Web Design Company Hiring Guide
Even with the rise of apps, social media, and mobile browsing, your company’s website remains a critical piece of your business success. It serves as the single source of truth for your brand, especially when you’re selling products or services directly through an ecommerce platform. When current or prospective customers search the web for what they need or encounter your ads on other sites, your website is often the first place they land.
The modern functionality and requirements of websites, though, have come a long way from where they used to be. Responsive design, accessibility, interactive features, and many other considerations are important to ensuring that your website is welcoming, functional, and easy for customers to use.
Here we’ll take a look at what to look for in a web design company, how to choose a web design company, and what services a web design company typically offers to help SMBs achieve their goals.
What is a web design company?
Web design companies are agencies that provide a range of services that result in attractive, effective, and functional websites, serving as central hubs and key marketing tools for businesses and organizations. These agencies assist small businesses and business owners with everything from overall design to backend functions, database management, storage, hosting, and more.
Web design companies ensure sites are as functional as they are visually appealing, addressing challenges like speeding up page loading times, optimizing customer journeys through the site, and addressing accessibility issues both for compliance and improved user experience.
To meet all of these needs, web design companies typically employ front-end developers, designers, back-end developers, QA testing people, and even cloud storage and database experts.
What are common web design company services?
Web design companies offer a variety of services for businesses looking to market themselves. Here is a list of web design services:
Website strategy: Plan and create a digital strategy for the website, including the most suitable web design (static, dynamic, fixed, liquid, or single page), layout (grid, boxes, F-shaped, Z-shaped, or magazine), as well as graphics, images, and color palette.
User experience (UX) and user interface (UI): Web design companies also plan and design how users interact with and experience your site. This includes how certain elements react or respond, how users interact with and navigate the site, and how actions are taken.
Web design: Design a custom website that is easy to navigate, visually appealing, fast, and user-friendly, reflecting the company's brand and information. This includes conceptualizing the theme, layout, user interface, and graphics.
Website redesign: Change, update, and redesign an existing website to improve customer experience and business impact. This includes redesigning content, layout, theme, and visuals. Website redesigning also improves search engine friendliness and helps generate more leads.
Web integrations: Collaborate with your IT and tech teams to choose the best CMS, framework—front-end or back-end for development—and other integrations suited to your business needs.
Web-friendly mobile application design: Design the mobile app’s UI, focusing on layout, usability, and visual elements like colors and fonts to create a cohesive look and feel.
Graphic design: Collaborate with graphic designers to create visual elements such as logos, illustrations, and icons.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Optimize your website to be indexed and ranked on search engines for relevant keyword searches.
Website performance analysis: Monitor website performance, make recommendations for improvement, conduct competitive analysis, and perform usability testing with surveys and reviews to check customer satisfaction.
What are the benefits of hiring a web design company?
Let’s have a look at some of the benefits of hiring web design companies:
Expert UX/UI design: Web design companies are UX/UI experts. They can help you create websites or landing pages to best communicate your brand and achieve your overall business goals. They stay on top of industry trends and leverage innovative technology to design websites, while also monitoring user experience and performance to drive improvements.
Ongoing website maintenance: Once your website is live, you need to monitor its performance to ensure a smooth customer experience. A professional web design firm offers additional website maintenance services such as performance analysis, SEO, and competitive analysis. They also help you with bug fixes and customization support.
Consistent brand expression: Web design companies help translate your brand identity into a cohesive, visually compelling website that enhances customer relationships. Their expertise ensures that your site’s design, layout, and messaging align with your brand’s values and goals, creating a consistent and effective brand presence online.
Tailored website design: Web design companies use professional tools and styling sheets to create user-friendly websites. They employ creative teams to envision a brand message and make a blueprint for the website.
Responsive websites: With mobile search traffic on the rise, a responsive web design has become a necessity. Professional web design companies have hands-on experience in creating responsive websites that are compatible with any device. Such companies also undertake user testing to catch and resolve errors, ensuring a seamless experience.
Cost-effective expertise: Contrary to popular belief, hiring a web design company can be more cost-effective than establishing an in-house team of designers. Besides designing, a web-designing agency offers additional services such as SEO and competitor analysis. It also analyzes industry trends to help you re-optimize or redesign your website for better results.
How much does it cost to hire a web design company?
Pricing for web design companies can vary depending on a few factors. Large companies with larger sites may end up paying more than startups and small businesses. Also, the number of features and functions your site needs to meet your goals will affect the pricing. Web design companies also use a variety of pricing models depending on the needs of their clients and the scope of work.
According to Forbes,[sources number="1"] small businesses can expect to pay anywhere from $2,000 to $9,000 for the basic design of a small-scale website, which generally includes 12 to 16 pages. This price range applies to basic websites without additional features like web applications, forms, or eCommerce functionality.
For more complex websites that include ecommerce, web design service quotes can range from $5,000 to $50,000, depending on the scope of the project. However, like other business outsourcing services, it’s possible to find a web design company that offers the specific services you need at a price that fits your budget.
Both of these price ranges do not include the costs of annual site maintenance, which can be separate from the initial web development process. In general, small business sites do not require as much upkeep and larger corporate sites, and so these maintenance costs can be relatively manageable.
How to choose the best web design company
When you and your team are ready to find and select the best web design company for your business or project, there are a number of great questions you can ask to narrow down your full list of agencies and options. These include:
Many web design firms will have example projects and a portfolio available, but it helps to dive deeper into their experience and strengths if you ask about recent projects. It can also help you understand if they have worked on websites in your industry or field, because this will mean they have a clearer understanding of your needs and audience.
Performance evaluation and QA testing is key to finding bugs before they become a problem. And reviewing performance data helps identify areas where the site is not performing, where it may be confusing customers, or where functions are not doing what they are supposed to do. Asking about both QA processes and performance analysis will give you a clear understanding of whether a prospective partner agency knows their stuff.
Learn how a prospective web design partner develops content for your site while keeping SEO performance in mind and analyzing or improving it throughout. SEO is critical for businesses nowadays, and including search engine optimization from the earliest stages of development will help you launch a site that is more successful more immediately.
Before you get to the interview and meeting stage, though, make sure that you and your team have developed a clear budget, a list of requirements for your new site, functionality that needs to be included, CRM considerations, and overall marketing goals. With these items in hand you may come up with additional questions to help you narrow down your selection and find an agency that delivers on all of the benefits of hiring a web design company.
Once you’ve developed your questions and plan, you can use Capterra’s web design companies directory to begin your search for an affordable web design company. Verified customer reviews will help you find highly rated web design companies with the right mix of experience and results to meet your needs.
Should I hire a web design company or use web design software?
There are many web design software options available today, ranging from simple to more advanced and complex. Many of these tools are built for users with little to no experience in web design, making them user-friendly for small business owners or marketing teams without specialized skills.
The question of whether to hire a dedicated web designer or learn a web design software comes down to a few considerations.
Time: Even the easiest-to-use web design software will have a learning curve as you get used to the tools and the process of designing a website. Web design companies, on the other hand, are ready to begin a project immediately, and have the knowledge to prevent issues before they arise, as well as develop more interesting and complex functionality for your site as needed.
Money: Web design software may initially cost less than hiring an agency, but there are additional costs to consider. These include an SSL certificate provider, add-ons and plugins, SEO tools, sourcing images, hosting, and so on. All of these considerations and more are usually folded into the price quotes from a reputable web design agency.
Results: Many small businesses are able to develop a basic and effective website on their own. But another consideration is scalability. As your business grows, you will of course want (and need) to add to your website. Product listing, new content, CRM functionality, and many other considerations might make sense down the road, and they can add complexity to your site updates. Working with an established web design agency will allow you to plan for future needs and scalability right from the start.
Whichever path you choose, it’s valuable for your small business to consult with with several web design service providers. They can offer insights into potential challenges and even offer advice if you decide to go it alone. However, the benefits of hiring a web design company often outweigh the cost, and the relationship you develop with a good agency partner will ensure that your site is ready for the future.
Source:
How Much Does A Website Cost? (2024 Guide), Forbes