What to Look for When Hiring a Website Design Company

By JJ Rosen November 2, 2022
what to look for in a web design company

If you’re wondering what to look for when hiring a website design company, we can help. Being a leading website design company, Atiba knows what makes a good website designer and can help you identify a company that has an award-worthy team.

What to Look for When Hiring a Website Design Company

Get ready to know what to look for when hiring a website design company. Don’t think you’re getting a biased answer because we are trying to sell our web design and development services.

We truly what to help you understand how to choose the best website design company for your web design needs. Let’s get into it.

Ask the Right Questions

Before we get into the factors of what to look for when hiring a website design company, it’s important to know what the right questions are when interviewing a website design company.

We’ll explore many of the questions below later in this article, but to make things simple, here are some questions to ask about web design services.

  • How many years of experience does the website design and development team have building websites?
  • Do you include search engine optimization in your website builds?
  • How many new websites have you built over the years?
  • How many business owners stay with your website design company for ongoing website management?
  • How many previous clients return for a website redesign in a couple of years?
  • Do you have a portfolio of previous work?
  • What do you believe makes for a good web designer?
  • Do you have any stats on how your work has helped business owners increase their online presence?
  • What types of content management systems can you implement in a new website?
  • Can your web development company build an e-commerce site?
  • What project management software does your web design team use?
  • Are your websites responsive for mobile devices?
  • Do you provide content writing?
  • What makes you difference from other web design companies?
  • Why should we choose your company vs. a freelance web designer?
  • How long does a website redesign or new website take to develop?
  • What should we expect with the web design process?
  • Have you worked on a web design project like ours before?
  • Do you build custom websites or use templates?

Brainstorm additional questions based on your web design project. Since every site is unique, you may come up with important questions that only pertain to your online business’ website.

Web Design Experience

This is obvious, but let’s not omit it from the factors to look for when looking for a web design company. When interviewing a company, ask how many years of experience the company has in web design AND how much experience the web designers working on your project have designing AND developing websites.

See also  Drupal Developers Explain Drupal

It’s important to know about the experience of the company AND designers because the company manages the web design services provided by the web designers and web developers. The web designers and web developers are delivering the work.

If there’s a lack of experience on either side, there’s usually problems because certain quality of a good web design are missed. Don’t let your investment in web design be compromised by the inexperience of the company or website designers and website developers.

Previous Work

The proof is in the production. Ask to see previous work and inquire about the process in developing and designing the website Listen to the case study of how the website was created. If they give you a detailed account of how they worked with the client, identified their visions and needs, and was able to deliver a website that not only looked good but helped the client achieve their business goals, you know the company has potential.

It’s also important to ask if the web designer is still working for the company. If you’re looking at work of someone who is no longer at the web design agency, you may not receive the same level of quality.

Web Design Process

When you ask about the web design process, pay close attention to how much interaction happens between the web designers, web developers and the client.

It’s also good to know if you’ll be working with the project manager or the graphic designer on the layout of web pages. Since information can changed when passed on from one person to the next, some people prefer to work with the web designer directly. It’s a reason many people decide to use a freelance web designer, but when looking at the benefits of using a web design agency, using a freelancer doesn’t stand up to it.

User Experience

It’s important that the web design firm understands user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). Browse the web design firm’s website to see if they specialize in UX and UI web design.

The reason UX and UI web design is important is that it focuses on your target audience and what they want from your site. A well designed and developed website is one that meets the needs and desires of your potential customers. If it doesn’t, then you may have a difficult time achieving ROI.

A good question to ask to know how much they focus on user experience is: Do you do competitive research to identify what design elements work best for our target audience?

See also  What Does Responsive Design Mean? Answer!

Search Engine Optimization

There are many ways to attract people to a website:

  • Social Media
  • Email Marketing
  • Offline Marketing Campaign
  • Website Referrals
  • Online Advertising

While the above ways to attract people to a website can be successful, search engines is one of the most successful. Billions of people use search engines to search for products, services and information. If your website doesn’t show up in search results when your target audience is searching for what you’re selling, you’re missing out on huge opportunities to generate leads and revenue for your website.

A web design and web development company that understand search engine optimization will build a new site or redesign your current site to cater to the specific needs of search engine users. This includes optimizing the website for speed and performance, building a site architecture that makes sense, and include keyword phrases on each web page of the site to signal to search engines what the page is about and who should see it.

A good web design agency doesn’t only care about delivering a beautiful website. It also cares about helping business owners increase their online presence so they can achieve their business goals.

Responsive for Mobile Devices

Most people use their tablets and smartphones to browse websites now. That means a website has to be responsive – change according to the size of the screen. Most older websites are not responsive, which can lead to losing potential customers and clients when they can’t access the information, products and services they want on a mobile device.

While responsive websites are a given these days, it’s always a good idea to ask to make sure. You want to make sure the potential designers you use know you aren’t completely in the dark, but instead have the knowledge of what makes a good website. This can greatly help you when trying to look for a web design company.

Content Management Systems and Content Writing

Content means everything to a website’s success these days. No matter if it’s for an online store – ecommerce – or a service based based site.

Many professional web designers and web design firms have a content writing team to help with the copy that goes on the homepage, landing pages, and other website pages. If you’re not planning to write all of the information needed for your website, an important question to ask is if they have the means to provide that content.

In addition to the content, it’s also a good idea to know what content management system (CMS) they can put on your site. If you already have a CMS on your current site, it can be switched over IF you don’t want a new one. Having a discussion about what to do about the CMS should be done in the very beginning of the website design project.

See also  Magento eCommerce Consulting

Read More: CMS Website Design

content writing

Website Builder

Ask about the website builder they believe would be best for your website project. There are many website builders available to use and each have their pluses and minuses. Once they tell you what website builder will work best for your website project, ask why so you have a clear understanding what makes that one a good fit.

Website Project Transparency

An important factor in what to look for when hiring a web design company is transparency. You should never feel like you’re in the dark when it comes to having a new site built. You’re investing a lot of money into this website project, so you should be able to know what is being worked on and what will be worked on next. You should know the time it will take to for each stage of building your website. There are always factors that can delay or speed up the time each stage takes, but having a general idea on how much time it takes always feels good.

Some website design companies will add their clients to their project management software, so they can see what is being worked on and approve different parts of the site as they are ready. You may want to ask about that and include it in your decision making process on who to hire.

Hiring a Website Design Company

Now you know what to look for when hiring a web design company. Identify what is most important to your website project and go from there as you consider different web design and web development companies.

You can read more about choosing a web design company here: How to Choose a Web Design Company

Atiba has over 30 years of web design experience. Everything we have identified above is what we feel is important for a web design company. If you agree with the above, contact us for a consultation with our web design team. We would love to discuss your project with you to learn how we can help you beat out your competition by having the best website for your target audience.

Complete the form below to schedule a time to discuss your website project.

Contact Form

Now that we have your attention...

Want to learn more about Atiba or get in contact with one of our tech experts?

Want to get in contact?
Need a project quote or just have some questions? Get in touch today!
Check out our services.
Want to see what else we offer? Head over to the services page.