The employment of web developers and designers is expected to grow at a rate of 8% from 2019 to 2029, the fastest of any occupation.
Web design and development companies are highly sought after in today’s digital age.
It’s critical for the success of any business today to establish an online presence. Web design and development companies help you achieve your digital goals with their expertise. But how do you find the company that is the perfect match for your startup?
We’ve come up with a handy guide to help you find the digital partners that perfectly align with your goals and needs to take your business forward in the digital realm.
Before you begin your search for the perfect website development company
There are a few things you should consider first. Being clear about who you are, where you stand, and where you are headed tremendously helps your search.
- Determine your business needs and requirements
Perhaps the most important step in the process is to determine what you need as a company. Startups have very distinct needs from established corporations. Moreover, their needs change and grow as they change and grow with time.
Whatever your digital requirements are as of now, they are most likely to evolve with time. Most startups forget to incorporate this flexibility, which creates problems in the future. How does it affect you, noting your requirements? You need to keep room for changes and look for a tech partner that accommodates changing needs.
Is it advisable to communicate with your entire team before you sit down with your technical department to jot down your requirements. It doesn’t need to be very detailed. Having a basic idea of your needs is enough to paint a clear picture for yourself and the company you hire.
- Determine your compatibility with a technology partner
You’ll more likely be evaluating multiple web development companies to pick the best for your startup. It’s important to spend time with each of them to truly understand how they work before you make a decision.
This is a time-taking procedure but one that can save you time and resources in the long run. Checking compatibility with your future tech partner beforehand is the foundation of a long and fulfilling work relationship.
If you rush through this step, you may end up hiring a company that may not be the best fit for you. Moving from one company to another will require you to go through the entire process once again, costing time and resources that could have been avoided.
- Learn the basics of website development
While the very reason you hire a web development company is that you need help with the digital side of things, it’ll actually come in handy if you learn some basics of it beforehand. Knowing the basics of website development helps you collaborate with your tech partner better.
You can explain your needs and review their work better. More importantly, you’ll better understand better what they do to know whether they are giving their best to your work relationship or not.
- Figure out what kind of support you need
This relays to the first point we discussed jotting down your needs and requirements. Based on those needs, you can figure out the kind of support you need. Doing this helps to find the right company so much easier as you can look for and discuss specific terms while searching.
For example, if your need is to create an online presence from scratch, the support you need is the creation of a website and the setting up and running of social media accounts. For this, you’ll be looking for social media management and web design services from your web development company.
- Factor in the costs
The budget you can allocate to web development services is entirely subjective. You can easily find companies that fit your budget. There are all kinds of web development companies, from inexpensive and fixed rate to hourly and tier rate.
You can negotiate the price with your company as well. This will include the price for the initial design and development cost as well as the regular maintenance of the same of your digital pages.
Important qualities to look for in a web development company
There are a few qualities that are staples for great web developments that deliver outstanding projects on a consistent basis. They are the qualities you should be looking for in the company you wish to partner up with.
- Industry expertise
Experience is sought after by 91% of people looking to hire anyone for a job, making it the most sought-after quality of all. A company that is experienced can offer you a variety of choices in content, design, and UX.
It’lll also understand audience and user behaviors better to create digital solutions that resonate well with your audience. An experienced company may be a bit more expensive than a relatively new company but it is well worth it.
- Creativity
Experience is often connected with safety and boredom. That is not always true. It’s equally important for the company you choose to be as creative in its solutions as it is experienced. This is because creativity is what sustains you in the digital world.
Around half the consumers believe that website design is crucial to a website’s overall brand. The company you choose needs to be overly and consistently creative to help your brand stand out and shine in front of the consumers in a sea of other brands.
- Flexibility
As we discussed above, the needs and preferences of a startup tend to change with time as it finds its footing. The tech partner you choose needs to be flexible to your needs and change with them to accommodate them with ease.
Web design and social media projects are especially prone to last-minute changes. A rigid that refuses to incorporate new developments will not be able to create dynamic solutions and lose the attention of the audience.
- Work ethics
Companies that value integrity and work ethic make for wonderful partners. You need a trustworthy tech partner, especially as a startup. Your web development company should not only create solutions for you but also guide you in the industry.
It is understandable that you’ll not develop trust in a single day with your development company. You need to give it time to develop. Let them know that you trust their judgment and expertise to come up with the best and most innovative solutions for you.
- Communication
It’s important to establish clear lines of communication and communicate on a regular basis to create top-quality web projects. A company lacking in communication would probably not be a good partner.
Your shortlisted company should be available to discuss projects and make changes as per your needs. They should also communicate their reasons to do the things they do to avoid misunderstandings.
Things to consider before you sign up with your shortlisted web development company
Once you begin searching for your perfect tech partner, you will eventually narrow it down to the last few options. Here are a few tips to help you make the right choice between great companies that may all appear to be the best fit for you.
- Review the company’s website
Visit the company’s website to take a look at its own online presence before you allow it to take over yours. It’s an excellent place to start to understand what the company does, the values it believes in, and the experience it possesses.
The website gives a complete view of the company. You can get valuable information such as contact details and specific service details to make comparisons. You may also venture into their blog posts or case studies to get a deeper understanding.
- Evaluate their expertise and experience
As stated above, experience is the most important factor in deciding the right candidate for a job. That said, the applicants may be exaggerating their expertise to appear more suitable to you. It’s important to extensively evaluate their stated expertise.
You may directly ask them questions about their experience. You may ask specific questions about their projects. You may also take a look at their completed projects. If you can, talk to their previous clients to understand their experience.
- Check on their privacy and security policies
Many web development companies often ask for confidential data from businesses to understand their process and formulate the most suitable solutions for them. However, this data, as the name suggests, is strictly not meant for public use.
You should check a company’s stance on privacy and security policies beforehand. If they tend to use their client’s confidential data, you should propose signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to protect your data.
- Check reviews and customer testimonials
Reviews and customer testimonials are perhaps the most honest feedback you can find about a company. We briefly mentioned contacting their previous clients above. Clients and customers usually don’t have anything to gain by praising or bad-mouthing a company.
You can take their word at face value. However, we suggest that you contact reviewers who leave overly positive or negative reviews about a company to know why they feel so strongly about it. You may even bring up these reviews to the company to know their side of the story as well.
- Read their success stories
Reading the success story written by the company itself may seem counterintuitive after checking honest reviews from clients and customers. However, that’s not true. If the company is putting out a success story, it is because it must have helped a client in some capacity.
Otherwise, the client can come forward and refute it. More importantly, a success story maps in detail the path it took to provide solutions to a client. It helps you understand the actual process of a company to see if it is suitable for the way you work.
- Check if they offer go-live support
Go-live support refers to the continued maintenance and support from the supplier of a service to the client after a project goes live i.e., becomes available for use. See if your web development company offers support to maintain your digital projects consistently.
- Ask for a consultation
One way to get a clear idea about how a company works is to have an open one-on-one conversation with it. Ask for a consultation for its representatives. Explain your unique needs to them in clear terms.
Evaluate the solution they provide to know if they’ll be the right fit for you or not. It is advisable to be honest with them regarding your operations and future goals to let them have a clear idea about your requirements, in turn allowing them to provide appropriate solutions.
- Review the financials and complete the documentation
When you are in the final stages of partnering up with a company, you should review its financial statements to get a grasp of its monetary situation. It gives you a complete idea about important elements such as investments and cash flow.
Moreover, check that you complete the documentation so that no formalities are left out of the equation. All business engagements between you and the company should begin only post the completion of the documentation.
Having an online presence is the need of the hour today
Web design and development companies are your partners in the journey of establishing your brand and growing its presence among your target audience.
Choosing a tech partner can often seem intimidating. Look for a company that not only fits your unique needs but also is flexible and trustworthy. See that it communicates well with you on a regular basis.
While it’s important to look for creativity in your web development company, experience is the one factor you should pay the most attention to. Be thorough in your screening of companies to pick the most suitable partner for your startup.
