Now comes the two choices: Freelancers and Agencies.
This is a big decision since you are putting your trust — and your money — in the hands of someone else. Your website has an impact on your digital marketing success, lead generation, and profitability. You have to get everything right.
To guide you through this whole process, we have brought together these five questions that you should ask before hiring an agency.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Questions to Ask While Hiring a Web Design and Development Agency
1. Figure out your project requirements
Before you begin researching local web design businesses and freelancers, you need to fully understand your requirements. The scale and complexity of your project can influence the type of team you hire.
If you’re looking for a major change or a completely new design that requires complicated, specialized work and technological integrations, this information will impact who you work with. From e-commerce to social media and email integrations, custom forms, geolocation content filtering, and customized layouts, all of these aspects should be given to the person you approach about your project.
Both freelancers and agencies will have various abilities, and it is completely viable to outsource both complex and easy projects. That being said, the ability to have one or two points of contact and all of the web design and development pieces managed in one place might make it easier on your team to partner with an agency.
2. How much time is required to complete the project?
The ability to collaborate is as important as the overall project timeline. Each project is unique and requires specfic timeline to be completed. Here’s an example. Let’s say you own a jewelry store and want a complete jewelry web design & development service. Your first choice should be hiring an agency. Why? Because they’re more equipped, skilled, and experienced. Ready to work on your jewelry store and transform your new idea into reality.
But a professional agency alone can’t do everything for you. Your team has to share your brand’s vision, message, and preferred color style that better defines your business and provides a great user experience.
Web design and development processes require meetings, evaluations, approvals, communications, and content collection. Your partnership will undoubtedly be impacted by how much time your internal team has to focus on these areas.
3. What’s the agency’s location?
Location plays a key role! Nothing is worse than having to wait days for approvals and communications because everyone is in a different time zone. Hiring cheap freelancers from abroad may be attractive, but the savings might not be worth the inconvenience that comes with them.
Another factor to consider when picking a regional agency for your web design project is when you want them to be available to interact. Do you require live updates and meetings, and want them to be accessible during business hours? Any agency with a 3+ hour time zone difference can cause delays and errors.
Or, there’s a solution to it. For example, if you’re located in the US, but hoping to have work done outside regular business hours and want reviews and updates during your 9-5 hours, consider hiring an agency from the Eastern or Central Standard Time.
4. What’s your budget? And what’s their cost?
When hiring a web design agency for your website, remember to consider both up-front cost and long-term value. Here are some questions to clear upfront:
- How much are you able to spend?
- Will you be charged hourly, or is there a set budget for the complete project?
- Is there a cap on working hours?
- Does the contract cover unexpected delays, unsatisfactory work changes, and other minor additions in the process?
- Which metrics will you use to measure the value and leads driven by the new website design?
If you’re on a tight budget, you probably want to investigate a DIY website builder like Squarespace or a free WordPress site. Although you can find a cost-effective freelancer from another country. But remember that you still need to consider all other factors, such as project duration, team location, and availability for ongoing maintenance.
Ask about which services are covered in the price. Will they cooperate with you to provide ongoing support and assistance? From small bug repairs to important security updates – these changes can affect your search rankings.
5. What’s your project deadline? And how busy their schedule is?
Setting and sticking to deadlines is perhaps the most important part of time management for web design projects.
Every other movable component of the project depends on your launch date. Do you need a speedy turnaround? Do you work for a big company where approvals must be given by several people at every level, making it crucial for both parties to meet deadlines for deliverables?
From the very start, figure out if they are able to meet your deadline. You don’t want to work on a project for a month and then discover that your freelancer or agency is working on tens of other projects too. You need someone who’s dedicated to your project and will deliver the best results promised.
Conclusion
Choosing a web design agency is a critical decision that will have a lasting impact on your brand’s digital power. These five essential questions will guide you get an aesthetic website for your store that’s strategic, technical, and convincing for your visitors.
