Choosing a better website design company

Help choosing a website design company is here.

With so many website companies, designers and developers to choose from, it’s no wonder why many businesses need a little help with choosing a better website design company. Most businesses fall into one of two camps when it comes to partnering a website design company. Camp 1: A business that is looking for their first web design company and Camp 2: A business desperately looking to change their website design company. If you are in Camp 2 then you already have some experience and know what to look out for when choosing a website design company. If you are in Camp 1 then you might not understand that you should be looking for website developers that are good communicators, they understand your needs and are able to contribute to your website design project by working together with you.

Quick questions to ask a website developer.

• Do you have experience making websites within my business arena?

Whilst a website design company doesn’t need to have designed and made websites within your industry, it might show you what they can achieve and give you some ideas on your own website design project.

• Is all your website development and design performed in-house?

For flexibility and security it is best to find a web designer that keeps things in-house, as we do at Red Thread Creative.

• Can you develop websites with a Content Management System?

If you want to regularly update your website you might need to have control of parts of the website to update content. If this is the case then you should be looking for a web design company that offer a reliable CMS.

• What are the website design steps from start to finish?

Mapping out a website design project has to start somewhere. We would recommend finding out about the process that should be set in place before any web design projects begin.

• Do you include Search Engine Optimisation as standard?

We feel SEO should come as standard. If you want your business to be found online quickly then you need to have the best SEO start you can find. Ask the web design company to list their SEO development for new website publications.

• Will you be able to offer content creation?

We know that clients are always very busy developing their businesses and sometimes need help creating content for their website pages. Ask your website development company about content creation options if you need them.

Watch out for pitfalls

A beautiful website doesn’t necessarily perform well

High-end, slick design doesn’t necessarily mean that a web design company are making websites that will perform well. Website functionality is as important, if not more important than its looks. You could easily end up with a great looking website that performs poorly. Website design should never sacrifice great performance of a website. Your website should always be mobile friendly and fast to load in the browser.

What does mobile friendly website mean?

Mobile friendly means that a website is designed to fit and work flawlessly on mobile devices. Red Thread Creative often see mobile friendly design ignored by some high profile website design teams. Quite often, a lazy website designer will leave ‘swapping-out’ mobile-ready/responsively designed content, which often means that large images are displayed on small mobile devices, such as phones or tablets, resulting in a much slower website. Any good website designer would create several layouts for mobile devices, swapping-out smaller images for a tablet, and again with even smaller images for mobile phones.

• Images need to be optimised. Not only for web design but also optimised per device and include the correct meta data such as file name, title, and alt description (swapping out smaller images on mobile devices is standard practice)

• Find out about the technology used to make the website and whether it is reliable (a complex Content Management System can slow down a website, do you really need a full CMS?)
• Great hosting will also provide great speed. High-quality website hosting should not be cheap (ask about the quality of website hosting and the available choices)
• Website security is very important. All websites should have SSL certificates included as standard (ask about improved security option before you get started)
• Seek out for a website design company that knows about marketing communications. After all, what you say to your audience when they find your website can make or break its success. (ask the web design company about their marketing communications offering)
• Don’t be scared to talk about money (ask what can be achieved for your budget)

Experienced website designers only

Choosing a website design company is not easy and can undertandably feel a bit daunting. The best thing to do is find the right questions to ask and look to the evidence that the web design company provides you with. Also, remember that websites today take a lot of time and effort to get right for any professional website design company. There will always be times when projects can be completed in a matter of weeks. Just be aware, that if you’re promised a turnaround in just a few days to a week then something is wrong. Make sure you get quality development not a quick fix. Red Thread Creative have a long history of publishing high quality websites. Our websites perform exceptionally well as we are able to combine our creative web design with the many other marketing communication services we offer. Services such as extended Search Engine Optimisation, Google Ads campaigns, creative copy writing and content creation, brand development, design for print, media buying, photography and video. If you are interested in a beautiful new website for your business that performs exceptionally well then please do get in touch with us.