What You Should Look For In Web Design Services

You need to have your website redone. But you are not sure what to look for in a web design company. You start searching online and you see that different web design companies offer different services. 

So, what should you look for in web design services? 

In today's competitive market, it's not about building a pretty website. Your website needs to address the interests and challenges of your customers. If it just looks good but does nothing for your visitor, then the visitor will navigate elsewhere, annoyed that you wasted their time. And, they will remember to avoid you in the future.

A website that offers nothing to the visitor will not help you convert them into a lead or a customer. 

Basic Web Design Services

In general, your website design company should always include the following basic services:

• Building a certain number of web pages for a specific price
• On-page SEO including images
• Graphic design
• Purchase of images
• Site maps
• DNS changes
• Video embedding or linking
• Form integrations
• Google & Bing verification

But these services alone will just give you a website. And, you want a website that converts your visitors into leads and helps you grow your business, right?

What Other Services Should You Look For?

In our previous article, Web Developer or Marketing Agency - Who is Better to Create My Website?,  we discussed the difference in having a web developer and a marketing agency create a website for your business. The difference is other services that turn your website into a lead generation machine.

With these additional services, your website will do more than simply exist on a web hosting server:

• User design and usability - the user friendliness and usefulness of a website design, including navigation, graphic elements, color and user experience and interactivity elements.
• Buyer persona development - a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.
• Content development -  creation of online material such as videos, blogs, and offers that does not explicitly promote your brand but is intended to stimulate interest in your product or service.
• Content distribution and channel management - promoting content to online audiences in multiple media formats through various channels such as social media. 
• Inbound marketing strategy - focuses on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content and adding value at every stage in your customer's buying journey. Potential customers find you through channels like blogs, search engines, and social media.
• Analytics and insights - without tracking, there is now way to measure how your efforts and strategy are working.

Other Traits to Look For 

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is thinking...If I Build It, They Will Come. If that were the case, anyone including yourself, could build your website . You could use any number of DIY platforms, including Wix, Weebly, or WordPress. But, building your website is just the beginning.

If you want to have a website that generates leads, you need to have more than the above list of services. You also need the following:

• Someone who takes the time to understand your business
• Someone who can take your business and translate it into messaging that resonates with you ideal customers
• Someone who has the knowledge and experience to create and implement a marketing strategy that will work for you
• Someone who cares as much about your success as you do

Your business deserves a marketing partner who is willing to do what it takes to enhance your brand, preserve or enhance your reputation, consider your mission and identity, and be invested in your business success over time. This includes lead generation, customer support services, reputation management, social media tools, e-commerce, local marketing services and much more.

Best Practices

Here is a good process that such a company should follow to meet your expectations:

• Consultation to understand your specific requests, ideas and mission including short- and long-term goals for your website
• Analysis of your website to get key insights from the site data, using tools like HubSpot and Google Analytics, and putting together a cohesive lead generation strategy
• A custom build out of your website design with carefully crafted messaging and user experience 
• Follow-up and maintenance of the site and assets involved in the project with clear information about storage, privacy, security explained in full detail throughout the process

Summary

Don't just trust a website designer with a pretty portfolio. Actually dig in and look for what the agency actually produced in terms of results for their other customers. In a sea of online websites,  now more than ever businesses need to understand that it takes a lot more work than just building a website to be successful.

Partnering with a company that understands that building your website is just the beginning and that what happens afterward to drive qualified traffic to your website is where the true value lies, you will increase your business's chance of success and continued growth.