Web Design York – How To Pick Your Perfect Website Designer in York

9 steps to get the best web design agency in York

There are dozens of website design agencies in the York area. If you want a website designed – how do you choose one that offers web design in York that is perfect for you?

The task isn’t easy.

It get’s even harder if you are not a internet guru yourself. How are you meant to know what a good website designer looks like? What they do? Or how much it costs?

Don’t worry, help is it hand!

This easy guide should help you pick the most suitable website designer in York so you can get the website you want for a fair price.

Step 1: Decide What Your Website Is For

You want your website for a reason – you need to be clear about what this reason is. Perhaps you want to get enquiries via email or phone? Maybe you have products that you wish to sell online?

For example you website might:

• Sell school uniforms to parent of local children online
• Show a portfolio of photos to couples getting married
• Advertise jobs in the local area

Whatever the reason is you need to make sure that you have it clearly defined so that any Web Design in York is done properly.

Step 2: Decide The Goals Of Your Website

It is important to have an idea of what you are trying to achieve with your website. After all, you wouldn’t hire a salesman and not brief him on what he is selling, and who he is selling it to. A website is no different.

Your website is an online salesman that should help your business make more money – as long as it is setup to target the right people with the right message.

Try and be as specific as possible when setting your goals. Goals such as “selling more stuff” or “advertising what we do” are no good. Say exactly what you want it to achieve. For example:

• We want to increase traffic to the website by 20% – so we can generate eight more leads per month.
• We want to update the way the website looks because we need to be more relevant to our customers – so that we can raise our rates by 10%.
• We want to write four industry-related articles per month because we want to help our industry so that we can form two new partnerships per month.

Once your web designer in York knows what you are trying to achieve then they can design a website to meet your goals.

After all, How would you know if your website is a success if you don’t know what it’s goals are?

Step 3: Look At Local Competitor’s Website’s

Spend a couple of hours looking at similar website’s and see which you like. Make a list of the good ones – but remember one very important thing when looking around…

Does the website have the same purpose and goals as yours?

It is tempting to be lured by fancy features, or nice graphics. However, if the site doesn’t make you want to find out more about the company then it may not be right for you. After all a website is a business tool designed to meet your goals – it isn’t a fancy online brochure designed to look pretty.

Most web designers in York put their company details at the bottom of the page so you should be able to see who designed each site and get in touch with them.

Step 4: Get Referrals

Speak to your suppliers and business colleagues and get some recommendations. Try and get as much information as possible about how successful their website is. Above all, Make sure you ask one very important question.

Does your website generate customers, orders or money?

They should know – however you would be amazed how many people don’t actually know.

If they don’t know, or are unsure, then their designer is probably unsuitable. Why? Well the site hasn’t been built to meet any goals. It is simply sitting there costing money – not making any. What is the point of that?

Step 5: Check Out Their Web Design Portfolio

Once you have a short list of designers approach them and ask to see examples of their work. This might be better done in person so they can provide more details on each of the projects.

There are some vital questions you should ask any designer – from York or elsewhere.

• Ask how successful each website is?
• What is the purpose of each website?
• What were the goals of the client and how they met them?
• How many visitors the website gets?
• How many visitors become customers?
• How much revenue, clients or business each website generates?

If the designer has done a good job they should be able to answer these questions. If they don’t know or are vague then this is a warning sign.

Step 6: Find Out How They Will Approach Your Web Design Project

Every professional web designer in York will have a system. Get them to explain how their web design system works.

• Ask how they approach the construction of your site.
• How will they go about determining your needs?
• Will you be consulted during construction?
• How often?
• What happens if you don’t like the design?

Make sure you are happy that they know what they are doing and have a well thought out process for building your website. Most of all, make sure it suits you.

Step 7: Get Testimonials

Ask if you can approach some of their Web Design clients in York. If they are unhappy about this then this is another warning sign. They should have nothing to hide if their clients are content.

When you approach their clients ask them if they were happy with the work they had done. Also, most importantly – you must ask one thing above all else.

Does your website generate customers, orders or money?

You don’t need specific figures (they may not been keen to provide them) but you should get a similar story as the Web Designer provided about how well the site performs.

Step 8: Price

Only one thing matters when calculating how much you should spend on your website.

Your website should bring in more money than it costs

One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is to commission a designer based purely on price. This is approach will cost you more money. Why?

• Well if you spend £1000 on a website but it generates £0 then you have just wasted £1000.
• If your website costs £2000 but generates £3000 in new business then the site has made £1000 profit.

Which would you rather do?

Your website should always make you money, rather than costing it. So when calculating how much to spend use the goals you developed earlier to try and figure out how much income you could make over 2 years.

The income figure will give you an idea of the revenue you can expect from the website. You then need to decide the profit you want.

• Website Budget = Revenue over 2 years less Profit

So if you expect £10,000 of business via your website over 2 years and want 50% profit then the budget for the website should be around £5000.

Giving the York web designer a budget is a great idea. They can then decide which features you can afford.

If you feel your current website is simply an expense then you may need to have it reviewed and improved by a professional designer. They should be able to point out any issues and proved recommendations on how to improve it so it makes money, not costs money.

This may be a more cost effective way of improving your website for people on a budget.

Step 9: Summary

Web design in York can be confusing. If you have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve, and the goals you are trying to meet then you will have a far greater chance of getting a good website – regardless of who designs it.

Following the other advice given above on picking a Web Design in York should provide an even better result.