When you are in the process of building a website, you will have many overwhelming questions on your mind. One decision you will have to make will be whether or not you want to design the website or hire someone else to do it for you. Hiring a professional sounds like the easy way out, but that will trigger a number of budgetary matters as well. Then, you will worry about putting your life’s work and dreams into the hands of strangers that you will have to pay for.
There isn’t anything wrong with either option. But you can’t hire a web design firm without a little research ahead of time. Before you begin the hunt, use this list of 7 key things to remember when you are hiring a web design firm.
1. Choose by Expertise
You will be building a website in a specific niche and genre, and want your design firm to at least be comfortable in the field. A design firm with experience in your niche is even better. You will have less explaining to do, and they will know exactly what you need.
You want your website to stand out, and you want a design firm that can do that for you. Having expertise in your area of work will help. Specialized design firms and developers are out there.
2. Understand What Services Are Offered
You don’t want a slick talker when it comes to web design. You want a firm that is very clear and transparent on everything they do in their work. When they ask you if you have any questions, you should have most of them answered already because they have explained everything in their pitch and their quote so well.
Have an idea of what you need when you go to a firm, and they should know how to develop the package that will work best for you or at the very least have a spreadsheet with all of the features of the site that you want.
3. Choose Experience
It goes without saying that you should choose a firm that has experience, but it is a fact of the process that many people overlook. They assume that someone who has been in the business for years will be good. That isn’t always the case.
Ask to see their past work. If they name a big company as a previous client, ask to see what they did for them. Don’t be afraid to check references, but know some of this work will be protected by non-disclosure agreements. It never hurts to ask. Check to see how they respond.
4. Assess Their Talent
Does the work feel legitimate and as creative as you need it to be? When you assess their past work, does it feel like this is a talent you would be excited to work with? Remember that this talent will be showing up on your page. You want your clients and customers to feel the way you feel about this firm.
Agencies and firms find it a little more difficult to assess this way over individual talent. Find out who will be working on your file and get to know their level of skill and expertise. Do you want that work with your name on it?
5. Will You Manage Your Own Website?
One part of web development that not many people think about when they are hiring is how the website will be managed. Will you control the website or will the firm maintain this for you? You will probably want some control of it, if not all of it.
That is up to you. This will be part of your initial cost assessment as well. You will need to know this answer ahead of time. The last thing you want is to pour money into your website baby, only to learn that someone else is completely in charge of it, and you signed that away weeks ago. You may want to update it, maintain it, and control it on your terms, and nobody else’s.
6. Costs
Your budget will be the foundation of every question that you have when you are choosing a web designer or firm. You want those costs explained upfront as well. This will go hand in hand with the level of management that you will maintain with your own website.
Are you paying one time? Are you paying monthly? Do you need to pay for hosting separately? A good firm will give you options.
7. Firm or Freelancer?
When you are going through the process of hiring a web designer, this will be a question. Do you want a talented individual? A talented firm? Individualized attention that could take longer with a freelancer? Or do you want a fast turnaround with a cookie-cutter business?
You may not necessarily get bad service or bad talent from either a firm or a freelancer. But you want to look into these concerns when you are in the hiring process.
Can You Design Your Own Website?
At the end of the day, after all of this review over whether or not you should hire a design firm, you may wonder if you can just do it yourself. The answer is, yes you can. With some web development courses, you can design your website and maintain control over every element listed here.
You will have the talent, the expertise, and the costs maintained when you do it yourself.
Learn Web Development Today
Whether you are hiring someone else to do your web design firm for you or learning how to do it yourself, start the research necessary today to learn the science and field of web development. Ask the right questions of your potential hires. Examine their work, and know where exactly your budget is going.
Or, spend the money on a course that will ensure you get exactly what you want by doing it yourself. Learn web development today and begin making the best choices for your business.
Read more: No Web Design Project is Small
