Trick or Treat: Picking The Right Web Contractor

Since Halloween is right around the corner, here’s a scary question.

Who’s going to design your website?

That question might not sound so spooky, initially. After all, you already have a great business, right? All you have to do is Google “web design” for your area and you’ll end up with pages of top web contractors, all itching for the chance to design (or re-design) your company site. Now, you just pick the best-looking option and go with the flow. Couldn’t be simpler, right?

Wrong.

Actually, finding the perfect web contractor to create or re-create your website isn’t so easy.  Like a haunted house, the web design process is full of pitfalls and hidden booby traps – if you don’t watch out, you could find yourself tripping on spider webs or falling through a rotten floor. You want to avoid costly mistakes that could leave you with an expensive, poorly functioning or amateurish-looking site down the road. But what’s the best way to get through the maze?

In order to save you some serious website trouble, here are a few tips, warnings and red flags designed to help you sort through the many website design companies you’ll encounter.

How does the designer’s website look?

Make sure the company you’re interested in has a site that’s as sharp-looking as the new site you want for YOUR business. Pick a company whose stellar graphics, intuitive interface and exceptional design make you go “wow.” A web development firm with a basic, clunky, poorly-designed home page should raise some serious questions in your mind.

Look for current skills.

You want to be sure you hire a web design firm that’s constantly updating their skill set with new knowledge as the web evolves. Avoid “companies” who learned basic skills in college and haven’t updated their programming smarts since then.

Avoid one-man bands.

While there are certainly some solo web designers who can “do it all,” you’re better off choosing a larger company that has the bandwidth necessary to create a great site in a timely fashion. A separate project manager, designer and developer can each focus on their own individual strength areas, increasing project efficiency by leaps and bounds. An exceptional freelancer can occasionally be a good option – but don’t hire one unless he’s pretty much James Bond.

No matter whether you’re considering switching web design firms, updating your website using existing contractors or sub-contractors, or hiring an entirely new company to create a brand-new web presence for your business, you’ll find an almost bewildering number of options. Don’t be scared! Think ahead and search for a web option that fits well with your company  -- not just now, but months or years down the road. And check out farininnovations.com while you’re at it: as a cutting-edge Miami-based web development firm, we can handle any web project you throw at us. With extensive experience in search engine optimization, web-based marketing, design and development, we’d love to create a streamlined, affordable and profitable website for you.