Screening Website Design Companies PDF Print E-mail
By now, you have a good idea of kind of website you’re going to need to get your message across, but now you have the unenviable task of screening a selection of companies to do the job.

Normally, the process would involve wading through scores of Google links trying to find a company that even vaguely looks like they can achieve your goals, but lucky for you, we have done most of the hard work for your and have screened hundreds of website design companies to find a handful of quality website designers that are guaranteed to do a good job. Check out our Featured Web Companies to the right of this lesson to browse through our WebWise Approved website design companies.

If you prefer to do the screening and searching process yourself, then here are a few screening pointers to bear in mind:

Their Website

 Often we come across website design companies that claim to offer "professional, high-quality" web design, and yet their own websites are ghastly, and could barely be considered entry-level, never mind professional.
If the company hasn’t taken the time to develop a good quality website for themselves, it would be foolish to assume that they are going to up the ante for you. It’s clear that they don’t actually have the skills required to make your website a success.
Our list of screened companies has been selected based on a number of stringent criteria, one of them being the fact that their own websites demonstrate their skills.

Warning - you might come across a website design company with what seems like a really good website, but their portfolio looks very different in quality and not up to the same standard... BEWARE! This company has most likely purchased and used a template for their own website, and don’t have the skills to carry this level of design through to their clients. If you find a discrepancy between a company’s website and their portfolio, discard it and continue the search...

Their Portfolio

Almost every website design company will have a portfolio of sorts, and this gives you a great opportunity to take a look at the kind of work they produce. Take the time to visit some of these sites and test them out, see if you like the way the site performs looks and feels. Because website designers tend to build roughly the same type of site every time, visiting two or three sites in their portfolio will give you a good idea of what the company is capable of.

Their Clients

When hiring a new staff member, you generally take the time to call one of their previous employers and ask about the prospective employee. The same applies when screening a website design company.
Choose one or two companies in their portfolio, and give them a call. Most probably, someone in the company will be able and willing to give you some feedback on the website designer, and how they felt about the service and the end result. This will give you excellent insight as to how you’re going to be treated if you decided to employ the company to build your website, and will be a great help in making your decision.

Click 'Next' to move onto the next lesson - Getting a Quote
 
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