If you want to venture out into the competitive world of e-commerce or e-marketing, it is desirable that you outsource website development to a professional web designing company. To shortlist a company that can fulfill your requirements comprehensively and successfully, you need to prepare a checklist against which you can judge your strategic partner’s suitability.
The components of the checklist to choose the right web design company are discussed below for your reference.

1) Can The Company Relate With The Uniqueness Of Your Business?

The company experts should have worked with clients in your business niche earlier. This would enable them to offer the best product based on the unique needs of your business. Prior experience would allow web designers to draw insights from niche trends, competition, customer sentiments, and issues.
When web design strategies would focus solely on your needs, your site would become more competitive. To understand if the outsourced partner is familiar with your business,

1. Understand their approach to your work
2. Check the level of customization your site would be provided with
3. Test if your site’s design would be innovative and different from others
4. Assess if the firm conducts research into audience’s needs & expectations
5. Ascertain if the design would cater to the aspirations of your clients
6. Check if latest graphic design modules are used for improving your brand’s presence or just for exhibition

Always go with a seasoned web design company whose team can address your unique needs and meet your business goals.

2) Can The Company Offer More Than Just Website Designing?

A developed website needs maintenance and marketing. So, if the web design company can offer a complete range of services including

1. Website Designing
2. Web Development
3. Graphic Designing
4. Digital Marketing
5. Competitive Strategy Formulation & Implementation

you can better coordinate with a single company to execute your online strategies for enhancing your brand’s identity on the web. Communication and job progress tracking would be streamlined whereas you can save significantly on the cost front.

3) Can The Company Demonstrate Previous Work Through Live Examples?

You can evaluate the efficiency of the outsourced company by reviewing the portfolio of sites designed by them. This will help you in assessing if

1. Work delivered matches your preferences
2. The company would be able to incorporate unique elements desired by you You should not get satisfied with screenshots of sites designed but must insist on watching live websites at work. Visit the live portfolio to check
3. If designers possess the needed depth in work
4. If designers’ skills, expertise, and acumen are relevant and appropriate

You must scrutinize each sample closely. Bid goodbye to the company which does not have a live portfolio.
 

4) Has The Company Been Around Since Long

If the web designing firm has been in business since long and also plans to continue ahead, it is a sign that the firm has been successfully catering to clients. Many firms start every year and shut down without a trace. From such firms, you cannot expect quality work or support for your site.

The longevity of a firm indicates that it

1. Has the strategic blend of expertise and experience
2. Can adapt to the latest design trends of the online landscape
3. Can offer you physical as well as an email address for connecting If the firm is only offering email communication, you may experience difficulty in communicating with them in the future. If email is also not provided, avoid the firm.

5) Is The Company Active On Social Media?

An established web designing company would have social media footprints. This is because the company would be marketing its services through YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

If the reviews and feedbacks about the company are negative on social media, you need to be wary of it. If the clients’ experiences with the company have been good in the past, you too can expect a smooth ride with the company.

6) Is The Company Using Best Practices For Enhancing User Experience?

The visual appeal of the site is important. But the main purpose of having a site is to engage audiences constructively and heighten your brand’s image. Your SEO goals are not completely fulfilled by an aesthetic front-end design.
For enhancing user experience and promoting lead conversions, proven practices for optimizing the site with contemporary technologies must be adopted. The codes, content flow, navigation, the design should be user-centric.  
The design firm should align the site’s design with your business objectives. This would help in leveraging digital solutions for optimizing the site for search engine rankings and maximum performance.

7) Check If The Company Has Proficiency in Developing Responsive Themes?

Your website must be responsive so that it can cater optimally to the browsing needs of mobile users. The outsourced partner you chose should have proven competence in building responsive designs for websites.

To check if the responsive web design company delivers on its promises, you can test sites developed previously by them on your mobile devices. The webpages should be optimized for devices of different sizes, and resolutions.

8) Assess If Return on Investment would Be Significant?

You need to ascertain if the designing capabilities of the company have a positive impact on clients. For this, you should ask for

1. Case studies of previous successful implementations
2. Analytics data that indicate an increase in client loyalties
3. Relevant samples of designs to verify if the client would measure up to your expectations.

9) Is The Firm Willing to Share Information About Its Past Clients?

You must ask for contact information of past clients for whom the shortlisted firm had delivered web designing projects. Get in touch with them to seek their frank and transparent feedback about the practices and policies of the firm.
Interact with different clients to understand more about

1. Quality of sites’ developed
2. Firm’s project management policies
3. Responsiveness to clients
4. Ability to meet schedules
5. Availability

10) Is The Firm Willing To Share Information About Its Developers?

A firm’s credibility stems from its expert and experienced developers. The web developers should be supremely skilled with a diverse portfolio of relevant qualifications.
Ask for information about the firm’s developers so that you can check their aptitude and experience on parameters like

1. Stellar web development practices
2. Front and backend development
3. Algorithms and data structures
4. Databases and web design architectures Apart from web developers, a renowned firm should have on its rolls SEO experts, digital marketing experts, information architects, content development experts, quality assurance experts, project managers, etc.

11) Does The Company Has Diverse Experience?

If you want to rise above the competition, you need to associate with a designing firm which offers multiple services under one roof. These include:

1. Website designing and development
2. Digital marketing
3. SEO optimization

Such a company would enable the building of a unique site which conforms to industry standards, has tailored solutions to complex business problems and is code optimized.

The company should be well-versed in creating mobile apps, driving SEO, and good experience of enhancing search engine ranking of clients’ webpages.

12) How Is The Customer Support?

The site delivered to you won’t be of much use if you can’t track the designers if a problem surfaces. You must get dedicated staff to interact with. 24X7 help-desk support is also essential. Go through the customer support policy of firm carefully.

13) Is The Service Cost Competitive?

Always ask for the complete price that you are going to be charged by the firm. Also, ask for free estimates to get insights into the services you are being charged for. Select only the services that you need from the quotation submitted. Ask upfront about any hidden prices.

Conclusion

If the website design and development company has been established years ago, it doesn’t imply that it would deliver impeccable results. You need to verify the firm’s track record and the quality of services delivered. The right mix of skills and expertise would offer you an optimum return on investment. While looking through top web design companies, always feel free to contact past clients of shortlisted agencies for gathering feedback. You will then be able to snag the best deal for a powerful online presence.