“I am interested in a redesign of my website. My site is due to be complete and delivered this week.  My current web firm has been a nightmare.  It has been five months and they cannot seem to correct several database errors. They don’t answer their calls anymore and I’m at my wit’s end. I am looking for an honest and dedicated web firm to redesign and update my site once I take delivery from this firm. Can you please help me?”

Do you know how many times a month we get emails and calls that sound like this? Too many! This is an indicator of how some web design industry people are taking advantage of their non-technical customers or have so much growth they can’t keep up with the work. It also seems that business owners who  are most vulnerable of being ripped-off like this are the ones that don’t do their homework or don’t understand technology.  It takes much longer now to gain a client’s trust than it did when we started 12 years ago. It’s also harder to work with clients who have had bad experiences because they don’t trust our advice, even though they know its good. They just don’t want to take that chance again. We understand.

The good news is that there is always a silver lining. Our clients appreciate how hard we work for them once we do gain their trust. Bottom line is that there are a few indicators that you can look for that will point to what your experience will be like in the future with a web design firm or any company for that matter.

• Experience–this counts for a lot. Ask how long the company has been in business. How many clients do they have? Do they feel comfortable if you ask them if you can call one or two clients on their portfolio? Make sure that the breadth of their experience is wide and they can handle many web design languages. Do their sites show up on all platforms and are they web compliant? Will their own site look good on an iPad, PC and Mac? Make them prove it.
• A long client retention rate. What is the average number of years clients have been working with them? If their clients have been with them more than 2 years, chances are the company is an active participant in the relationship and is still helping their clients solve problems as they come up.
• Live examples of their work posted on their site. If there aren’t any examples or they ask you to call them first, go to the next web designer on your list and forget them. We’ve actually seen a few web designers who had examples of work on their portfolio that were all broken links. Make sure those links are live sites that have been doing business for a long time.
• If they claim to be able to do search engine submission, make them prove it. Can they take you to Google and have you put in keywords and show their client(s) coming up on the first page? If they tell you to search a company’s name, most likely, that company will come up first because of the name. Very few people are searching for the company name, especially if they haven’t heard of them before. Try searching relevant keywords for the services said company provides and see if their client comes up.
• Does their ecommerce shopping cart really work? If you’re shopping for a web design firm to help you sell on the web, make sure you try out one or two of their ecommerce sites. Go buy something! How was the experience? Would you come back to that site and shop again? If not, then the site they build for you probably won’t be much better.
• Make sure they practice what they preach. In other words, how is their own site doing on the web? Did you find it at the top of the engines? Is it clear and concise? Are there broken links or pages half-done? We don’t really believe in the story of the shoemaker with no shoes when it comes to web designers. If their own site doesn’t deliver the goods, their client’s sites probably don’t either.

The bottom line is, DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Don’t just pick a firm because you like the way their sites look. Interrogate the salesperson you talk to on the phone–mercilessly! We promise you that if they keep their head during the question and answer part of your conversation and give you clear answers, they most likely are a reputable company. Make sure you don’t hear hesitation about anything–voices say a lot more than words. Then book a face-to-face appointment if possible. Follow your gut and use your newfound knowledge to make your next web design experience the best it can be!