Everything you need to know to find your ideal website support
Whether you’ve got an existing website that is no longer performing for you, or you’re building a new brand that needs a beautiful website to bring it to life, investing in a competent and talented website design and management supplier is an important choice.
It’s important to be clear on your goals before you start looking, as it helps to know what you want your website to do. Perhaps it’s:
- To generate more leads and enquiries
- To showcase your products or services
- To capture data and build a community
- To increase functionality
- To improve look and feel
…or maybe it’s something completely unique to you.
Whatever your goals, searching for a web designer needn’t be difficult if you are clear on your budget and requirements from the start. At Marketing Supermarket, we’ve made it really easy to narrow down your choices so that you’re only spending time having conversations with web design and management experts that are suitable for you.
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What is website design and management?
What is web design?
In the simplest of terms, a web designer builds your website. What this entails will entirely depend on the assets that you already have available, and the budget you have available to spend. There is often confusion over how much ‘graphic design’ is a part of web design, and the truth is that there is a lot of crossover.
Let’s break this down a little bit: when we say assets, we are talking about your brand identity, such as your logo, colour palette, images, videos and content. If you have all of this to hand already, then the brief to your web designer will simply be to use these assets to build a site that accurately reflects your brand. If you don’t have these assets in place already, you’ll need to ask your web designer to help. What you need will have an impact on the price you pay.
What is web management?
Depending on your arrangement, a good web management expert will monitor your site’s health, carry out updates as and when they’re needed, and keep an eye on your Google Analytics to see what’s working and what’s not. Web management deals may or may not include hosting – keeping your site live on the web.
What is the difference between web design and development?
These two terms are often confused, and there is a lot of crossover, but the four main differences are:
- Web development focuses on functionality, while web design focuses on visual appeal
- Website developers are not responsible for creating assets
- Website designers do not write code
- Web design tends to be cheaper than development
Web design takes into account essential considerations sure as user experience, information architecture (the flow of information across the site), developing and/or integrating software, writing code and all manner of other skills. But it’s largely about the look and feel of the site.
If your site’s functionality is your priority, then you should probably look for a developer as opposed to a designer. Often, web agencies will offer web design and development rolled into one, as there is often a need for both elements when building a site.
What should a website design and development supplier do for you?
A web design/development expert should be able to listen carefully to the needs of your business and establish what features your website should have to deliver on your goals. They should work in partnership with you throughout the design and development process, managing your expectations and advising you on best practice along the way.
Depending on their experience, capacity and your needs, they may also be able to help you with associated website requirements like SEO, content writing and social media.
What makes a good website development service?
There are several types of platforms that websites are built on, and the most common ones are WordPress, Wix, Squarespace and Shopify. What you need will be unique to your business requirements, and you should make sure that the web designer/manager is a specialist in your chosen platform.
How do web designers price, and what factors affect this?
The most common way that web designers price is to quote by project, taking into account your requirements and timescale. You should expect to pay up to 50% upfront to book the work in, or alternatively be given a payment plan with payment dates to keep the work on track. Web design can be a long process, so understandably they won’t want to wait until project completion before they see any money.
Web management services tend to be billed on an ongoing monthly basis. Your web management agency or freelancer will be able to recommend the best package for you based on your needs. This will often include an SLA (Service Level Agreement) that includes a certain number of hours per month for fixing issues and carrying out development work, along with a guarantee of uptime.
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What’s the difference between using a freelance website design and management consultant and an agency?
A freelancer is normally going to be the most cost-effective solution, and depending on their availability they may be able to deliver the project more quickly, too. You can embed them into your existing marketing team quite easily for the duration of the project.
With a web design and management agency you’ll be able to tap into a larger pool of different skills depending on your website’s requirements. For example, a good web development agency will likely have a user experience (UX) specialist in-house, and they may even offer content writing services too (don’t forget your website will need copy!).
Marketing Supermarket’s top tips for finding the perfect website design and management supplier for you
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Tell them what assets you have already
They’ll need to know what you have in terms of logo, colour palette, graphics, images and videos already.
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Ask them which platform/s they specialise in
For example, if you’re an e-commerce brand, you’ll likely need something that’s built on Shopify or similar – so be sure to seek out Shopify experts rather than generalists.
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Be clear on whether you need a designer or a developer, or a combination of both
Is your main priority aesthetics or functionality?
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Check out their previous work
Look at case studies and examples of live sites that they’ve built.
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Ask them to give you a demo of their CMS
The CMS (Content Management System) that they use is an important consideration, as you will likely be using it a lot yourself as you maintain your site. Some use an off-the-peg CMS, while others use their own bespoke CMS. The latter can sometimes be restrictive and clunky, so check this out carefully. Ask them to show you their CMS so you can see how you would be using it – if it seems easy and intuitive then all good, but if it’s confusing it might not work for you.
Why use Marketing Supermarket to help you choose your website design and management supplier?
Marketing Supermarket was developed by marketing experts who totally understand the pain points and pitfalls of procuring marketing services. We focus on saving you time and money by taking you directly to the web design and management providers that are best suited to your needs and budget.
Use our free and simple tool to find and compare website design and management experts, and check out our guide on how to compare website design and management suppliers to help you make your choice.