You have a great idea for a website, store or platform, but don’t have the skills to develop it on your own? So, you start looking around for a freelancer or web design company who could make your dreams come true. But, have you ever thought about what questions you should ask them before you get on board?
An experienced web design company or developer will always guide clients through a series of questions and answers, to better get acquainted and see if they are a good match. But, not all are like this and, depending on your budget, the more experienced ones might be off limits for a small project or startup idea.
So, I’ve prepared a list of questions you can ask before signing up a web designer on your project. It does not matter the level of experience or the fact that they’ve come highly recommended, the most important thing for you, as a client, is to have all the information going forward.
The first part of the list is made out of some introductory questions. These will give you an idea about the experience of a web design company, as well as the services they provide. You can gage by the portfolio if their style is in line with your brand and if they have experience in your line of work. You can also find out more about the other services they provide and the ways you will communicate during the design and building process.
Next, we have the building process and a series of questions about the specific type of content the final product will need. Ask right from the beginning if there are other costs besides the final fee, since stock photos can be really expensive sometimes.
The final questions on the list are about pricing and payments. Discuss directly and don’t leave any room for interpretation here, especially if this is your first online project with a specific web developer. Last but not least, don’t forget to talk about your relationship after the website is launched.
Ready?
Here are the 21 questions to ask before you work with a web design company:
Introductory questions:
- How much experience do you have?
- Can I see your portfolio?
- If I already have a website, will you review it and take its performance into consideration before starting the new one?
- Will you be able to work with my current brand image?
- How will we communicate during the project?
- What other services do you provide?
- Can you create a logo for my site?
- Do you offer domain name registration?
- Do you offer web hosting services?
- Do you write the content?
- Do you provide maintenance?
Building process questions:
- What is your building process?
- What type of information do you need from me and when?
- Will I be able to see the website during construction?
- How many revision meetings / emails can we do?
- What type of optimization can I expect?
- Will it have SEO tools integrations?
- Will it be fast?
- What social media elements can you integrate?
- Will it be mobile friendly ( responsive / mobile first)?
- Can we use stock photos or videos? Are they included?
- What security features will the website have?
- Will there be a downtime during transition from old to new?
Final questions:
- Are further updates and changes included?
- Who will own the finished product?
- What is the price?
- How can I make the payment?
- Will I be able to edit and view statistics by myself?
