Making the right selection from the plethora of web design companies in Milton Keynes is essential for the commercial success of your website and the smooth running of the design project it’s self. Make the wrong choice, and you could end up regretting what may turn out to be a costly mistake. So what should you be looking for from your prospective web designer and how do you spot a duff one?
Well like most markets, the elite are overwhelmingly out numbered by the also rans.
Having just read that last line back to myself, I aware it probably comes across as a little pretentious. I wasn’t trying to be, because when I think back to when I started Arena DM in January of 2012 I was hardly soaring amongst the top echelons of Buckinghamshire web designers.
If I apply the same critique to my early work as I will in this article, I have to admit that back then, my work lacked the polish and fine standards compared with that which I’m able to produce now.
You see I, like most, started at the bottom and have had to work my way up. It’s been hard work but today, I like to think that my clients would probably rank Arena DM among the top 10 web authoring companies in the city and if that’s being pretentious, a few of my regular clients that read this blog will doubtless tell me so when I next see them.
So what should you look for in a web designer and in an industry dominated by freelancers and small self employed entities, what checks can you make to ensure that there work is up to scratch?
The second half of that question is particularly poignant. Coding and web authoring, requires technical skill. So the difference between good and bad code, is only obvious if you possess said skill – which if you did you’d hardly be looking for web services in the first place.
There are some easy steps that will help you to choose well.
As long as you know what you should be looking for, there’s really no hiding place for a bad web designers. Their work is on public view 24/7, and so everything, warts-n-all can been examined close up in any browser and I’m not talking about the code itself. So here are my 5 tips that should help to to decide on some one who’s competent.
The trick here is to look past the designers own website and focus your attention on the domains that appear in their design portfolio.
Check Alexa Data
The Alexa website tracks the top 30 Million busiest website online. Alexa offers no evaluation about the quality of a website, just the levels of traffic it currently receives. It’s true that there are hundreds of millions of domains but because so many of them a pretty ghastly, to rank in the top 30M is not terribly difficult. Any professional worth their salt would for all but the very smallest, niche interest website, expect their work to gain enough organic traffic from search engines to feature in Alexa’s traffic rankings.Check For Valid Code
The W3 Validator tool can help you to gauge the calibre of a web professional and the quality of their work. HTML & CSS (the two most common used coding langues in web authoring) are not hard and unchanging. As browsers develop into ever more sophisticated programs so does the code that they read. HTML Code is a dynamic and evolving language, browsers will for the most part still read and render out of date HTML but search engines often penalise websites for what is know as “invalid code”. Most often invalid code is the result of a typing error on the part of the coder which had gone noticed but validity errors are also registered for using old and out of date code.As before go beyond the designer’s own website and chech some of the url’s of their client’s websites. An coder who’s work contain a multitude of errors is unlikely to be able to produce a website that rank’s well in the search engines results pages
Speak to Past Customers
This one is a simple as it gets. Try phoning a few of the companies that feature in the developers portfolio. Most people will be happy enough to spare a moment to give you an honest opinion, after all if they’re happy with their website they’ll probably be on good terms with the person that created it and so will likely be pleased to help them secure more business. Conversely when we’re unhappy with a service that we’ve paid for, few of us pull any punches if when asked about it.Google Search for Client Websites
This is pretty straight forward too. Try searching for companies in the designers portfolio. Well, not the companies names themselves, because if we did that we would expect the websites in question to rank highly. Instead try a general search for the industry sectors, and perhaps even include a geographical reference if you have to, but don’t make it too easy. Something like such as: Photographers in Milton Keynes or Shop for Ann Summers lingerie Does their work rank well or is it lost on page 8 somewhere? Would you be happy if your website occupied a similar rank and position?Talk to your Prospective Web Designers
Last but by no means least in this list is just to talk directly with you web designer. Personally, I wouldn’t buy web design services on line. I would want to talk to my designer so I’m able to be sure he or she fully understands my business, my target market and my vision. Tell them what you want you website to offer your visitors. If you see there eyes glaze over or they don’t appear to understand you market or even what you want, move on.
With a little investigation you should be able to source the services that you need from competent reliable providers. I’ve tried to write this article honestly and with as little bias as I can manage however if you’re still ensure about which company to chose you might be interested to know that my web design prices start from as low as £499.
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