How to select the right web design company

Selecting the right web design company is a big decision to make. After all, we are talking about the face of your company in front of your web audience. You want to hire the company that will deliver the best possible web design within your budget. No doubt, you have quite a few questions like "Do they qualify?", "How are they different from the competition?" etc. Considering that most of our clients go through the same thinking process, we put together a list of several points you should consider when you select a design company:

1. Portfolio of previous work.

This is the fastest way to gauge how web design companies measure up. If a company does not provide a link to their portfolio, there is a good chance they don't have much to show. Here is the portfolio of our featured projects.

2. Look vs. Functionality.

We believe that a great web design is a combination of "look/feel" and "functionality/usability". The final product must look professional and be functional to the end user. Many web design companies will deliver either an attractive design with little thought for its usability, or a non-professional design altogether.

3. Support.

Has the company been in business for a while? If they have years of experience, chances are they will be around when you need to make vital updates, or redesign your site in the future. Here is some history and philosophy of StrategyTrails.

4. References.

Look for testimonials from past clients. Check out the the testimonials from our clients.

5. Reputation.

Look at the list of their clients. You want to see companies of your scale listed. Some small web design companies can handle small projects but don't have the resources and/or infrastructure to handle larger projects.

6. Depth.

You want to choose a company that can do projects of various complexity. Why is it important? Because if you decide to add more functionalities in the future, you can build upon your current website's architecture.

7. Web marketing.

Most of the traffic to your website should come from search engines. It is imperative that you build a search-engine friendly website from the beginning. Make sure that the design company can code the website using clean, modern code principles. If the company provides both web design and web marketing services, the chances are that they will build your new website with web marketing in mind.