Hiring a Website Design Agency For Your Redesign

Most website projects start with the design of the site. I’m here to tell you that you should talk about design near the end of your project, not at the beginning. First, you need to determine who your target audience is and what you want the site to achieve.

Website Redesign RFPs

Let’s talk about one of the least popular topics in our industry: the request for proposal.

RFP stands for Request for Proposal. When hiring a web design firm, it’s good practice to nail down the scope of what you need to be done (e.g. What is your budget? How many pages? What is the desired look-and-feel? etc.) and what you need to accomplish (e.g. What is your primary objective? What are your goals? How will you measure success?) before you begin searching for a web design company.

If the scope of your project is not realistic, it will be hard to find a web design company that meets your needs. That’s why you might want to hire a website design firm instead of doing it yourself.

You may be able to find a developer to handle the design, but will they be able to colour within the lines at the scope you’ve outlined? Chances are, they’ll make some changes to your homepage, but you need to put your foot down and make sure they follow the instructions. This is the only way they’ll be able to complete the project in the time frame you require.

However, if you’re not sure what you need, you’ll end up with a ton of features that you may not use.

It’s usually best to hire a service provider to handle the project if you’re not sure what you need or if you think you can do it yourself.

If you have a budget in mind, the next thing you’ll need to do is to lay out all of your requirements. I’ll help you with that in the next section.

Working Out The Right Web Design Approach

How do you know what you need? Well, there are certain questions you should ask yourself before you start reading reviews, looking at portfolios, or requesting proposals.

For example, there are four main categories to consider when outsourcing your web design:

Content Management Systems

What kind of content management system (CMS) do you need? Do you need to customize the CMS, or will it need to be integrated with other software such as Google AdWords, or Google Analytics?

Do you need to customize the CMS, or will it need to be integrated with other ert software such as Google AdWords, or Google Analytics? Who will be responsible for updating and maintaining the site? Will you or your web designer be the main contact person, and will you require regular reports and emails about site statistics?

Will you or your web designer be the main contact person, and will you require regular reports and emails about site statistics? Will the CMS be responsive?

Will the CMS be responsive? Will you need SEO plug-ins such as blogs, social networking, reviews, and popular posts?

Will you need SEO plug-ins such as blogs, social networking, reviews, and popular posts? Will you need a customer portal?

Will you need a customer portal? Do you need a mobile app?

Do you need a mobile app? Do you need a shopping cart?

Do you need a shopping cart? Do you need site analytics?

Do you need site analytics? Do you need a chatbox?

This is just a sampling of the questions you should ask before beginning the search for a website design firm.

If you have an existing website, you’ll want to know if what you have will work with your future design, or if you’ll need to upgrade the software with plugins, scripts, or templates.

If you have an existing website with a specific CMS, it’s important to make sure the new website will be compatible with your existing design.

It can also be important to find out if your new design will be compatible with an existing blog. Sometimes, the plug-ins that allow the blog to function will need to be transferred to the new platform.

If your website uses Javascript, you’ll want to make sure the new design will still function without any problems.

Redesigning your site requires technical expertise and core competence. Looking for a web design agency on the Sunshine Coast? Get in touch with us today to see how we can help you redesign your site.