What is website designing? It’s the art of planning and building the elements of a brand’s website. From structure and layout to images, graphics, fonts, and colors. This process has various components that work together to create a finished experience of a website. These components include:
- Graphic design
- Interface design
- Content creation
- User experience design
- Search engine optimization
The elements help in deciding how a website will look like, feel, and work for a brand on various devices. So before settling on a web design agency, it’s best to know the procedure they follow in doing their job. That way, you’ll know whether the agency can meet your needs.
Note that web designing is not all about mood boards and color samples. Of course, developing a website that looks great plays an important role in marketing. But that’s only part of a multifaceted, specialist service. It’s aimed at supporting your whole business online.
Website design companies have the technical know-how and skills needed to develop websites. Additionally, they strategically design sites to guide users through the buying process. They make sure that your site is connected with other online marketing channels.
What to Look for Before Choosing a Web Design Agency
Getting a reputable web design agency can be tricky. That’s because there are a lot of web designers on the internet and some of them can’t be trusted. So how do you determine what web design agency is authentic and which one isn’t?
1. The Work Procedures Used by the Agency
Inexperienced agencies don’t have a process to follow when conducting their operations. Yes, they know how to build a website. There are chances that they also have roles defined within their teams when building a site. But this is all done while working from memory and not from a standard operating procedure or task list.
That’s how mistakes are made by such web design services. That’s how they spend time designing landing pages with the latest HTML, CSS, and JavaScript widgets. But the landing pages don’t have any sales-optimized copy or clear calls to action.
Web designers must understand your business before jumping into the design stage. Also, no professional will draft product pages before understanding the client’s product. There must be a consistent process of stages. And every stage must have a defined standard operating procedure. The SOP must include:
- Research
- Wireframing
- Designing
- Building
- Quality checks
- Post-launch quality checks
- Post-launch performance improvement
If you find a web design agency that can outline a series of stages as above, you can be sure you’re in the right hands. A web design and development agency in NYC is your best option. It ensures that you have a high performing website, one that will attract, engage, and convert your audience.
2. Find Out if the Agency Conducts Research
No entrepreneur launches a marketing campaign without researching their target audience. Similarly, no web design company should design a website without research.
There’s a lot to understand about a brand and its target market. That’s because it influences the structure and design of a website. The website development team must know:
- What your industry is like;
- What your brand provides to its clients;
- What your brand’s competition is doing;
- How your target audience behaves like;
- What your target audience is looking for and the kind of content that fits them well.
If your consumers research before deciding on a brand, then content should be at the core of your website. If they’re well educated about the industry, your site must be designed to effectively communicate your value proposition. It should also communicate your unique selling points.
If the designers say that they’ll jump into the building phase of the site, consider another agency.
3. Check the Size of the Office and Its Location
The size and location of the web design agency’s office says a lot about its credibility. Serviced office addresses can sound impressive. But this could indicate that they are using a “virtual office.” So chances could be that they are a startup that has no experience in the field.
The best way to confirm this would be for you to pay the agency a visit to their office. You can also Google their office address and see if they post photos on their Google page.
Note that a reputable agency will not present risks of fraud and at the same time offer a decent working environment to their team. A decent environment is proof of their drive to attract and retain valuable talent.
4. How Knowledgeable Are they About Search Engine Optimization?
A lot of web design companies give some kind of lip service to search engine optimization. But how knowledgeable are they about the subject? Are they professionals at it? Or is it that they recycle sound bites from other web design companies?
One of the ways you can use to determine whether they are knowledgeable about SEO is to check if they apply it. Find out whether they apply digital marketing strategies to their company. What kind of online advertising are they doing and is their site optimized?
If you’re trying to grow your brand, you need all the help you can get. If the agency isn’t concerned about its digital marketing and search ranking, it won’t be of much help to you.
5. Find Out if they’re on Social Media
Social media marketing is key now that a lot of people are on various social media platforms. Thus, if a company can’t be found on social media or isn’t active, how much do they know about internet marketing, really?
Social media gives companies the perfect opportunity to interact with clients. It enables them to get qualified traffic and supports SEO efforts. Considering that a lot of people use social media to perform searches, choose a web design agency that provides these kinds of services.
If they say that they provide them but don’t practice the same for themselves, how sure are you that they know what they are talking about? Being on social media gives you an idea of what kind of website development team they have. You can also look them up on their social media pages to know what events they hold through the videos they post.
Conclusion
Website designing is your website’s selling point. Remember that first impressions matter and this applies to websites. They are the first point of contact your clients will have with your brand. If the website isn’t appealing, visitors will quickly move to the next one.
Before investing in website design services, research to prove their credibility. If you have doubts that can’t be cleared, move on and find a better agency. There’s no point wasting time and money on an agency that won’t deliver.
