As a small business owner looking to hire a web development firm, you have probably heard a few cautionary tales about substandard development, or the cost minded business owner who hired a friend or relative who is “good with computers” for little to nothing only to find new truth to the old adages: “you get what you pay for” and “beggars can’t be choosers,” when it comes to quality work. Then there are those unfortunate business owners who got taken in by some shady freelancer that never completed the project and ran off with the money.
Before you hire a web design firm your job as a shrewd business owner is to make sure the firm in question has the required expertise to exceed the needs of your project development by looking for a few key indicators, and to ask several important questions before you decide to sign a development contract.
Things to look for:
Is the web developer in question a real business?
Your web design firm should be a real business. That means that they need an office and overhead. What it does mean is that you should probably avoid hiring your family members, and friends as your web developer. A business relationship is needed with your web development team so that you can feel comfortable negotiating, providing honest and critical feedback, and so you can be straightforward if there’s ever a time when you aren’t happy with your firm’s work and not worry that it will come back to haunt your personal relationship with the relative or friend. Don’t be afraid to ask for references. You should be able to get a couple of client names and phone numbers so you can talk to a couple of the firm’s past clients to help you get an idea what it’s like to work with this team and what you can expect as far as help and support down the road should you need it.
Does the developer have a website?
Your web firm should have a good web site. Any web development firm that tells you that they’ve been too busy working on clients’ projects that they haven’t had time to design their own site should throw up some red flags for you. If they don’t know that having a strong web site is the calling card for their business, then they are not the firm that should be designing a web site for your business.
A web development firm should have a portfolio of their previous work and it should be easy to find on their web site. Most of the sites listed in the portfolio should be live. However, if you come across some sites have changed or that are no longer live, don’t necessarily hold that against the developer. Times are tough, in this economy companies are going out of business at an alarming rate. Also, companies often re-design their sites and may not use the same web development team.
Pricing
As in any other industry, there are those who will overcharge and those who try to undercut their competitiors. The challenge is to find the balance. If you pay too little in terms of the dollar amount for your web site, you often end up paying more in other ways. Another adage that rings true here is “you get what you pay for.” Sometimes a supposed discount or deal can be a disastrous headache in the making resulting in more time effort and money on your part to correct the situation.
Several experts suggest that you can outsource your web design to overseas developers to get a fabulous web site for a very, very low price. While there are cases where this strategy can work, you must be cautious. There are many unseen costs associated with this kind of overseas outsourcing.
First, if you don’t know how to find a reliable, high quality team overseas, you may risk giving your money and/or sensitive personal/business information to unscrupulous vendors.
Second, when you work with overseas vendors, you may experience language barriers that are difficult to overcome. This can result in disaster for your web site. There are some outstanding web firms around the world, and you can get a good price, but the path to finding these firms is littered with firms that will provide substandard development or worse.
The best solution is to work with a reputable firm with strong references, one that will take your budget into account, and find high quality solutions that fit what you can afford.
Questions to Ask:
What components should my website use?
This is sort of a trick question to help weed out unqualified and unscrupulous developers If your web firm starts to answer this question without asking about your business, consider that a pretty big red flag and run the other way. There are some general components that most business web sites should have however when you’re working with a web firm, they shouldn’t answer this question unless they know more about what you do, what industry you’re in, and what you want your web site to accomplish for your business.
Will my website be custom designed or will it be designed from a template?
A good web development firm will design an original site for you. They won’t send you a site design that looks generic, or that is based on a template. Price can be a good indicator for whether your team is using templates or original designs. If the estimate for your site is under $1,000, it’s almost certain that you’re not getting an original design. Although, there are plenty of firms out there that charge ridiculous amounts of money to provide a pre-fabricated template web site.
You should probably steer clear of choosing a template web site. You will want your web site to stand apart from your competitors as original and distinct. Your site should be designed to carefully reflect your brand. How much can a template design represent your brand if shares a common layout and design that can be found on other web sites? What distinguishes you from them? As a business owner nobody needs to tell you that smart investing in your business makes sense, and for most businesses, investing in a website that incorporates your branding makes for a strong return on investment.
How will the developer apply the principals of search engine optimization?
When you ask this question, if all they do is talk about meta tags and keywords, that’s another big red flag. If a web firm is serious about their business, they should know and understand principles of SEO and how these principles apply to the code, as well as the rest of the web site content.
If they talk to you about using Flash or iFrames for your web site, ask them if that will cause any problems getting your site content indexed. Take note of how they answer this question, as it is another trick question of sorts. The actual answer is complex and they shouldn’t just say that it will not be a problem.
Can the developer develop the web site in a content management system?
If you want to manage your web site content yourself without having to take a web development course yourself, ask your web team if they can develop your site using a content management system. Within it’s framework, you should be able to manage your site, including editing, adding pages, deleting pages, and more, at any time, from virtually anywhere in the world that you can access the web through your web browser.
Your contact at your web development firm should be able to talk to you in your language, but also be able to easily converse with the programmers. You will need someone who can explain web jargon that you may not fully understand without being condescending. You may need them to be able to explain some elements of what they are doing, to you, just as you may need to explain some of the finer points of your business or industry to them. Customer service is paramount in the web industry, and you want someone who will return your e-mails and phone calls in a timely manner.