Any small business needs a website these days. Having a website is an immediate sign of legitimacy in the eyes of the consumer. Most customers want to feel comfortable before they shop. And they view the website as a reflection of how hard the company will work to serve them. If the site was thrown together and hastily put up, customers will assume you’re a second-rate business. But like many things in small business, having a website isn’t enough. You also have to have a good website. That’s why it pays to invest in the website the way you invest in the business, and why you need the right company to build it for you. But how do you go about selecting the right one?
The first trait to look for is transparency. A web design company should be transparent with you about what it does for your company. You should be able to understand the cost of its services, the process it will use to build your website, and the time involved in the build and revisions. A website provider should be honest about its role and your role. It should be clear what the initial building process looks like and what subsequent revisions will entail. Its responses to your questions should be forthright, helpful, and specific. If the company that builds your website is unwilling to give you answers to questions like these, you should not hire them. If an agency isn’t clear or open about its processes or policies, it’s not the right partner for you.
A good web design company will tell you what you are responsible for as the client - things like domain name, domain name registrar, or web hosting. Good service means there’s no confusion about roles. If the domain name falls to you, you can get the web agency’s help choosing one, but make sure that you’re the one who owns it. Some web agencies buy the domain names for you, and in the process they become the owner.
Next, make sure the agency actually listens to you. You know your business better than anyone, and you should be able to trust your website developer to value and incorporate that knowledge. If the agency dismisses what you’re telling it or makes no effort to include your ideas, it’s not going to do you any good. Avoid the Web designer who tries to squeeze you into a generic Web site that isn’t right for your business. The web developer knows how to build a website, but you know your industry. You should feel confident that your suggestions and input will have a real impact on the site. The best relationships between a business and its web developer rest on trust and communication, and a healthy business relationship requires cooperation from both sides. So share your goals for the site and make sure it is built around your specific needs. In the end, your site isn’t just the work of one company; it’s a product of the collaboration between your agency and you.
It’s also a serious asset when a design firm has experience with search engine optimization and digital marketing, because these are critical to getting the most from your website. SEO (search engine optimization) and digital marketing are crucial parts of running a small business, especially if your business exists online. An agency that has experience in SEO and digital marketing can help prepare your website to show up in searches, and also help you increase your SEO ranking over time. An experienced firm will understand how to get traffic to your website, and you should ideally partner with a company that makes those SEO and marketing efforts a part of its website-building services. That way the site is set up for success from the very start.
You’ll also want an agency with experience using a content management system, or CMS. Content management systems let developers and business owners alike quickly and easily update and change things. Old static HTML pages are a bit archaic and take way too much time and energy to update. Instead of overhauling the whole website, a CMS lets editors update content directly in the page. A CMS is simple to operate, even for those who aren’t so tech savvy, so that you and your web developer can both update your website as you need to.
Finally, make sure the company uses a responsive web design. With a responsive layout, the website responds to and adjusts for whatever type of browser, screen or device it is viewed on. That matters both for your customers and for Google. Old school was having separate mobile and desktop websites with different URLs. That approach left SEO disjointed. The new standard is to have a single site that works on all screens from one consistent URL, which means your SEO is unified.
The web design agency you choose should feel like a partner. You want a site designed around your company’s needs. That means you want an agency that is committed to using your company goals as the guide for their designs. Use your website to reinforce your company’s brand and provide an easy-to-navigate experience for your customers. A good website can make a big impression on potential customers when it comes to small businesses.
