How to choose a web design company comes down to one question: will this team build a site that does what your business needs, and leave you in control of it? Most portfolios look good. This note sets out how to look past the pictures, and the questions we would ask a web design company if we were buying a website ourselves.
Decide what the site has to do first
Before you compare companies, write down what the site is for. Selling products, booking appointments, taking enquiries, showing a portfolio and publishing articles are different jobs, and a company that is excellent at one may be ordinary at another.
Then decide what you need beyond the design: the copy, the photography, the search work and the build. If one company does all of them, the site is more likely to read as one thing. If several do, someone has to make them agree, and that someone is usually you.
Check that design, copy and search are planned together
Sites work better when they are planned as one piece: the pages, the words, the pictures and the search phrases decided together, before the build. Ask a company how it handles copy and search. If the answer is "you send us the text" and "we add SEO at the end", the site will look finished and work less well than it could.
We design the pages, write the copy, direct the imagery, do the search work and build the site, so the website says what the brand says and the right people find it. That is one way to do it; whatever the company, ask who does each part.
Read the portfolio properly
Look at live sites, not only screenshots. Open them on your phone. Check how fast they load, how easy it is to find a phone number or a booking button, and whether the copy says anything specific.
Ask which pieces in the portfolio are live sites, which are designs that were never built, and which are recordings of a prototype. All three are legitimate, but you should know which you are looking at. Our AveNew Development case, for example, shows the design built in code as recordings, and says so.
The questions to ask before you sign
- Who owns the site, the code and the domain when it's finished? It should be you.
- Is it built from a template or designed from scratch? Either can be right; you should know which you are paying for.
- Who writes the copy? Someone has to, and it is often forgotten in the quote.
- How is search handled, and when? It should be planned with the pages, not added later.
- What happens after launch? Ask about fixes, updates and who you call.
- Can we edit the site ourselves? Ask to see how.
- How is the fee set, and when is it paid? A fixed fee in writing avoids surprises.
- How long does each stage take? Ask for the stages, not only the launch date.
- How will visitors get in touch? A form, a message or a call: the site should use the channel your customers already use.
- Who will work on our project, and who is our contact?
Signs to walk away from
- A price given before anyone asks what the site is for.
- No answer on who owns the code and the domain.
- A portfolio of screenshots with no live links.
- Search promised as a guaranteed ranking.
- No clear contact for your project.
How we work, briefly
A website project with us starts with one conversation about the business and what the site has to do. From that we propose the scope and the order of the work, with the fee fixed in writing. For a worked example of a full redesign, read how we planned the Bedaya Polyclinic website. Read more about our web design agency in Dubai.