Having a functional website is one thing, having a successful website online is another! It is a daunting task for most companies to have a website that constantly adds new customers to it business. Choosing the web-designer with the lowest quote is not a good idea at all. In my course of heading GetPromoted, a leading web-design company in Gurgaon, I have come across many clients who have suffered earlier since they choose someone who had the lowest quote.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing as lucrative as the Internet for getting maximum visibility. But, if you don’t do proper planning when you decide to get a new website or redesign your old website, you will not be able to reap its true benefits.
As any successful business that is generating leads online and they will agree. Leads coming online get closed much faster. No wonder every company or self-employed professional looks at having a website as the first medium for business promotion.
But remember hiring a website designing company which does not have full proficiency and skills can become a nuisance for you and even harm your businesses. Here are a great set of queries you should be asking before you finalize your website contractor.
Outline
- Your expectations from the website
- What should be your budget?
- Make contacts, build a database
- Selling Online – Accepting Credit Card Payments
- Which providers choose?
- Hosting
- How much does it cost?
- What about legal obligations?
What are your expectations from your website?
Take few hours to list down what you expect from your site. Don’t be afraid to think out of the box. Scan the internet for what works. This step will be the fundamental block in your Internet marketing strategy. Educating yourself as much about Web world is the best asset you can have to a successful website.
Companies offering websites at very very low prices will obviously cut corners when it comes to quality. You will get a substandard website that will discourage new customers instead of adding sales. Having said that, it does not mean that anyone who is charging higher will be the best. If you have a limited budget, consider going step by step. WordPress websites or html websites don’t cost a fortune so you should be good to go even with a minimum budget.
Having a website online is the first step. Your website is online 24 hours x 7 days and showcases company activities and products; no other medium has that power. Be ready to consider SEO and Online Marketing if you are serious about making money from the web. If your listing comes up when a potential customer is searching on Google, you have great chances of converting it to sale. It is therefore essential that you have a website with all essential on-site SEO components in place. In addition to onsite SEO, a website optimized for smartphones is essential.
It is fairly easy to develop Contacts over the Internet. If you offer some complementary resource such as an e-book, Brochure that might help your prospective customers, then you have a winner on your hands. Such free resources attract visitors to your site. They also increase the interest and authority of the customer in your business with regards to competition.
You can take this a step further by making use of the data you have collected via the contact form and sending periodic newsletters.
Selling Online – Accepting Credit Card Payments
If you are considering setting up an eCommerce website, get ready to sign up with a Payment Gateway provider. Countries with Paypal are better off since Paypal is easy to add but it’s an expensive proposition. If you are in India, CCAvenue, EBS and Payu are three popular providers that you can consider for payment gateways.
Vendor Options
Turnkey Solution – You can choose a turnkey website designing company. This company should have Graphic Designers, HTML5 Coders, Javascript experts, Content Writers and SEO optimizers. You get the picture…a full-service design agency.
The solution covers regular content updates, regular website updates. Basically, the company runs as your website back-office.
This solution is the best to achieve online success. As a business owner, you need to spend time on other aspects of your business so it’s best you let experts take care of your online initiatives.
An independent developer, freelancer- You will also find Freelancers in addition to companies that offer web-design services. This method is not suggested, web-design is no longer a single person activity. It’s a team activity and needs people from diverse backgrounds to work together. Most web design freelancers are good coders but bad designers and vice versa. Commitments and deadlines are other critical areas where most of these freelancers fail.
Hosting
Since beginning of 2014, website load time has become a very important aspect. A fast server at a reliable Website Hosting Provider is very important. If your web-design company is hosting your website, ask them about the hosting provider. If it’s not among the Top 10 hosting providers of the world, ask them not to give you that hosting. Trust me you don’t want hosting from a unreliable source. A bad hosting provider means a website that is ‘down’ frequently. This can wreck havoc on your businesses.
How much does it cost?
The total cost to expect depends on the functionality that you want, the technology you use and the services you choose after the website goes live. There are agencies who will not charge anything less than $4000 for a 6 page website and at the same time there are companies who will give you a much better website in $1000. The market is widely divided when it comes to cost. An intelligent businessman will consider all factors before choosing how much to pay. It’s best to have look at present work of the company and then decide. Remember it’s an investment, not an expense.
Website is much more than just design. You need a professional team that can implement the right strategies that will help your website get traffic. Time is required for this and you should be ready to pay for the time that the team will spend on these high value services.
Hire an amateur and you might end up with an incomplete website, website with broken links or problems with getting the control of your website or domain.
To cut to the chase, be committed to own not a good but the BEST POSSIBLE website for your business. Understand one simple fact – it is not kids play to ensure a solid Internet presence. It involves specialized technical and intellectual skill.
Don’t think of cutting corners. See the expense as one of the most important investment. Do the investment prudentially and you should be all set to the road to online success.
Take a look at legal obligations
Many of us ignore this but it’s very important to take a look at any special Laws that apply to us in particular for our business. A website disclaimer with a note on Intellectual Property is a must-have.
Take a look at website disclaimers related to your business to have an idea of what your website policy should contain. Another important thing to note here that you should tell your web-design agency not to use copyrighted images copied from Google images or other sources. Why should you care? Well, it’s the law!
Armed with all these points, you are ready to pick up the phone and call service providers for your requirements.
This article is written by Nitin Jain – CEO of GetPromoted. GetPromoted is a professional digital marketing and web-design agency based in Gurgaon.
Gurgaon website designer 