How to choose your web design agency in Australia
If you would like to design a new website or redesign the existing website, choosing the right web design agency is one of the hardest things. Your website would be the front face of your business therefore you may need to take it seriously. People look at your website and they can imagine or judge your business so that they can choose your business.
1. Outline your requirements and Website Goals
Before searching any web design agencies, you need to list out your requirements first. These will be contents in the website, features and functionalities, target market, business and marketing tools, business goal etc.
Common requirements of websites are:
• User-friendly website with clear navigation and services so that anyone who enters your website would be able to know about your business easily.
• The website should generate more leads for your business.
• The website should be responsive – optimised for mobile and tablet devices. Nowadays, more than 50% of people use mobile and tablet devices to access websites therefore your website needs to be optimised for these devices.
• eCommerce functionality – If you are selling online, your website needs to have the eCommerce functionality with payment gateway enabled.
• Clear contact details and location with enquiry forms so that people can locate your business and contact easily.
• SSL Certificate and https protocol.
• Sync with your CRM like HubSpot, Salesforce etc.
• Link with your email marketing platforms.
2. Search Web Design Agencies Online with Reviews
The best way to find out the web design agencies is to look online. You can shortlist the agencies and check their website in detail. In their website, you have to look at their list of services, past works and the look and feel of their website. If their own website is not professional, responsive and slow to load, then there is no point of choosing them as the web design agency.
When you look at the portfolio, you can see the description in the project detail page what they have done, challenges faced, how they dealt with the challenge etc.
3. Check if they are local and their support system
Dealing with a local web design agency always saves you a lot of your time and effort. Outsourcing, of course, can save you the money but it would be hard for you to communicate. When you are checking web design agencies, it would be better to find out the local agencies. I believe that your website would be the representation of your vision and when you meet the designer face to face, it is easy to transfer your feelings to them rather than through email or phone.
4. Check the Transparency
When you are choosing high-quality and professional web design agencies, it would be better to check enough transparency. Web design agencies should make it clear about the following things:
a. Budget: If you are the business owner, you should be able to know the overall budget of the web design project including email, web hosting, domain registration etc.
b. Completion Time: For any web project, there should be the project completion timeline and it should not be too long.
c. Website Features: Before starting the website, you should have the list of features of the website. General questions are:
• Your website is responsive or not
• Which Content Management System is used
• How many products will the developer upload if your website is an eCommerce Website
• Is the website is SEO optimised or not
• Number of pages
• Is the website is custom designed or not
• Is there training and support available or not
5. Should not be too cheap
If you are a start-up, you would like to save the money for the website development. However, there is always a breakeven and if you have got a very cheap quote for the website development, your website would be cheap. In your practical life as well, if you find someone is giving away a brand new Mercedes-Benz car in $2000, then you have to think twice before buying that car. It may be a stolen car. This scenario applies in the web design business as well.
6. Check if they build the website in Content Management System or Not
If you build your website in the content management system, then it would be easy to maintain your website yourself later. Also, there are several options for search engine optimisation, feature enhancement and redesign and extend.
7. Hosting & Support System
In most cases, business owners who are looking for design agencies to design their website do not have time to maintain their website or not enough technical knowledge for it. Therefore, web hosting services and proper support system is important for you. If some agency design the website for you and do not have the proper support system, it would be hard to maintain the website.
