J&R Marketing is a full service digital and print agency. We specialize in printing, promo products, branding, design, website development, and digital services.

Follow us

Snow

Hiring A Website Design Company In Rhode Island

Web Design  -  January 7, 2018

There are dozens of website design companies and website design freelancers in Rhode Island. While having options is a good thing, it makes the selection process that much more difficult. Which designer will provide the most value? Which company will generate results? The list of questions is long.

This article will focus on helping you find a website designer, to identify the best possible website design company in Rhode Island and determine questions to ask in order to select the best possible partner. 

Before diving into that, there is an important question to address first. With so many website designers and website design companies located directly within Rhode Island, why are there so many Rhode Island businesses that have a poorly designed website or a website that produces little to no results for them?

I believe there are two reasons for this. First, the website designer (or company) that was hired simply didn’t have enough proper knowledge of website design and development practices. Sometimes the designer only had a specific skill set but not a complete background focusing on designing a website that is visually appealing and focused on driving and converting traffic into business for the company.

The other reason is that the company did not properly evaluate their options. They knew someone that stated they designed websites, they hired a friend, or they only spoke to one company and took a chance that it was the best selection.

How to Hire the Best Website Designer for Your Company

The best businesses in the world survive off of referrals. Those businesses provide value and stand behind their brand and service. So while you should certainly allow any referrals to be an option, you should search Google for ‘Website Design Company in Rhode Island

By doing this, you’ll be presented with numerous options and it will allow you to evaluate different companies. More importantly, you are clearly focusing on businesses that have the ability to rank on search engines for an important keyword (Website Design Company in Rhode Island) This is the company that you want to work with because in one way or another they can drive results.

So, let’s dig into the questions and topics you’ll want to ask yourself and go over with the particular firm itself. 

What does the website design company’s site look like?

Is it easy to navigate through their site? A website design company website is a great indication of the type of work they do as well as how professional the company is.

What websites have they designed and what type of companies do they design websites for?

If they offer a portfolio on their site and a list of some of their clients, they are telling you they have nothing to hide and are proud to be showing you their work. Being able to evaluate the work they’ve completed in order to determine the quality of their services generates trust between the client and the company.

How long have they been in business and are they promoting prices directly on their website?

A company that has been in business for over 25 years and doesn’t show a full portfolio of recent jobs should raise some red flags. Meanwhile, if they are a company with at least a few years of experience, clients you recognize, and an impressive portfolio, those are all good signs.

When a company positions upfront prices on the website before you even have had a chance to contact them, it’s giving away a huge flaw in their work. They are basing their prices off your website being the same as everyone else, and you want a company that is aware of the wants and needs of your business and has made a proper cost analysis for the particular level of work you are asking them for. A good design company needs to be confident in creating a pricing system that caters to their customers’ greatly varying needs. A price range is okay but anything too specific before they ask you a series of questions is most likely not going to provide the results that you need.

Ask about their design approach

This is often hard for someone that doesn’t have a background with website design. Similar to how I wouldn’t ask the steps that my mechanic is going to take installing new brakes. However, you should care a bit less about the execution of the site and more of the process that you’re involved in. You should understand your responsibilities, estimated timelines, and what the typical steps from start to finish include.

Understanding your goal

When speaking to a company, the goal of your website should be brought up numerous times. To make things clear, make sure you state your goal AND you ask how they will help you accomplish that goal. A typical goal will include ‘showing clients pricing’, generating more phone calls, having interested people fill out a contact form to learn more…and so forth. The goals should be clearly documented and the steps that will be taken to accomplish thoroughly explained.

What services are included

This goes directly with the previous point. With your goals understood, it’s important you understand all of the services that the company offers AND the services that are included in your particular project. Full-service companies include numerous services in addition to website design such as hosting, graphic design, photography, content writing, search engine optimization, and more. Be sure to identify what is included and what is not.

With over 90,000 businesses in Rhode Island, 47% of them don’t have a website and of the 53%, a shocking percent of them provide little to no benefits to their clients. Selecting the correct website designer is extremely important. The more you know about website design, the better equipped you are to hire the proper website design company for you.

Learn more about website design, digital marketing and more in our digital marketing blog

J&R Marketing is a full service branding and marketing company based in Cranston, Rhode Island. If interested in discussing your Rhode Island website design project click here.

Related Post