Making sure you choose the right website design company can be very difficult. How do you decide how to find the company that is right for you? Do you go for the first result in Google, do you talk to fellow business people for recommendations or spend time online looking for something that catches your eye?
Here are a few pointers to consider when you make that all important decision choosing the right company for you.
Has the company asked you what you want to achieve from the website as a business?
It is important that the design team take the time to understand what you want from the website. Therefore it’s important to consider what type of website would best suit your business. Will it be a static website, a portfolio website or a online business that you can manage.
What experience does the company have designing websites in your industry?
Have a look at the portfolio to get an indication of the type of sites and work that the design team have done. It might also be worth ringing the company and having a chat to see how knowledgeable and approachable the team are.
How well do the existing sites work?
Make sure you look at several of the websites that have already been designed to see if they are easy to find your way around. Also look at testimonials to see what other companies have to say about the work they had done.
Is it easy to communicate with the team?
It is vital that you feel comfortable to be able to talk to the design team and that they are easily approachable. It is also important that they full understand what you want to achieve with the website and keep this in mind.
Do the design team have ideas that could be useful for the website?
It’s important that the designers understand what you want to achieve and are able to suggest ideas that could benefit you. However, what the client wants should be the main focus rather than the design team pushing for what they think is right.
If you need to share files between computers there are many ways of achieving the task. Virtual private networks (VPN’s), ftp servers, wireless networks, it really depends on your setup.
As a design agency we have tried a few methods and sometimes it’s better to just simplify things, that’s where Dropbox comes in.
In a nutshell, you simply install it on the computers / devices you want to share files between and it’s as easy as that. It creates a folder on your computer and to share files you simply drag and drop into the dropbox folder. It will automatically upload and distribute files for you and save deleted files online in case you need to retrieve them later.
Tip : If you want to delete something permanently you’ll need to go to your online account and delete the deleted files (greyed out) from your dropbox. An also, have a little common sense, dont put anything too sensitive in your dropbox unless you use encryption software on it first.
Anyway, you can download it here, tell your friends and work colleagues to check it out too.
Approximately three months ago upon completing the design and development of their new website, Extrudakerb approached our team to find the most effective avenue to not only increase the exposure of their online branding but increase traffic from the right users.
After sitting down as a team we came back with a bespoke solution aimed at generating the maximum return on investment, aptly named the ‘brand awareness proposal’.
Generating traffic to a website can be achieved in many ways, adwords, backlinks, social networking, blogging, podcasts, mobile devices the list goes on. The challenge is deciding on the right combination for each client.
How do you target the right users and keep them coming back? One of the most effective tools is the use of a blog. It was the first enhancement for the Extrudakerb site, we also installed an IPhone/IPad version challenging their competition by becoming much more accessible to prospective businesses online.
I have recently carried out a review on their monthly traffic statistics and was pleased to see over the past three months a consistent 30% increase per month. Accompanied by other brand awareness techniques they have also achieved first page rankings for their targeted keywords.
Similar patterns are emerging for our other brand awareness clients.
Without giving too much away, the secret to our success lies in targeting the relevant areas of the internet/markets specifically for each company. This is done by distributing their content across the internet. An alternative to the more common practices from our competitors who tend to run smaller scaled campaigns and never quite reach the correct online saturation points.
If you would like to learn more about how Corporate Web Solutions could increase your ROI from online marketing, raise brand awareness, synchronize offline/online campaigns and track the success, simple call our Sheffield office on 08444 145 932 or visit our site at www.corporatewebsolutions.net
1. Consider the target audience and how they are going to find your website.
Content is key ! It’s a common assumption for people to think that when your shiny new website is all finished you will be flooded with enquiries from the largest target market to date, people from the internet.
Well, that depends. How will they find you? Google is the usual response and I’m not saying it won’t happen but you must consider a key point to give your website every chance of being a success.
There are a wide variety of techniques Google uses to anaylise a website, rank it against your competition and deliver the right users to your door. Assuming you aren’t a web designer yourself, I will cover the main asset you can bring to the table to aid your success, your content.
Try to remember a key issue for Google is your page relevancy, the page content needs to be relevant to the phrase the user typed into the search engine. If you are a ‘Website Design Company In Sheffield’, try to have refer to yourself as a website design company based in Sheffield then explain about the services you offer.
Try to be resourceful in Google’s eyes. Provide more relevant information to the user than your direct competition. Consider what you think they will type into the search engine and be relevant.
2. Who will look after the site post launch?
When a company usually approaches us we normally hear one of two things, ‘We have a website but it’s very out of date and needs a facelift’, ‘We have a website, but it doesn’t do anything for us’. There may be many reasons for the second problem which I usually go through with the client however the first one could have been avoided in two ways.
Option 1 : The web design company updates the content for you on a pay as you go / monthly agreement system.
Option 2 : A Content Management System (CMS). (This is where you have a login which would take you to a control panel and provide you with the tools to edit / manage your own content.)
Hot Tip : Try to remember, websites which are frequently updated rank higher in search engines. Use dynamic content from other sources if your industry doesn’t alter frequently.
3. Consider Your Photography.
Do you have good photos of your products? Do you need the web design company to source images or provide you with a professional photographer? Do any previous photos taken still reflect the image you / the company would like to portray?
Successful websites are usually aesthetically pleasing, user friendly, well built and marketing correctly. A good web design company will tackle these issues on a regular basis for a variety of clients. Try not to cut corners on the photography and factor professional images into your budget. In the past I have sourced a full set of images and videos for clients for £0-20. We have also hired photographers and done custom video shoots for clients with larger budgets. Your photography should leap off the page and capture the audience as a sale sign does in a high street shop window.
Hot Tip: The same psychology can be applied to high street shoppers browsing shops as internet users, grab their attention and remember, Internet Explorer / Firefox / Safari and Google Chrome are all referred to as internet browsers.
4. How will you introduce your site to it’s target market ?
Hit List :
a ) How will you market the website online?
b ) Have you considered the social networking side to marketing online?
c ) Would you benefit from email marketing?
d ) Ask your web designer how you could use Google Adwords effectively.
e) If you have an offline brochure have you considered a downloadable version to email to prospective clients or even converting it to an interactive brochure?
f ) Ask a professional about a ‘link campaign’.
g ) Ask about Google Base, Google Trends, Rss and Xml Feeds. These are all useful online resources which used correctly can aid companies dramatically.
h ) Consider running an affiliate marketing scheme.
i ) Consider blogging about your products, new product/services/news and then publishing articles on other relevant websites to increase your traffic.
j ) Be honest with the design agency. If you don’t know who to market yourself they should have the answers.
Hot Tip : For more info on internet marketing click here
5. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask! If You Don’t Know Just Be Honest.
Communication is key, a good web developer will try to explain how and why things work the way they do as it expresses the value in their work, educates the client and involves them in the development process, (that is of course if the client has any interest in knowing).
Never feel embarrassed to ask or act as if you know more than you do. A good company should be approachable enough to ask for help / advice / support on any topic. When a client gives the impression that they are more knowledgeable on a topic than they actually are, the end result could be that your are left with a website that you don’t understand, which in turn results in you not maximising on your investment and not feeling like you have value for money.
Making sure you choose the right website design company can be very difficult. How do you decide how to find the company that is right for you? Do you go for the first result in Google, do you talk to fellow business people for recommendations or spend time online looking for something that catches your eye?
