Creating a web site? Read this first!
Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing the best web design company for your site is extremely important. Unless you run a web-based business, you probably do not have web design experience within your company. Building your web site will take time and a little homework!
To create a web site for your business, follow these 6 simple steps:
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Establish Your Goals:
Before you begin looking for company to help you design and build your web site, take the time to understand the goals of your web site. This will be extremely important to help set expectations with the web design company you choose.
In order to set your web site goals, ask yourself the following questions:
Why do you want a web site?
Are you selling something?
Do you have a catalog of products that changes on a regular basis?
Who is your target market?
Do you already have a brand?
What is your industry?
Who are your competitors?
Do they already have web sites? If so, what do they look like?
How soon do you want your web site?
What happens if you never create a web site for your business? Take the time to answer each of the above questions and if you have time, write the answers down on a sheet of paper. These are the same questions most web design companies should ask you before they begin to create your site. If you have these questions answered up front, you will have some criteria for choosing the right web design company. -
Determine Your Budget:
How much do you want to spend on your web site. Web sites can cost you anywhere from $1000 to $100,000 depending upon what you want it to do. Know your spending constraints before you begin negotiating with design companies. Whatever you do, do not tell a web design company what your budget is!! Always get pricing based on your needs, not your budget. -
Pick a Web Design Company:
Your choice of a web design company is a very important step.
Take your time to investigate all of your options. Here are some important items to consider. -
Evaluate Experience:
Has the web design company created web sites similar to yours? Do they have relevant industry experience?
As with any services company, choose someone that has relevant experience. -
Review the Portfolio:
A well established web design company will have a solid portfolio of web sites that they have created and a list of their clients.
Do you like what you see? Do the sites have a style that appeals to you? -
Compare Prices:
Pricing for creating a web site can vary. Typically, web design companies will charge one of three ways:
Time and materials: price is variable based on the actual number of hours spent working on your site. For example, a web design company may charge you $75 per hour. If it takes 100 hours to create your web site, your price would end up being $7,500.
Fixed Price: some design companies will charge you a fixed fee based on a fixed set of requirements. If you outline your requirements very carefully, many web design companies will quote you a single price.
Component Pricing: some design companies will charge "by the page". By creating a price based on the number of pages, you can control the cost by designing a specific number of pages. Buyer beware: some design companies will charge by the page but will have "special pricing" for components such as custom graphics, animated images, and the like.
The most important step in pricing is to make sure the potential design company outline all of the prices associated with the work and puts it all in writing. Never enter into a deal unless all of the costs are well understood up front. Also make sure that you understand what "done" means. Try and structure the payments such that a significant portion of the fees (50%) are not due until you "accept" the final web site. Include the agreed-upon dates in your contract and provisions for what will happen if these dates are not met.
Solicit bids from multiple web design companies and compare both the pricing models and the prices themselves. There are thousands of web designers across the country and they should all fight feverously for your business! Be picky! If a web design company dismisses any of your questions regarding their design process, pricing, or client references, take your business elsewhere!
