How to Choose a Web Design Company

Selecting a web design consulting company is often a very tough ask for business executies. There are so many out there and you dont know what each is capable or incapable of. Especially, keeping in view the low costs offered by offshore design companies, everyone wants to avail the opportunity of getting the work done on low costs. However, there are a number of easy steps that need to be followed to choose the reliable partner.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Go to search engine like google and type your query lets say ”Web Design Companies in Pakistan” . Check the websites of companies listed at top 20 or 30 listings.

2. See how frequently the website is updated or when it was last updated. This will help you know whether the company is active and operational or not.

3. Visit the portfolio/client list/case studies areas of the website. This will help you analyze the projects done previously by the company. Here you can access the skill level of the company’s designers, their expertise and quality of work.

4. Check for the project related to your required project in the portfolio. If you find any projects previously done by the company that are similar in nature to the task you are looking for, it means the company can also handle your work in similar manner. Also read client testimonials.

5. Also check for other parameters like the rates & packages offered. This will give you a fair idea of the costing done by the web design company.

6. Make a small chart, make columns and alloate points to each company keeping in view your own priorities. If design is top priority, you can give it more weightage. If cost is top, you can rank companies by price.
   Short list the ompanies scoring the most according to the criteria. Select top ten companies.

7. Write up your project summary or Request for quotation (RFQ). You can find the tips on writing RFQ here.

8. Once you get a response from the companies, do some communication and mail exchanges by answering to their queries or asking them related to their expertise. Some important issues you should ask them include:
   
   The cost/ timelines for project
   Project methodology
   Previous references
   Communication channels for project like phone chat, emails etc
   The timezone/operational hours of the company
   Core team working on the project
   Project coordinator or the person handling client interaction

9. Also from the email exchange, you will judge the level of professionalism the responder shows by the promptness of message, better communication methods & overall behaviour.
   Engage the responders in further discussion about project queries. This will help you getting clear idea of what company is capable of and secondly will help the company representative understand the project clearly. You can even request for a demo (if the company has already done similar work), however, this doesnt apply everytime.

10. Settle the terms like costs, time, payments, mode of payment etc.
    
    Once you agree, you can award the project to web design company.

Resources

• Web Design Company
• Web Design Consultant Blog

[Teachforever]

on 1/29/2009 Thanks for the information.5*

[HowDragon]

on 1/28/2009 Detailed article on choosing a web design company. Thanks! 5*!