15 Tips on how to choose the right website development company for your website
As one of the richest persons in the world said – “If your business doesn’t have a website, you are not in a business!”.
Truly said, in today’s digital world, having a website is a must for every business, especially for start-ups. Website expands your business reach to people far away from your workplace. Your website works for you 24/7 and if carefully planned, brings business day and night.
To get the most out of your website, choosing the right website development company is very important.
15 TIPS FOR CHOOSING THE RIGHT WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
1. LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP
Average life of a website is around 3 to 4 years. Usually technology changes during this time span. Moreover, hardly any start-up plans the website in such details and predicts the market reaction correctly to get the right kind website very first time. Making changes to website and developing one version after other is an ongoing process. So, your relationship with the web development company will be a long one and choosing the right web partner is even more important.
2. Free consultation
A customer-oriented company will assist you with free consultation on deciding upon the right kind of website for your business. Most of the time a sales executive will provide you consultation. Do not hesitate to ask a meeting with the developer and digital marketer as well, as the website developer can give useful insights on the structure of your website and a digital marketer can give you insights on what needs to be incorporated in your website for successfully marketing your business.
3. What features do you need
From my experience of interacting with customers, 9 out of 10 customers have no idea on what kind of website they need. In few cases, customer wants a website similar to one of the known competitors’ websites but without thinking how a similar website will help their business. Remember, even if McDonalds give you their business recipe, its highly doubtful that you can build another McDonalds. A few years ago, most businesses website provided information about their company, products, and services, working hours and contact details. Today, things have changed, and you will lose business if you are not using your website as a sales channel to sell your products and services. Decide on what features you want on your website. Analysing the competitors’ websites is a good place to start with. Just Google the phrases you think your customers will search to buy your products and analyses the website structure and features of your competitors and decide what features you want on your website.
4. Decide on saving the money Vs investment
During our interactions with customers, especially start-ups, we have noticed that most of the customers are not aware of what kind of website their business requires. This is despite the fact that they have already consulted few web development companies. After discussing their business needs and what suits them the best, when we calculate the development cost, the number one objection we hear is that they have already got an offer for say Rs. 5000 for their website. Yes, I do not deny that there are no such offers in the market, but the big and more important question is – have these companies studied your business requirements and will such a website attract customers and give you sales? Going for the cheapest option without understanding what your business will get in return is draining your money down the drain. The sole purpose of developing a website for your business is not just to have any website because your competitors have a website, and expect customers inflow from these cheap websites, but to make a calculated decision and have a website that generates profit. Remember, your business website is not an expenditure but an investment in your business.
5. Types of websites
Depending on your business requirements there are 3 types of websites:
- Template based website – Template based websites use readymade design template and content management system to build a website. You save on the custom design of the website. Although a little customization is possible, but websites using the same template will still have the same look and feel. Template based website is a good option if you want to save on your project.
- Custom websites – Custom developed websites are costlier. These websites are usually designed and developed from scratch. All the elements of the website are created with your business goals in mind. Although initially the cost is high, it saves money in the long run as it is easier to upgrade the website in alignment with your business goals.
- eCommerce website – An ecommerce website can be template based or custom made. It purely depends on what you want to achieve, and which features you want to have. The choice of platform will depend on your requirements. Irrespective of what you choose, it is a website that sells products online and has a catalogue, payment gateway and SSL to secure the transactions.
6. Do you like web development company’s website
Everyone wants to know how their website will look after development. People often look at website development company’s portfolio to get an idea. While it is a good idea to check the portfolio, every customer is different with different likes and tastes and wants a website as per their taste. What one may like may not be liked by you. It will be wise to discuss the look and feel of your website before awarding the project. My suggestion is, if you like web development company’s website, go ahead with the company as you both have similar taste. Do not forget to pen down in the agreement how many versions of Web design and how many alterations of the selected design you would like. This adds to the cost of website as more work means more cost, but you will get a design as per your taste.
7. Do they study your business requirements
How much does a car cost? Just think of a figure. What if I ask you to buy a car that can win a Formula 1 race in the amount you thought? As you can get a Tata Nano for around 2 lakh and a Ferrari in crores, similarly all websites are not the same and some of them like Facebook and Google costs billions of rupees.
The important thing is instead of focusing on price, does the website development company focuses on your business requirements? Do they discuss your business and come up with a solution tailored for you? This shows how much customer oriented a company is.
8. Experience in digital marketing
Now is the age of digital marketing. It costs less and has a vast reach. Just Facebook has billions of users whom you can target. Does a digital marketer take part in discussing your project at the planning stage? Sales funnel is an important part of any website and planning your website accordingly with the help of a digital marketer is important.
9. Website development stages
Each website is developed in stages. Some of these stages are:
- Planning – At the planning stage, you plan your website in a way so that you can take your business model online. You study the competitors’ websites to get more ideas for your website.
- Discussion with the developer company – You are ready with a plan to discuss it with the development company to check the feasibility and how much your dream project will cost.
- Signing the agreement – Once you have chosen the website development company, you sign an agreement defining the customer and developer responsibility, customer involvement in the project, development stages and time taken, payment terms, copyright ownership and handing over the project. A written and signed agreement is important so that you and the development company are on the same page.
- Designing the homepage – The look and feel of the website is visualized by designing the homepage. Remember, everyone has a different taste and what may look pleasant to you may not look the same way to some other person. If the homepage and website are designed as per the technical specifications you signed in the agreement, there is not much you can do. Of course, you can always sign another agreement to make more changes.
- Programming backend – At this stage backend or the administration part which is locked by login and password and where you manage your business operations is programmed.
- Programming frontend – Frontend is the part of the website that is visible to the users. At this stage the frontend is programmed.
- Testing – After the programming is complete, the website is tested with some dummy data to ensure that visually and functionally the website works as planned.
- Signing the project completion – All the final payments are completed, the project completion is signed.
- Making the website live – The website is transferred to your hosting and configured to run live.
10. Your role and involvement
During the development of the project, the development company may share the completed part of the website with you to ask your opinion and incorporate them if possible. This is of course possible only if you have such a provision in the agreement. We prefer involving the customer in the website development so that we know during the development process how easy or difficult it is for the customer to understand the website interface.
11. Who owns the website
Developing a website is governed by copyright. Some developers retain the copyright with themselves as it is their work and provide a license to client to use the source code (the website) and the customer has no right to reverse engineer or duplicate and sell the website without prior permission of the developer. Some developer pass on the copyright to the customer for a small fee.
12. Help with domain, hosting
A good website development company helps you with tips on choosing the right domain and provide specifications on the type of webhosting your project requires. They also can help you register the domain name and buy the hosting. Remember, not all hosting providers are the same. Since development company has many projects experience, they can better advise on where you should buy the hosting.
13. Support
Support after website development is important. Timely support is even more important. You must have interacted with companies that have only email as a mean of communication and on writing an email you get the answer that your query will be answered in the next 48 – 72 hours. Well, nothing is more frustrating. Atleast for me. Suppose something goes wrong and your website is down. You will lose money by minutes. Choosing a website development company that is there for you just a phone call away and can immediately switch to your project in case of an emergency is more important than choosing the cheapest at the initial stage. In some cases, some companies have level of escalation in the support system and usually it takes some time till your problem is escalated to a person who can solve your issue. Again, the more time it takes, the more business you lose.
14. Point of contact
Who is your point of contact in the website development company? Is it the sales executive, is it the developer, is it the administrator? It is always better to have one point of contact for all your needs so that you are not kicked off from one person to another after you pay the money.
15. Freelance or a web development company
Should you choose a freelancer or a website development company? There are both pros and cons in both the cases. A freelancer may be cheaper in terms of money, but he may just vanish as well in between and switch off his phone or block your phone number. If the freelancer is from another city, there is hardly anything you can do.
A website development company charges a little extra money, but you have an agreement in place, you pay the money in the official bank account and can drag the company to the court if they try to cheat you.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Whether you are starting a new company or planning a website, a reliable partner is a must, else you will never complete your dream project.
By following our guideline, you can find a great web development company and achieve success in your business. If you want to hire us to develop your website or build an online store, we are just a call away at 8130020947 and we will1 be happy to start a new project with you.