In this short and handy post, I will discuss how to choose the right people to take on your business website project. I will show you some key points that you will need to keep in mind when discussing your project with web designers and developers. Let’s get started.
You’ve got a business idea and know that you need a website for your business but where do you turn? More than likely to Google yet sometimes searching for these services can be difficult and you might not get the answer you were looking for. I know it’s difficult, right?!
Point 1 – Choose a team that is friendly and who listens!
I know it sounds odd to put this in the first step, but my experience tells me that you’re going to need a team that will listen to you and will be friendly at the same time! You’ll undoubtedly have a lot of questions about your business website and how the process will work.
So choose a team that will be kind enough to have the time to explain and be friendly!
Point 2 – They understand marketing
Imagine having a website that is perfect for your business. It looks good, loads fast and even has fancy animations! That sounds all well and good but has it been optimized for users to take any action? Does it have a form for your visitors to fill out? What does your homepage get users to do? Are you collecting user information?
If not, then, you need to make sure that this is in your plans. Getting a user to take action on your business website is critical. You want the visitor to contact you or make a purchase right?
Point 3 – They do not charge ridiculous high fees
So this can be a sore-point for a lot of people but I am going to just put it out there. If you have a 5 to 10 page business website you shouldn’t be spending much more than 3K USD. Anything over this IMO is way too much and you could be using this budget on better things like marketing!
If you want to start an ecommerce website then you shouldn’t be spending more that 8K USD, unless you want to go to an agency in NYC or London and pay twice as much!
Get costing from as many agencies, web designers and web developers as you can, don’t go for the highest but don’t go for the lowest either, unless you like headaches and surprise add-on fees! Try and choose a company that feels just right for you and their pricing suits your budget.
Point 4 – Choose a team that can present creative ideas to you
Your creative team should provide you with lots of great ideas for your business website but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get a little creative yourself. Go online and look at websites (competitors or just in general) note what you like and what you don’t like. Which styles, colours and designs look good to you.
You can even give your team the web addresses of your favourite websites, so they get to know what you really want for your business website.
Working together, you can feel part of the design process and hopefully come up with the ingredients for the perfect website.
Alternatively, if you’re not interested in the design aspect of a website then find an team that is happy to take full charge of the design process.
Point 5 – Set your business website ready for SEO
Another strong point is Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it is known. Now to all you SEO gurus out there, I am not advising readers, that their websites should be number 1 spot for their desired search term. What I am saying that the website should be ready for SEO.
Point 6 – Multilingual websites are vital for many businesses
Now this post might come across as biased as we are WPML but the statistics back up what we’re saying. With over 47% of the world’s population now surfing the web and with 87% of European households having access to the internet, now is a good time to think about a multilingual website for your business.
For most, if not all businesses, a website is the first port of call for a visitor searching for a product, service or information. For those businesses looking to get a competitive edge, a multilingual website can be an impactful way of expanding visitor numbers and gaining trust.
A multilingual website is a necessity for any type of business who is looking to expand into new foreign markets.
Point 7 – Make sure that your business website is responsive
What is responsive I hear you ask! Basically, it is when someone accesses your website on a smartphone, tablet or laptop and it adapts perfectly for each device. It looks just as good on their phone on the way to work as it does on their desk top computer when they arrive.
Have a test with our WPML website? It’s responsive and your business website should be too.