We are often approached by clients who have had a miserable past experience of working with web design agencies. This may be because they have either been stung by huge unexpected costs, have been sold a template website when they had paid for a bespoke website, or have paid a lot of money for a website that just isn’t converting. These issues can be resolved by choosing a good web design agency in the beginning. There are a few key points to bear in mind when making your decision as to which agency is suitable for you.

Web Design Portfolio

The portfolio is always a great place to start. This track record of work and case studies should outline the kind of work and clients that web design agencies work with. It will also summarise the standard of work that the agency produces. Ask questions such as; Are the websites user friendly? Do the websites represent the brands? Do they fulfill the company objectives? After looking at the websites within the portfolio, follow the links to the actual live sites and check that they are the same as the sites shown within the portfolio and case studies. Google the brands and see whether they appear in the results.

Testing

Cross bowser check the websites in different Internet browsers to make sure that the website is visible and fully functional. This cross browser test in browsers such as Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, Safari and Google Chrome will examine whether the web design agency use the correct standard of coding techniques and cater for all website visitors. Good web design agencies will offer you the option of subscribing to a website maintenance contract in which the agency will make sure that any plugins and code is constantly up-to-date meaning your site will always work and be visibly perfect.

Web Design Agency

Good web design agencies should have a testimonial section within their site or if there isn’t then make sure you ask the agency to provide you with some. Check that they seem ok and in some cases contact the clients to check that they are actually real.

The staff is crucial in making a good web design agency. We always meet our clients face-to-face for an initial meeting so that they know exactly who we are and what we are like. This helps to build up an instant working relationship with clients, which increases confidence and an overall partnership between agency and client. After this initial meeting the client has various ways of staying in touch with our team, from individual emails to personal mobile numbers making us available at all times.

Good web design agencies will tailor their proposal of suggested work to the specific requirements of the client to achieve their goals as effectively as possible without trying to sell the client unnecessary products.

Try and find out what actual skills, education and experience the team at the web agency have and work out if they are relevant to your business and business goals. We have all this information available in our agency team page and if the client wants to find out more details then the LinkedIn links can fulfill any further queries. This is important as it once again helps re-assure the client that they are going to get the correct product and service from their web design agency. The best agencies should have a level mix of digital marketing, development and creative skill sets in order to produce the highest level of web design.

It is important that you choose a web design agency that offers more than just a good looking functional website. You will no doubt need other services and advice in the future such as search engine optimisation, social media marketing and digital marketing. A good web design agency will advise you on how and when to start thinking about implementing these tools and services allowing you to make the most of your online presence. A good web design agency will offer help and advice with the latest cutting edge trends such social media marketing. Being active with such trends and tools will again optimise your visibility and communication to your target market.

This is Common are a leading web design agency in Manchester and we strive to meet all of the points explained above. We are proud of our client feedback and the websites that we produce. As a highly skilled agency in Manchester, we are always looking for the latest trends and technologies and we are pioneers of WordPress and are at the forefront of responsive web design working closely with clients to explain the benefits.

So to sum what you should look for in your web design agency,

• Make sure you’re getting what you’re actually paying for
• Throughly examine the portfolio, check load speeds and test the websites work across different browsers
• Read up on testimonials, do your research.

We’ll be following up this article with an infographic with more details on the process of what good web design agencies go through when carrying out a web design brief.