What Any Web Design Agency Should be Able to Deliver

In this post, I will cover the basic items a professional web design agency must be able to deliver when developing your website. I will also cover some of the questions you should ask when selecting a new agency and assessing its professionalism.

A Design That Follows the Trends of Time and Your Industry

No matter how interesting a design may look, it is only natural for your potential customers to expect to see some features that are standard not only on the web in general but in your industry. First impressions are indeed important, and potential customers that see your brand for the first time on the web will try to assess your credibility by subconsciously trying to identify familiar features on your website.

A professional web design agency must take this into account and not only apply current web trends but also study your competitors. This will result in a website that respects the indicators of credibility and trust that your customers are looking for.

A Responsive Web Design

According to comScore, 63% of Canadians are spending more time on mobile than they do on desktop computers. Still, 31% of Canadians exclusively use desktop computers. Therefore, it is critical that any website developed today is responsive. This means, your website should work and look equally well on mobile devices and on desktop computers.

Besides some clients visiting your website on mobile, while others visit it on a desktop computer, you should also be aware of the growing phenomenon called multi-screen path to purchasing or multi-platform engagement, where potential customers engage on one platform, but end-up making the final purchase on another. For example, a customer may be researching the services or products that your company has to offer while on-the-go, but finalizing the purchase on their desktop computer at home or at the office. Your website must offer a seamless experience throughout this experience in order to help you close a sale.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

A web agency may be able to deliver a great looking website that works well on both, mobile and desktop devices, but the work shouldn’t stop there. It goes without saying that any website used for driving sales must be easy to find.

SEO has two components: On-Site, and Off-Site. On-Site means optimization done on your website, such as adding the correct metadata, properly configuring the URLs of your website, and aligning content and metadata with targeted keywords.

Off-Site SEO, means integrating your website into the internet ecosystem. Off-Site SEO is not the responsibility of the agency that designs your website since Off-Site SEO is an ongoing process and does not stop when the agency delivers your website – in fact, that is where it starts, but optimizing your website for Off-Site SEO is.

There are firms specializing in SEO that can do this for you, or your development agency may offer this service. Whichever the case, the agency should take Off-Site SEO into consideration while developing your website, since some of the design and development decisions must be made based on Off-Site SEO. A website that isn’t optimized for Off-Site SEO will eventually need to be reworked by a developer.

Ask the Right Questions

1. Ask how the agency will make sure that your website follows the trends?
2. Ask what actions they take to make sure that your website will work on both types of devices?
3. Ask what steps are they taking to ensure that your website will be search engine optimized On-Site and Off-Site

After the Work Has Started and Before Accepting the Work

When reviewing a website or a draft that an agency is developing for you, never accept it before you test it on both mobile and desktop devices. Make sure that you are satisfied with what you see on both types of devices. Always imagine that a client has an equal chance of picking a desktop computer versus a mobile device.

Ask what keywords your website has been optimized for and for proofs of the optimization for these keywords.

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