It’s been a while since we spoke, we hope you’ve been shopping around finding quotes… If you have there are some crucial things to consider before deciding which web design agency is right for you. Here we’ll run through a few things to bear in mind when making your decision.

Hidden Fees

Some web design agencies will have hidden costs surrounding the project, which they will not reveal until the very last invoice. Be sure to ask the web design agency to clearly state what they’re billing you for, whether it is outlining build costs, photography costs or anything else. This will help you get a clearer picture of the overall total cost and also give you an idea of what to expect on your final bill. A good web design agency will be totally transparent with you, even when it comes to the costs. 

When you get an outline of the costs associated with your project, you’ll be able to refer back to it at a later date if needs be. So it’s something you should request if they haven’t given you one.

It’s important to clearly assign a budget for your project and mention this to your agency before the proposal stage.

Build Time

If you’ve followed the steps we’ve outlined earlier in Part 1, you’ll have saved a ton of time when briefing the web design agency on the project at hand. Saving time through the briefing process will mean your project will get the green light faster and the designers & developers will be able to start as soon as costs are agreed on.

The web design agency will give you a time frame on how long the website will take to build and an estimate for when it will go live. Be aware that timeframes are estimates and sometimes development can take a bit longer than usual due to technical issues. However, it is the web design agency’s job to inform you of any changes to the development time estimates.

If a company is promising you they are going to build you a “custom” website in 3 days and promise it will be ready to go live within the week. Something’s not right. You are most definitely not receiving a bespoke design but rather a £30 WordPress theme pasted over and made to look like it is.

Are they based in the UK?

Another important thing to consider is if the designers and developers are based in the UK, we’ve all heard about the horror stories of not being able to communicate with overseas freelance developers. If you haven’t click here. 

Just a quick reminder that having your web design agency in the UK, all under one roof, will make your life a whole lot easier. Knowing that you’ll be able to pop in at any time or pick up the phone and have a chat with them whenever it suits you.

Congratulations! Your big day is here. Your website is ready to go live.

Now that your website is ready, you have to wait for the developers to put the live version onto their servers. Hosting should have been agreed in the proposal stage and will be reflected on the costs.

The website will be using the domain which was also agreed upon in the briefing stage, see how important it is to plan ahead? You can check the status of the website through a handy tool called WhatsMyDNS, which can be found here. A quick search for the domain will tell you where all the DNS servers are pointed towards. Once the site is live, it will be pointing towards your web design agency’s servers and the website will be live on the URL address.

Now head to the closest available roof and shout from the rooftops… And be sure to come back down safely.

If you still need help choosing the right web design agency for you, get in touch today!