Many businesses try to take advantage of the Internet and make it work for their brand, so to say. It’s not just a capricious decision, but rather a necessity, because almost everyone has access to the web today, and the modern marketing mechanics pretty much demand you to have a presence online if you want to succeed. If you’re going to get noticed in the countless short-lived brands, you need a robust and reliable website.
While there are rather many free website building tools on the Internet, they are far from perfect and generally result in similarly looking sites that don’t function as they should. At the same time, there are professional, reliable, and reputed web design agencies on the market that can create some amazing websites that not only look good but also boost client conversion rates and sales.
To launch a functional company website that will make your brand stand out among the rest, you will have to hire a trustworthy and experienced web design agency. However, you should be careful and cautious, because there are many incompetent companies that aren’t going to deliver the promised results and just want to take your money. To avoid unwanted encounters and have a positive experience with a professional web design agency, you have to be aware of the things you should stay away from.
Thing to Avoid #1. Content Management System Not Included
When you hire a web design agency it is important that you get a website with an embedded Content Management System (CMS). Every professionally built website should have an integrated CMS in it – this is a feature that makes content editing easy.
If you don’t find a WordPress or Magento CMS platform incorporated into your site, you will need to contact the design company at any given time and request them to edit the site’s content. The thing is that the agency will most likely additionally charge for this. Agencies that make websites without CMS want to keep getting money from their customers after project delivery. It’s essential to both find out if the agency you’re considering hiring is going to add a CMS to your site and to stay away from companies that don’t.
Thing to Avoid #2. Too Low Prices
Many business owners, who want to hire a web design agency, try to get the cheapest deal possible. But, they don’t know how things work in this industry.
When a design company offers meager prices, it usually delivers a primary site without any custom features. That means you will have to pay extra money for each additional function or feature. So, instead of ordering a website for a decent cost, you will be spending more and more until you get the site done the way you need it. The best way to avoid such an outcome is to make preliminary research on standard web design rates.
Thing to Avoid #3. Too Much Tech Jargon
If you hear too many terms you don’t understand, move on to the next candidate for the job. You need a professional web design team that is able to explain to you what they’re going to do in plain, understandable words, and not some uber-technical mumbo-jumbo.
When a web design agency begins spitting too much technical jargon to describe their design process, they most probably want to sound more convincing and get you to pay more for the things you don’t need on your website. And how can you resist such great professionalism, right?
What you need is a design agency that will explain its intention in clear and straightforward English any person can understand.
Thing to Avoid #4. Full In-Advance Payment
Consider this for a moment: you are choosing between two web design agencies, one requires full payment in advance before doing anything on your project, while the other one only requests a deposit. Which of them would you trust?
Any design company that requests full payment upfront before doing anything on the website you want to order is a company that doesn’t believe in its services. That means you can’t trust such companies. A trustworthy web design agency will only request a deposit with the rest of the payment secured for when the website is launched, and everything is to your liking.
Thing to Avoid #5. Non-Responsive Site Design
People nowadays use mobile gadgets to access the web in most cases. According to research, the number of people using smartphones and tablets outnumbers that of people using desktop computers. That means that your website has to be adapted to various platforms and very responsive to multiple resolutions. In other words, stay away from companies that can’t provide you with a responsive website design.
Thing to Avoid #6. No All-Inclusive Web Design Services
Any reputable web design agency should be capable of providing web development services along with web design services. While it may sound surprising, these days some companies only offer a literal design to their customers’ websites without ensuring they function as needed. When you run across such agencies, make a note never to contact them again.
Conclusion
While the above-mentioned things are essential, they are just the tip of the iceberg. You should be able to meet with a web design agency and discuss all the details of your project before giving a ‘yes.’ You may well have more than one meeting. However at the end of the day, before signing a contract with a design agency, you have to be sure that you will get a fully functional website.
