10 Jan What to Look for in a Local Web Designer
Are you looking at creating a website for your business, charity organisation or personal project? It’s often difficult to know where to start especially if you are unfamiliar with technology and website design. Unfortunately, as with every industry there can be a vast difference in the quality of the end product and the process in between so we are here to give you an idea of what to look for in a website designer before you start your project.
Good Communication
When clients tell us about their frustrations with previous designers, it almost always comes down to poor communication. Slow replies to emails, taking weeks to action tasks or mis-communication between Project Managers and designers are a few common issue that we hear about. It is therefore important to find out if a company is good at communicating.
Ask about who will be your point of contact for the project, will you be able to sit down directly with a designer? Are you able to call up the office if something goes wrong and how long are simple edits likely to take to complete? It’s perfectly reasonable to ask all of these questions before accepting a quote and starting a project.
At BlueCoo Creative, we don’t believe in project managers or ticketing systems. We like our clients to be able to simply email or call us in the office and we will handle their requests promptly from there.
Non- Technical Talk
The teach industry is notorious for bamboozling clients with complicated technical talk. From SEO to PPC advertising, it’s easy to become confused around all this jargon fi you are unfamiliar.
Even though we are a bunch of tech geeks here in the office, we make sure to speak with our clients in plain ole English, taking time to explain all the elements that make a website work well for you.
Transparent Pricing
Many companies will not display prices for website design as project cost can vary greatly depending on the size and functionality of the website. This is where a consultation normally comes in handy to discuss the project details and provide a quote. There are however many other costs associated with setting up a website and these can and should be disclosed at the beginning of the process. Website hosting, maintenance, domain name and SSL certificates will all bring additional costs so it’s important to ask about this when receiving a quote.
At BlueCoo we offer website design packages at a fixed cost as well as providing custom quotes for projects out with. We also disclose any additional costs when providing a quote upfront so our clients get no surprises.
Welcomes your Input
Of course, as a team of creatives we are bursting with ideas to make your website stand out from the crowd but we understand that you know your business inside out and therefore will have an idea of how you want to portray it. It’s important to find a designer that welcomes your input into the project.
We like to sit down with each client and find out about what makes their business special and different from the rest. That way we can translate this into their online marketing so the right messages are reaching potentials customers.
Website Ownership
Most people assume that once you have paid for website design that you then own the website in it’s entirety. Unfortunately, this is not the case with many web design companies so it’s super important to read the contract to see if you actually own the website and can move it away freely should you choose to.
Many companies will charge simple for the license to use the website but retain it as their intellectual property, hitting you with a large fee if you decide to move it away. Again our approach to this is to be as upfront as possible. As far as we are concerned, if you have paid us to design your website, that site belongs to you and should you wish to move to another hosting provider, we wont hit you with any unreasonable fees.
So there are our top tips to picking the right local website designer. If you would like anymore information on website design in Dundee or Scotland, please call us on 01382 918525.