We can get a bad haircut, buy bad yogurt, or be disappointed with our Friday night movie choice. But speaking about the website, the price of a mistake is expensive. Time, money, nerves and, as a result, even giving up the idea of ​​creating a website — thereby losing tremendous opportunities for your business. That is why you should choose future developer as responsibly as possible.

Be prepared that this will take some time. To view the prices for services and determine where it is more profitable will not work. And no one will tell you the exact price.

Stage 1: Preparation within the company

• who your website is aimed at (a detailed description of the target audience of your company);
• what region is the website focused on;
• goals and objectives of the website (to sell a product, promote a service, collect leads, study demand, increase brand awareness, and so on);
• the time frame in which you want to get the finished website (taking into account the complexity of the project, of course);
• an approximate budget that is available to you for the development and content of the website;
• what content is planned to be posted and who will prepare it;
• whether registration of clients on the website is required and, most importantly, why;
• the need for integration with the company's internal systems: CRM, inventory control / accounting, calendar, telephony, and so on;
• future development of the project: what do you want to implement, not today, but in the near/far future;
• how the effectiveness of the website will be evaluated: sales, calls, orders, attendance, something else;
• how it is planned to promote the resource after launch. Do you need special functions on the website (discounts, promo codes, special offers);
• whether it is necessary to follow the corporate identity and brand book, whether there are complete logos and other attributes;
• what management system is needed (name or requirements for it).

So, you can immediately receive different proposals for the implementation of your particular project.

You should understand that work on the website doesn’t end after the studio handed over the project to you. Therefore, we recommend you to formulate in advance what resources you will need to ensure the operation of the future website.

We can divide them into human resources (staff and hired employees, which we will talk about later), material resources (content, photos, sources of materials) and financial resources (budget, which can provide the necessary work within your company or transfer these functions to outsourcing).

The more complex the project, the more people it has to involve:

• project manager / marketing specialist who will manage the development of the project, plan and conduct advertising campaigns, analyze sales / visitor behavior;
• designer who will search and edit photos, draw banners for promotions, special offers and so on;
• content manager (does not have to be on staff), who will be responsible for filling the website;
• photographer (does not have to be on staff) who will take pictures of products, customers, events;
• administrator who will answer calls from the website, communicate with customers in an online chat (must be on staff).

Stage 2: Choosing a web studio

In addition to search engines, you can use expert ratings to select the most reliable companies.

Explore the developer's portfolio. Are there projects similar to what you want? Or do you just like it? How successful are their cases (attendance, sales)? Are there works for your industry? Are there any works with the selected content management system?

The key advantage of dealing with a company that has the experience you need is that you can be warned about choosing inefficient functionality and offered several options for developing a project, thereby reducing time and financial risks.

How does a development company work?

Are development processes transparent? The ability to follow the progress of work.

Are there all the necessary specialists on the team? For a web studio, these will be project managers, programmers, designers, business analysts, QA engineers, content managers, etc.

Does the studio provide warranty service and technical support? What is the procedure and terms of payment? (prepayment, full\partial\monthly payment)

Are there approval processes for each stage of work?

How is the communication process structured?

Are there test servers to demonstrate finished work and options for testing the final product?

The answers to these questions will allow you to feel more confident in the process of cooperation with the contractor. Besides, clear work planning and well-established communication will save time and resources.

Stage 3: Meeting with a representative of each company

In person it is easier to make sure that the team is interested and professional. But the new reality has taught everyone to go to the level of online communications. If it suits you, then evaluate how comfortable it was for you to talk via video: website options (Zoom, Google Meet, Skype), the camera turned on, noises, recording of the conversation in case of clarifications from both sides, etc.

Stage 4: Comparison of offers from different web studios

The last question is really very important when making a decision, since the process of creating a website is quite complicated. And it is impossible to compare the total amount without detailing the project.

Therefore, we advise you to use the most detailed cost estimate that one of the studios sent you — and send its points to the rest of the tenderers to clarify the final amount.

What is the best management system?

It is a fundamental question, because there are many content management systems. They allow not only to develop a website, but also to work with it in the future, constantly keeping it up to date.

Properties of a good CMS:

• common (different web studios work with it, not just one) — otherwise you tie yourself to cooperation with the same contractor and limit your opportunities in the future;
• easy to use — the most necessary administrative functions should be clear to you and your employees;
• flexible — it is better to initially choose a suitable system, rather than redoing the entire website for the development and growth of your web project in the future;
• technical support and active development — technologies are improving, requirements are changing;
• safe;
• withstand heavy loads.

NewIT has been selected among the Top App Development Companies In Virginia by Designrush.

If you have any questions about developing your own site, leave us your request — and we will contact you.