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.: Choosing a Company

How do you find a good website design and development company? It may seem that just about anyone with a PC and an Internet connection has set themselves up in this field. Charges vary dramatically and it can be difficult to assess what you are paying for if you don't fully understand the issues involved. Some important considerations are set out below:

.: Contact & Availability

Contact the company. If no phone number is given, be wary. Send an email and document the response time. You will be working with this company for several weeks or months so you want to choose a company that responds promptly and gives you a good feeling.

.: Experience & References

As in any service industry, experience is vital. An experienced web designer/programmer can offer you a better product and can delivery it to you on a shorter timeline. Check some of their past work.

Is this a reputable company? Do they offer points of contacts like emails and phone numbers? What other sites have the developed? Find out a little about the history of the site first. What image does the company's own site project? They should be able to provide you with some past clients.

.: Design & Quality of Work

The design of your site projects your company image. You want to choose a designer that has the skills and capabilities to produce a creative and original image of your company via the website.

.: Technical & Development Skills

Make sure that the company you chooses use designers that also program the code by hand. Stay away from companies who use "Do-It-Yourself" programs like Go-Live or FrontPage. These programs do not produce HTML that is compliant to web standards and are for "home users " who do not understand the intricacies of HTML and other programming languages. A good coder always codes by hand, PERIOD.

Most web sites will also have what is called a "back-end" component. Good design is one thing, but web sites must also be robust, dynamic and be able to communicate with a database and other components. Make sure the company has that skill set.

.: Cost

Cost is probably the one question on your mind. Stay away from sites that offer web design at super low cost. These sites use ugly templates and your site is treated like a car on an assembly line. A good web design company will treat you individually and build a custom website. Also be wary of a company that cannot offer you a solid estimate. We feel that Group39 prices are more than competitive and we welcome you to shop around.

.: Hosting & Hidden Costs

Where will your site reside? Is that included in the package? Make sure you understand who will host the site and how much the hosting will cost. Also, are there any hidden costs that you will only find out about after your site goes live?

.: Site Promotion

A great site that no one can find or no one knows about is useless. Make sure the designer/developer understands the proper usage of Search Engines and META tags. The company should also be able to tell you how your customers and clients can better reach and find your site through other channels.

.: Contracts & Guarantees

Does the company stand behind their work? Will you be given a contract? Who owns the site and has copyright privileges once the site is live? Many deals go sour because of assumptions. Get everything in writing.

.: Maintenance

Once the site is live who will update it? Websites are dynamic and must change to reflect dates, times and events. Is this going to cost extra? Make sure you understand this before you choose a company.