How to Choose An Atlanta Web Design Company
Websites have evolved from digital brochures into marketing platforms.
You can’t afford to price shop for a new website because the stakes are too high. Your web developer needs to understand your marketing goals and search engine optimization in order to build you a lead generating website.
For small business owners, the first rule of thumb is to hire local. While this post is written from the perspective of an Atlanta web design company, the tips offered below are applicable to any metro area in the country.
Tips For Choosing The Best Atlanta Web Design Firm
If you’re planning to launch a new website for your business, you have a number of important choices ahead of you, but few will carry as much weight as the web design company you choose. The company you pick will be responsible for shaping the online face of your brand.
When people find your website, in many cases it will be the first time they encounter your business. First impressions are everything, and your website will help shape how potential customers view you. Your site will also play an important role in their thought processes as they decide whether they want to enlist your services.
For these reasons, among others, picking a website designer isn’t a task you should take lightly. Here are 10 important items to consider in your search for the best possible web design company:
How Visible Is that Web Designer Online?
When you’re considering a potential candidate, consider how easy (or not) it was to find them online. You shouldn’t have to go digging through the darkest recesses of the Internet to track down your web designer. This is mainly because you want to hire a company that understands how to bridge the gap between your website and the people seeking your services. If they can’t even do it for themselves, you can hardly count on them to get it done for you!
You should also be able to find favorable reviews of the design company without too much difficulty. Online visibility is only valuable if it shines a positive light, and the company you hire should be capable of achieving that for itself.
What Has that Website Design Firm Done So Far?
A company’s track record is more than just an account of how long they’ve been around. The experience they have is definitely valuable and you should take it into consideration, but more critical is how relevant this experience is to your business.
By looking at testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you can see where the company’s expertise is located. You can also get an idea of how well they understand your specific industry. You could be looking at a favorable candidate if you find they’ve delivered solutions to clients with needs similar to yours.
What Do People Say about that Website Developer?
A web design company’s online reputation can be more difficult to get a handle on since you can’t base your findings on any one source. Examining their website can yield some useful information, such as achievements and notable distinctions. Feedback from other clients can help as well, but you can also delve deeper.
Speaking to people who’ve worked with the company in the past can help you better gauge their reputation. A web search should also grant you additional insight, but you should be willing to directly ask the web designers the questions that matter, which will help shape your opinion of them.
Can You Meet with that Web Designer in Person?
You should never sacrifice quality work because of a company’s location. At the same time, there are advantages to hiring a reputable design company with a local presence. For starters, being geographically close grants you the ability to easily meet face to face and get better acquainted with the people you’re entrusting with the fate of your website.
Beyond that, they can provide an advantage if you’re trying to appeal to customers on a local scale as a part of your strategy. A web design company with a nearby presence will likely have a solid understanding of the region, including local culture and stylistic preferences.
Does that Web Developer Also Have Marketing Knowledge?
It would be a huge mistake to assume your web designer doesn’t play a significant role in the marketing aspects of your site. The first impression visitors get upon viewing your website is critical, after all. Your web designer can help you avoid steering potential customers away with unattractive or ineffective designs. In order to make the most of your web design company, you will need to let them know which direction you intend to go in with your underlying strategy.
On the flip side, by sharing what you intend to do with them, you can see if they have valuable contributions to make. You can also judge whether they are capable of working with the requirements of your plan. Hiring a web design company that lacks adequate marketing knowledge is a move that can severely limit you moving forward. Don’t risk it! Be sure they know what they’re doing before proceeding.
Great Web Design Depends on Solid SEO Knowledge
An attractive website is an effective way to showcase your brand, but without an SEO strategy in place, too few people will be seeing it. A custom designed site is an expensive enterprise, and if you fail to hire a web design company with SEO knowledge, you could end up spending a lot more to incorporate SEO elements later on. Worse, you could be stuck hiring two different companies and paying two separate bills for what could have been one job. If the web designer you use has SEO knowledge, they can put the site together in a way that is attractive for visitors and also optimized for search engines.
Check out the Moz Web Developer’s Cheat Sheet, a guide that outlines much of the SEO coding that should go under the hood of your website:
How Current Are Those SEO Tactics?
A web designer knowledgeable about SEO methods and how to apply them will put a great deal of consideration into the various components of your web pages. Images could even be constructed in a way that allows search engines to read their content. However, you shouldn’t be counting on anyone other than a skilled designer who is well versed in SEO to get this done.
Optimization tactics in web design also cover the structure of the pages themselves — capable designers will make them visually appealing, while also formatting them to accommodate search engine requirements. Your web design company should be familiar with this procedure. Otherwise, you could end up wasting both time and money later on as you try to improve your SEO rankings.
Their Social Media Presence May Reflect Yours
The web design company you choose should be taking full advantage of social media’s benefits since you’ll need them to help you do the same. The vast majority of businesses have some form of social media presence nowadays, which comes as no surprise given all the advantages provided by the platform.
If you’re aiming to give visitors to your website the best possible experience, you will need to integrate your web presence with your social media accounts. This not only further engages potential customers, but it provides them with an easy way to learn more about you and get more involved. There are too many positives to ignore, and as such, your Atlanta web design company should have extensive knowledge of social media and its applications.
Measure Their WordPress Experience and Skill Level
There is no content management system out there today that is more popular than WordPress, and that’s not by accident. Some of the world’s largest companies use it for their websites, and many people choose to use it for creating and managing their own sites without hiring professional help. A large percentage of web developers use WordPress, and given how popular it is, your web designer should be fully experienced with it. This website creation tool can accommodate most people, but a designer skilled in its use could work wonders with it.
Their Certifications & Authority
Not all web designers have marketing or SEO certifications, but if they do, it’s certainly a plus. Being certified demonstrates a commitment to improvement and following through, which are both desirable qualities in the people you want to work with. Just as (if not more) noteworthy, is whether the company has received recognition for their work in the field. If other view this company as an authority and the company leaders have received notable accolades for work related to your industry, you might just have found your perfect candidate. Assuming they live up to the other items covered on this list, of course!
In conclusion, the best Atlanta web design company for you will be the one that can work with you every step of the way, shaping your vision into something that works on all levels. From establishing and showcasing your brand all the way to SEO and inbound marketing, the ideal web designers can make your life easier in countless ways. All you have to do is figure out who they are.
Now you are an educated buyer, so when you search for “web design Atlanta” or for a website developer in your own metro area, you know exactly what questions to ask to get the best result for your company.
About The Author
As an SEO for Growth Certified Consultant, Ray L. Perry is more than qualified and ready to help Atlanta businesses implement successful SEO practices. In fact, he’s been doing just that for many years.
Perry is a Master Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultant, a trusted business advisor, and a published author of several marketing books. As the Chief Marketing Officer with MarketBlazer, Inc., a technology based marketing agency in Atlanta, he leads his small business clients to succeed in lead generation, lead conversion, and customer engagement.