If you have decided that your business needs a website, there are a number of things you have to do. Once upon a time, simply having an online presence was all that was required. Today, however, you have to make sure the website can be found, that it is always relevant, that it is regularly update, that others like to interact with it, and more. This requires a great deal of work, and that work has to be done by experienced technical professionals. What you need, is a web design Manchester professional.
Once you start looking for such a professional, however, you will quickly find that there are thousands to choose from. Unsurprisingly, not all of those are really good at what they do. So how do you find the ones that will give you the best return on investment, and ensure that your website is successful?
Key Things to Look for in Web Design Professionals
- Always ask for references so that you can see what they have done for others, and whether that looks like something you would like for yourself. Do try to find out how easy it is to find their previous clients, since one of your goals should be to be found as well.
- Find out how much experience the company has. Look into how long they have been in business. Google, for instance, makes regular changes to their algorithm. Companies that have been in business for a few years have obviously been able to survive through some of the more major changes.
- Whether you will receive a custom-made website, or whether it will be a template. A lot of companies use templates and then adapt them slightly. There is nothing wrong with that, and it is often cheaper as well. Custom-designed websites are better, but only if they are properly created.
- How easy it is to communicate with the company. Do you only get to speak to them via email, or they have a telephone number or even an office address?
- What kind of web hosting solutions they offer. This is very important, as it will relate to the stability of your website as well.
- Who your website will belong to, as some companies retain ownership rights.
- Whether the professionals at the design agency have experiencing in programming as well as designing. Programming languages such as .NET, SQL, Flash, PHP, and Java are all important and your agency should be familiar with those.
- What kind of online reputation they have. This is something that you have to research separately, looking at third party websites, social media, and other sources. The goal is to find out information that is genuine and hasn’t been edited to make the company look better.
With the following eight tips, you should be able to find a really good web design company to help you build a website that attracts new customers.