The process of revamping an existing website or completely redesigning it involves so many factors to consider. It is also important that businesses make a decision whether they want to hire freelance web developers and designers, or if they want to partner with a web design agency.
9 Things You Should Know Before Hiring a Web Design Agency:
1) What are your web design project requirements?
In order to find the best local agency and freelancer to work with, you need to layout clearly what you are looking for. You should hire a team based on the size and complexity of the project in order to achieve the best results.
You are looking to do a major redesign or a whole new build that requires complex, customized work, and tech integration. Must have that kind of information in hand before you hire a designer or developer. There are many details you should provide to those who approach you for your marketing projects.
2) How long is the project expected to take?
It is extremely important to ensure that your team is ready to work with your selected agency or contractors for the duration of the project’s overall timeline. You can also go for an affordable website design company but make sure the agency should deliver high-quality work.
Throughout the web design and development process, an important part is communication, reviews, approvals, a gathering of content, and meetings.
By outsourcing project management, a web design agency reduces the time you need to spend managing the project. Web designers and developers who are freelance may have higher input requirements at any one time. I am not sure how much time you will need to allow for back and forth communication between the two contractors. Especially if you will be outsourcing both design and development to them.
3) Which team is located where?
Everything takes days to communicate and approve when everyone is in a different time zone. But instead of hiring independent contractors who are expensive, you’d be better off hiring an in-house team. It might not be worth the frustration and the money you save by going with independent contractors.
The availability of your web design partners as a communication channel is another factor to consider when choosing a regional home base. Can the web design partners meet with you during regular business hours? The difference in time zones can be a problem if it exceeds three hours.
4) How are they designing their website?
It is the processes that streamline work and ensure that we meet our deadlines and achieve our goals. Regardless of who you choose to work with, make sure you understand their process before you start. I would recommend that you ask for a timeline for major deliverables.
When you run an agile and repeatable process, you can save time and get great results at the same time. In contrast to this, an inefficient process can add a great deal of time. Delay the launch of a product, and cause considerable frustration.
5) Which web design and development services are included?
Whatever the case may be, you need to know exactly which services are part of your partnership regardless of whether you’re updating, completely redesigning, or building a brand-new site.
Do you hire web developers who are also designers, or do you need to outsource the designing as well? To streamline the process and communication, is it possible to use designers and developers who have a history of working together?
To find out more about the technical skills they provide, what are they capable of? It is not uncommon for a designer in a design agency to have experience both in UI (user interface) and UX (user experience), and to specialize in one category but have little knowledge of the other. You should also take search engine optimization into consideration. It is essential to perform an SEO audit before launching your website in order to ensure that it is properly optimized for search engines.
An agency that offers multiple services – web design, development, search engine optimization, and content strategy – one does not need to find a freelance unicorn. But there is no need for the company to hire a group of people with different skillsets.
6) What is the cost, and what’s your budget?
Be sure to consider the short- and long-term costs of hiring web design agencies and freelancers.
- Can you afford to spend that amount?
- Does the budget include an hourly rate or are you billed by the hour?
- How many hours are permitted, and will the contract cover unexpected delays, poor work, and other problems?
- When measuring the effects of the new website on sales and leads, what metrics will you use?
Especially if you’re on a tight budget, it might make sense for you to opt for a DIY site builder like Squarespace, a free WordPress site, or a fully managed solution that will design, host, and maintain the site for a low monthly fee. A contractor from another country could also be able to help you with your project more economically. Remember that other considerations such as the team location, time of the project, and whether ongoing maintenance can still be accomplished must still be met.
7) Who are the personalities?
During the course of this project, you will be working with this person for a few weeks to several months. So it needs to be a healthy working relationship! Is there anyone on your team who will participate in providing communication and attending meetings? Could you arrange an initial video conference call for all of the key players to introduce themselves to each other and test the waters?
It is important to have a good rapport between the points of contact on both sides, in order to ensure that the project progresses smoothly. In the event of any unexpected interruption, there is no doubt that mutual respect and understanding will be able to guide you in the right direction.
8) Their previous work: case studies
If you are considering hiring a web design partner, you should always take your time looking at the work of your prospective partner, whether it is a referral or a result of online searches and research. To review a web designer’s portfolio, the following is a checklist:
- A number of projects – Number of projects if there are any, how long have they been in this area, or are they just starting out? Feel free to ask if they have all their completed projects posted online, as they might not have them all.
- The scale of projects – Specifically, have they worked on similar websites with the same technical requirements as yours or on a business of your size? Do they demonstrate the ability to adapt to different situations?
- Aesthetic – You can see how they designed for different brand guidelines and audiences by looking at the websites before and after they engaged.
- Services & capabilities – Their completed sites had what technical requirements, and how did they fulfill them?
- Process — This is a crucial element that cannot be overemphasized. What are the stages in their completed projects that show transparency of their process?
9) When is your deadline, and how busy are they?
On web design projects, setting and meeting deadlines is arguably the most crucial facet of time management.
Every element of your project moves in tandem with your launch date. How quickly would you like work done? Is your company big enough that approvals need to be given by multiple eyes on every stage, making meeting deadlines for deliverables crucial for both parties?
From the beginning, it is important to inquire about the possibility of meeting your deadline. Once your freelancer gets into your project, you don’t want to discover that he or she is also juggling a full-time job, or that they are one of 15 clients being handled by a tiny web design company.
Your chosen web design agency or contractor should care just as much about the success of your project. Don’t be afraid to ask all of these questions upfront and to present all of your needs.