Nigel Wilkinson
Managing Director of Daneswood. Nigel has been in sales and marketing since the 1980's and run digital marketing agencies since 2000.
When choosing your agency, remember design is important, and it needs to be right. But that is just one factor in a successful website. Many people will look to build their website with the design at the forefront of their mind and find a company who will build them a beautiful website, but then they don’t get the results they hoped for because the customer journey is confusing, or they find themselves ranking lower on the search engines and getting less business as a result.
You also need to know where the website will be hosted! Server speed and capacity will significantly impact your website’s speed, which affects Google rankings and useability.
Make sure you know who is responsible for the hosting and what support is provided. It cannot be stressed enough that finding a developer who will take User eXperience (UX) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) into account, as well as design and functionality, when building a website is of utmost importance.
Ask lots of questions and check they are the right for you. As a general rule, I’d recommend choosing an agency that is big enough to cope with your project but small enough that you will be an important client. You need to know they aren’t taking a massive punt that they can deliver your enormous project, which they are not equipped for. Equally, don’t be the filler project that they squeeze in between their important clients!
Here are some great questions to ask
- Can you see examples of work like your requirement?
- Do they talk about Customer Journey or User Experience?
- Will they do a Competitor Analysis and highlight areas you can outperform?
- What software is the website built in?
- How long have they been trading?
- Will they provide a Project Manager?
- Is the price fixed in advance or on an hourly rate?
- What are the payment terms?
- What happens if you don’t like the design they do?
- Can you update the website yourself?
- If so, is training for your team included?
- Can they provide or recommend professional photography, copyrighting, or
- video?
- Is there a support team if the lead developer is away?
- Is GDPR taken into consideration?
- Can they offer hosting, security, and technical support?
- Can they support you with SEO and other Digital Marketing?
For more detail on choosing the right agency and creating a website that elevates your business, download our free guide – we don’t ask for your contact details – you can find it here https://daneswood.co.uk/website-design-development/