Want to pick a good website design firm – and avoid a bad one? Here’s what to look for.
1. A first-class portfolio. It’s the quality of the sites designed, not the quantity. Sites should be easy on the eye; bold; not made from a template; represent a cross-spectrum of business types; and be appropriate for each company.
2. Marketing expertise. Your website is a marketing tool. It should be designed by marketers with great design skills, not by artists who can’t sell.
3. Strong organizational skills. A good design firm knows how to get your project in, get it done, and get it making money for you. Check their references.
4. Background in both graphic design and HTML. Both of them are important. Make sure you’re getting both, so you aren’t sorry either way.
5. Fast-loading, easily navigated sites. If your site doesn’t load within eight seconds, your designer blew it. Because that’s the absolute limit of people’s patience now. Really.
6. They get to the point. People want immediate information. If you don’t immediately see the call to action on a site, nobody else did either.
7. Size matters. Sites need to work on various browsers and screens and mobile sites. Check their portfolio from multiple browsers and devices to see if they performed exhaustive cross-browser and multi-device checks.
8. Real-world SEO. It’s crucial for your site to be optimized for search engine marketing. Good web designers know how and where to implement comprehensive search engine optimization techniques on your site, and will be able to show you research, tags and keywords used by your competitors.
9. Ethics and professionalism. Are you sure they’re doing it in-house? (Or are they shipping part of it out to India or China?) Be sure you’re getting what and who you’re paying for.
At Counterintuity, we’re experts at creating effective, user-friendly, custom websites. Since 2004, we’ve built hundreds of engaging, effective websites that have helped businesses, brands, startups, non-profits, educational institutions and many others achieve greater success. Call today to see how we can do the same for you.