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Facts to know when choosing a web design company

Portfolio Of Work

Looking at a web designer's portfolio of past projects is the quickest and easiest way to decide if they are the right company for your needs.

Questions you should be asking yourself include:
• Is their portfolio of work sympathetic to my business?
• Do I like their style of design?
• Do all their websites look the same?

Although your first impact of the company will usually be their own website, make sure you look deeper into their portfolio. Every designer is capable of producing one great website - but can they produce twenty great websites in succession? Expect a portfolio of at least eight websites - and look for a good variety of work.

Skills, Qualifications and References

Skills

Whether the design company has appropriate skills will depend solely on your aims and objectives. Do you require Flash animation, database design, client log-in areas or search engine optimisation? If so, can that web design company produce such work? If they say they can - make sure they can prove it.

Qualifications

It is perfectly acceptable to ask for the credentials of the designers or key members within the company. Whilst qualifications do not necessarily mean that the website design company is up to the job (or that a design company without specific qualifications is not up the job) it is a fair way to judge their experience and expertise.

References

The main problem with relying on published references is that no company will advertise a bad or indifferent reference. However, look for companies that at least provide some kind of client feedback. Make sure the source of the quote is published - alongside their contact details. Most people genuinely enjoy offering recommendations - so don't worry about making a quick phone call or email to previous clients to ask for some impartial advice.

Cost

Web design companies can have very different ways of charging. Some may charge high set-up costs and low recurring fees. Some will pull in customers with a low set-up cost and then charge high recurring fees.

Bear in mind that most professional web design companies work on a bespoke basis - and will therefore not be able to publish specific prices. They will however, be able to provide you with an estimate figure based on a technical and/or design brief. They should also be able to provide you with an indication of what their hourly/daily rate is.

Our low prices are based on pre-built templates and styles, which we modify and tune in according to client's needs, and indicated in the Pricing section for ready made web site. Our bespoke web site design services are priced individually after we examine the client's needs and see technical specs and design brief.

Size Of The Company

Largely speaking, the size of the company provides you with no indication to the quality or work they can produce; or the services they can provide. There are a lot of freelance web designers who can produce far superior work to large companies, but there are also freelance web designers who charge much more than large companies.

Don't let your preconceptions about the size of companies get in the way of the facts. More important considerations are whether they are going to be proactive - and if they can offer a high level of support. Companies that do not provide a landline phone number or an address will almost certainly be harder to contact when you need them the most.

Deadlines

Make sure that your projected time scale is achievable by that company. The complexity of the site will affect this greatly - and the designer will need a specific brief before being able to provide time scales. Find out how to write a design brief here.

Personality

Perhaps most importantly, make sure that you get on with your web designers! Many web design projects can last months or even years - so a high level of compatibility will ultimately make the process considerably more enjoyable for everyone.