Designing a proper website, no doubt, comes with plenty of challenges. And so companies tend to hire Web Development Agencies to get the work done without any hassle. But ironically, picking the right agency for this handful task is a challenge itself! 

If you’re searching for a perfect Web Development Agency to build/ develop/ design/ re-design a well-functioned website for your company, you’ll have to consider so many things – some are pretty specific while some may vary according to your company’s needs. This search can be exhausting. Also, the whole process of hiring is even more lengthy and tiresome – interviewing, analyzing, budget & payment discussion and so many more. 

Having a proper idea of this task and getting specific directions in this regard can certainly make it a lot easier for you to choose the most suitable Web Development Agency. This brings you to this blog.

This blog intends to simplify it all 

Think about it as a two-step procedure. 

1. Identify what you need on your website

This includes everything that you feel as requirements – the purpose of the website, its simplicity, easy navigation, visual hierarchy, captivating content, efficient use of white space, grid-based layout, loading time, responsive design, technology preference, improvement of user experience, and EVERYTHING else. 

2. Determine what you need to discuss with the Web Development Agency

You need to know about the agency in detail – their experience, expertise, market value, availability, location, strategy, customer review the market niche they target, and all the other little-big details. 

Then discuss their requirement as well – expected payment, estimated time, specifications & information they need you to provide.  

Let’s break it down for you.

Do you ever get confused while trying to figure out your requirements for the website? How to identify what you need? What might be better for you and what might not? 

Well, try to make a list of questions containing the necessary details to work it all out. 

• Do you need a completely new website to build and design? Or some modifications to your existing website? 

Either way, there will be some common requirements there. You’ll need contents that are relevant enough for your potential consumers and your regular consumers. Then comes the analysis of how is it performing. 

If you want a completely new website you’ll need to hire a team of developers who can offer you full support – from designing & developing to creative content, graphics & multimedia, and whatnot. They should be able to suggest to you the necessary features and tactics that may help you drive traffic.

And if you already have a website but need to redesign it or maybe just a few modifications are needed to cope with the current market growth, hire a team of developers who can do it for you in a short time, also keeping it within the budget for you. 

• What’s the purpose of your website?

Why do you even need a website? – this question might sound a little rhetorical at first but trust me, this has more importance than you think. When your expectation doesn’t match what you get chances are, you weren’t clear enough about the purpose of the website. 

If the purpose is to let people get details of your product/ services, the website should have content as blog posts. If it’s an e-commerce site, pricing, offers, purchase/ order description should be shown properly. If it’s a service selling website, content should be lucrative enough to make the users feel they need this! 

• How do you visualize your website from a consumer perspective? 

To catch the eyes of your audience sometimes products and offers are not enough. Improvement of user experience plays a big role here. It’s surprising how much traffic a user-friendly website can drive! 

A simple website having features of – easy navigation, visual hierarchy, efficient use of white space, the grid-based layout can help you gather repeated customers when they find purchasing from your website effortless. Also, having a responsive design on a website can get you more customers. 

Loading time has a big impact as well. The shorter the loading time, the more chances to grab consumers’ interest. 

You must make it all crystal clear to the team you’re gonna hire. 

• What sort of technology do you prefer? 

To have your developer team working alongside your business team, you should discuss your technology preferences with them so that there’s no clash of choices and decisions in the most delicate part of developing a website – the technology that goes behind it. 

That’s enough about what you should do on your site before hiring a developer team. Let’s jump into the more difficult and certainly more important part – what to discuss with the Web Development Agency. 

As always, we would like to suggest you make a list. This time the list is about the question that you should ask the developer team during interviews/ meetings. 

You can start in the following order (or you may shuffle things up as per your comfort but make sure to cover it all) : 

• Are they able to fulfill your web design project requirements? 

As discussed earlier, you gotta figure out your requirements first, and do you know why so? So that you can ask your developer team whether they are capable enough to deliver you all those features and demands or not.  

The scale and complexity of your project can impact what kind of team you hire. To have a large redesign or a brand new build that requires complex, custom work and tech integrations, a team of highly experienced and efficient developers will be suitable. And for comparatively simple projects, even a less experienced team will be alright as in that case you can save some budget. 

The type of your website can differentiate some factors as well. For example:  

E-commerce sites bring several logistical and technological challenges. The company you hire should have experience working in this space and have an e-commerce solution that will scale with the growth of your business — and provide support for the inevitable glitches that occur along the way.

You can consider hiring individual freelancers as well depending on your demand. Both freelancers and agencies will have different capabilities. Choose according to suitability. 

•  What’s the allocation of time for the project?

At the end of the day it’s all about timing, isn’t it? Perhaps the most crucial aspect of time management on web design projects comes from setting and meeting deadlines.

When it comes to allocating time, a few questions arise. 

Are you facing any deadlines? Do you need your developer team to be properly punctual? Or you’re flexible about it? Is it possible for your business team to work with your chosen agency or contractors? How much time will be enough for the agency to deliver you their best service? 

Also, how much time your internal team has to work on these aspects will definitely impact your partnership. Communications, reviews, approvals, content gathering, and meetings are all typical parts of web design and development processes. 

In addition, web developers should deal with a ton of the venture on the board, lessening the time expected on your end. Freelance web developers and designers can require more input at each stage, especially if you’re outsourcing both design and development to different contractors, which means you might need to make more time available for the back-and-forth. 

• Would the location of the team bother you?

Some may prefer their developer team to be within their region. They might it troublesome to manage all the meetings in different time zones. Also if they require offline meetings or face to face table-discussion, location will be a big factor for them. 

This isn’t a universal scenario. In fact, having your developer team in remote places can even be better than the team next door! Why so? Let’s find out.

First of all, It’s easier to hire inexpensive independent contractors from overseas, the money saved is worth the online meetings. 

Secondly, due to the covid pandemic, everything is shifting online anyway. So having teams hired overseas or in your country doesn’t really matter either way. 

Last but not the least, when you’re spreading your business outside your country or maybe continent, it’s more than necessary to have teams coming from those countries in order to understand the demography better. 

• What is their “Process”?

A team’s specialty is its process. 

There are more than enough Web Developing Agency/ Team/ Company. All of which will offer you the service but what differentiates the most suitable agency for you is their process. Before choosing to work with an agency, be sure to get a sense of their process.

The process is what the future holds, and ensures that goals and deadlines are met. You should be able to get a timeline for major deliverables, so you can know when to expect them and to plan your availability for reviews and approvals.

Moreover, a perfect process can save time and ensure great results. A lack of process, on the other hand, can bring plenty of frustration and delay your launch. It might hamper your other plans too. 

• What level of support & services are they willing to offer?

Regardless of what you need – a completely new website, or a redesign maybe – you need to know exactly which services are included in your partnership. 

Could it be said that you are recruiting an independent developer who is an equally experienced designer or do you have to outsource design also? Would you be able to get a designer and engineer who have past work experience to smooth out the interaction and correspondence?

Digging deeper into the services, what technical skills do they bring to the table? For instance, a designer may be knowledgeable in both (UI) and UX (client experience) plans, and specialize in one category- or could have almost no involvement with the other. Furthermore, remember to think about SEO! No website composition task ought to be finished without an SEO review and appropriate technical advancement before sending off. 

It’s smart to work with an agency that offers multiple services — web design, development, SEO, and content strategy — can reduce the need to find a gifted freelance unicorn, and bring all of the necessary skills together.

• Do your budget and cost go hand in hand? 

Since it’s all for the money, it’s mandatory to have a monetary plan regarding this. 

Before hiring a web design agency or a freelancer, consider both the cost and the future outcome. Here comes a few more questions – 

How much are you willing to spend? Will there be a fixed budget? Or will you be billed at an hourly? Is there a cap on hours, or does the contract cover unexpected delays, unsatisfactory work, and other hitches in the process? 

While having a small budget, you can consider using cost-free website building tools.

Otherwise, it’s better to partner with an agency that can offer you many services and professional websites with your required features. Make sure you get enough out of your investment. 

Discuss which services are included in the price. What if, you need them to work with your ongoing maintenance and support? Will they be able to help you out if there are any problems/ bugs/ technical glitches after finishing the project or say after the launch? Will they charge extra money for it? Or it would be added to the pre-plan? Ask about these things to keep it all clear. 

• Who are you getting on board with?

Professionalism is the key to maintaining a contract and the relationship intact between your company and development agency. 

To keep the working relationship healthy, be assured of who on your team will be involved in the communications and meetings. Know if you can get all of the key players together in an initial video call to put faces to names and test them out. Also, ask the developer team if they will require any of your members to be with them for providing information and directional purpose. 

Mutual respect and understanding will help to steer the boat, especially in the case of anything unexpected that might come up. Since the contract can last anywhere from a few weeks to several months, it needs to be as transparent as possible to achieve the end goal together. 

• How much work experience do they have? 

This question may take you a long time to find a proper answer as this is going to vary with your requirements frequently. 

If you’re looking for saving some money and in need of some technical help at the same time, a highly experienced team won’t be mandatory for you. 

But when you need complex work to be done, you certainly don’t want an inexperienced team. Instead, you should be looking for their case studies to get an idea of their capability. 

Consider the following facts to conclude:

• How many projects they’ve worked on so far?
• At which scale they’ve previously worked? 
• Have they worked with big businesses on complex projects?
• Does their work show flexibility and range?
• Do they provide aesthetic front-end?  
• What is the range of their services & capabilities? 
• How proper their previous process is? 

• How much availability can they ensure?

The team’s ability to meet your deadline will depend highly on their availability.

Make sure they don’t have more than enough on their plates. If they’re juggling

a lot of projects at the same time, it’s obvious that they can’t provide you their best service, neither can meet your expectations. 

While finalizing the contract, make these things explicit from your side that they can offer you enough time and effort. It’s essential to get proper assurance that they will prioritize your project as much as you do. 

• Why are they compatible to work with you? 

Sometimes you can have all the bullet-points checked and still, it won’t be enough! 

And the reason is – compatibility. 

While interviewing, have this query – why do they think they are compatible to work with you? 

Compatibility doesn’t always depend on timing and pricing, or location. Sometimes, it’s about the vibe as well. Of course, experience and work ethics will be the most vital role in this case. 

So, to draw the conclusion, it’s always about – Look Before You Leap. Hiring a web development team won’t be much of a trouble if you consider all of the above before jumping towards a decision.