Good Value - What to Look For

When looking for a website developer, one question we hear a lot is "How do I know if what I am getting is a good value?".

First, do your homework. The easiest way to accomplish this is to look at other websites, specifically your competitors.  What do you like?  What do you dislike?  What information do you need on your website and how will that fit into your business sales process?

Next, look for an experienced website developer.  Do not just pick some developer who is your brother in-law's son or your next door neighbors daughter.  You want to make sure that the person you are dealing with understands the process.  Look at their portfolio.  You also want experience.  Make sure you find someone who has been doing this type of work for at least 5 years or more.  Also ask questions, lots of them.  Have they ever done any sites like you want?  Will my site be a content management system (CMS) or will it be static (you want a CMS so YOU can be in charge of maintaining and updating your data if you so choose).  You do not want a site where the developer will need to make every little change that you want on your website.

One major step is to strike a balance between functionality and anesthetics.  You have seen these sites before.  It has fancy graphics and flashy motion and things happening all over the place.  The one thing it does not have is functionality.  The customers get lost trying to figure out what to do.  You do not want a customer to get lost.  If they cannot figure it out in the first 10 seconds, you will most likely lose them as a customer.  It needs to be pleasing to the eye and easy to find the information they are seeking.

We strive for a balance.  We want proportional websites that look very nice yet are simple to navigate and find the information they need.  That is the whole purpose for you website, to generate traffic.  And remember, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.