone wants to start a web design company, or so it seems. A cursory search on the internet will bring up thousands of companies jockeying for you business, all of them probably looking very similar to you, so how can you tell the difference between a good company and a mediocre one without spending a penny of your design budget?

Ask friends and colleagues for referrals

News spreads and a supplier of any service or product - good or bad - is likely to be talked about. Asking for recommendations for a good website design company cuts out a lot of research you would need to do, not to mention can supply you with a lot of information about what the company is like to work with and how happy your friend or colleague was with the results.

What does their portfolio look like?

A good website design agency will have a stack of happy clients and their websites to show you. Take the time to go through each one and make some notes on your impressions of the websites they have created and your experience of using them. Put yourself in the place of a visitor to see how well the company has catered to a prospective customer's needs.

Do they offer a range of different services?

A reputable design and marketing company will understand that clients don't like playing piggy-in-the-middle between a web designer, web developer and SEO company. The best ones will have developed their services to take away this source of stress from you by offering a comprehensive package of all three if you need it.

Will they provide an analysis on your existing website?

Deisgn companies with a long standing reputation will look at your existing site if you have one and make suggestions for what could be improved and what the likely results might be.

Are they passionate about good web design

Seems an obvious one, but some online marketing firms seem to lack enthusiasm for their craft, with the result that their websites lacks substance and fall flat on their face. A good website design company should be enthusiastic about what they are doing and that should shine through everything they do.

Understands the importance of good web design

Sometimes you wonder why some web design firms don't look at the websites they create and realise people have to use them! Poor navigation, slow loading pages, too much flash animation and bad graphics have no place in good web design and make visitors' experience of the site an unpleasant one. This in turn has a knock on effect by losing their client business.

Understands the brief and improve it

Findng the right company will mean the difference in whether or not your website is successful. A reputable company will understand what you want to achieve and what tools they have to use to do that. They should also be able to advise if what you want won't work and suggest better alternatives. The ideal is a company that can add their own small ideas to your design brief to make the website really stand out when it's complete.

Understand your user demographics and caters to them

It's not enough just to create a good website. The website must also appeal to your 'business' primary audience - the customers who will be buying your products and services. Your choice of design agency needs to have a firm grasp of how to tailor your website to appeal to them and draw them in. 

SEO tools to drive new business to your website

You can have the best looking website in the world that wins awards for its impressive design, but if your agency has not set it up based on SEO principles then it's a waste of time. No-one will know you are there.

About the Author

A good web design company will ensure the right platform is there to support SEO, either immediately if you have the budget to take that step or at some point in your future if you don't.