10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Website design company

10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Website design company

Choosing a website design company is a critical decision. You’re not just putting a project in their hands, you’re entrusting your business to them.
This questionnaire will help you assess the website design companies that you are considering.

1. May I review your portfolio?

By reviewing potential website development companies’ portfolios, you’ll gain an immediate understanding of their quality, abilities, and overall experiences.  More importantly, you’ll find out their range of skills.  A niche developer might have in-depth industry knowledge, but they’ll often create cookie-cutter designs and lack the adaptability and creativity that broad developers have.  These broader developers can pull from experience to offer best practices from a range of industries and build very unique website designs.  The choice is yours, but broader is often better.

2.  Do you consider SEO during the website development?  Can you help drive traffic to my new website?

Every single website design company will say ‘yes’ to both questions, but it’s the information after the ‘yes’ that matters most.  You have to find out the company’s stance on SEO and avoid falling for cheesy sayings, like “we’ll make your site SEO-friendly”.  What does that really mean?  Are they setting up the basics or are they diving in to your new website to analyze and improve the little things?  Put some pressure on the company for specific answers and you’ll get all the info you need.

3. What if I want to make changes later?

One of the most fundamental differences among web-development firms is their approach to ongoing changes.

Every website will change over time. Some companies charge hourly for these changes, while others set up a content-management tool that makes it easy, fast, and free to update text, upload images, and add pages.

4.  Who will be our main point of contact?

You want a website design companyWebsite design company that has its act together.  By asking this question you’re identifying the company’s core process and getting a glimpse into their organization.  If they don’t know who the contact point will be or give too many options, confusion will reign and the project will hit roadblocks.  If they assign you a proper project manager to manage your website development, then you can trust they’re on top of their game.

5.  What are your thoughts on a mobile-friendly website?

A website design company should be able to give suggestions for a mobile strategy – whether it’s to create a completely separate mobile website or equip your primary website with responsive web design (so it morphs depending on screen size).  An agency should also give you tips on fixing issues that penalize your mobile search results and offer advice on your mobile content strategy.  They better know this, because if they’re unaware of the future of mobile, then how will your business be ready?

6.  How do your price your services?  How much is dedicated to strategy?  What else is included in the price?

You want a website design company that goes above and beyond the standard line items (like headers, product images, number of pages, etc.).  What you want to see is a company that devotes quality time to consulting, strategy development, content development, and other thought-provoking tasks.  In order to get the best website, you need a company that takes the time to create a comprehensive strategy, build compelling content, and encourage ideas – these are the elements that make a website truly shine.

7.  How do you handle change orders and additions to the scope of a project?

There is no right or wrong here.  Some of companies have policies that are strict (e.g. two changes allowed for free, then a charge per change after) while other companies are more flexible because they know how projects evolve (e.g. any changes can be made as long as they stay within the agreed upon hours).  The most important thing is to know how change orders are handled before you sign a contract.  This way you’ll be ready for them when they come and know what to expect.

8.  How do you measure success?

Success means so many different things to so many people.  If simply finishing the job is the success, then does that agency really care about the final product?  You want a website design company that works together with you to establish proper benchmarks.  Remember, success is not ticking all the boxes, it is the results you see during and after your website launch.  At Mash World, we identify areas for success through our research and conversations with you, then agree upon specific benchmarks, and make sure everyone is on the same page.  Making your website effective is a bigger sign of success than simply making the project complete.

9.  As Website Design Company, What kind of project support do you offer?

The project support occurs after final sign-off of the website.  But just because the website is complete, doesn’t mean that issues won’t arise.  Can you depend on that website development agency to resolve those issues?  Or are you on your own?  There are no wrong answers here, but getting an answer will help you plan accordingly.  Most agencies should at least fix issues that are of their own doing, but the best agencies will offer project support that goes above and beyond the norm.  These website development companies care about your business and know that your success is their success.

10.  Will I own all the final website content and accounts?

Don’t let bad agencies get away with poor judgment or easy money.  All content on your website (including coding, copy, images, and videos) should be owned by you not the website design company.  In fact, the owner of a website is responsible for all information displayed.  We’ve heard too many horror stories where companies got slammed with unexpected fees later.  More importantly, all software and social media accounts should be in your name – not the agency’s name!  Any high-quality website development company will contractually agree to ensure all content and accounts are yours to keep.

Do you have a different question that should go in the top 10?  Please let us know, We are the best website design company in Jordan – we’d love to hear from you!