How to Choose a Web Design Company That Fits Your Business?

Understanding Web Design Services

Web design services are what outsourcing companies provide to help you build a functional and aesthetic website. Their demand has been increasing in recent years, with an estimated 8.5% annual growth from 2024 to 2031.

What do Web Design Services Often Cover?

So, what do companies often include in their web design services? The answer varies. Some partners like Designveloper focus on technical aspects of a website, offering a full life-cycle service from ideation to post-deployment and ongoing maintenance. Meanwhile, others can specialize in UI/UX design and marketing services for your website.

In this section, we’ll elaborate on typical tasks that a design company often works on:

1. Discovery or Planning

The task is arguably the most important because what’s decided and mapped here sets the stage for the entire project. This is also the stage that requires client interaction and the accompanying attention to detail.

After the initial meeting, the business analysts will elicit and collect requirements from all stakeholders. They will also analyze them, do some research and finish a document of specifications.

If it’s a web redesign project, the specs might include:

Site goals review: Consider what customer and business need the website must address, and which functionality is required to achieve this.
Analytics review: Use Google Analytics to study the current site performance, the user flow, pages that users ‘drop off’, average time on page, and bounce rate.
Conversion review: Examine the efficiency of call-back requests, contact form completion, offers redeemed, online sales, phone calls recorded from the site or download content requests.

In the discovering phase, the design team might need to create the user persona. This involves developing typical user profiles and informs the design process. By learning about each type of user’s needs and creating a user flow chart, we can enhance the experience of each user. They also need to define the sitemap or identify the pages that the site has, as well as the hierarchy of the pages.

web sitemap — *Sitemap, it could be your website structure*

Then, there must be low-fidelity wireframes as a starting point for the visual design and structure of the website. It helps illustrate how the content and functionality will appear, as well as considering user needs and journeys.

The flow/process diagrams, which map out the users’ flow through the site from the first hit to the end goal, will be sketched. And the specific functional and non-functional requirements will be elicited and assessed. The content creators and SEO specialists will work a lot to help develop the content of the site.

Once the specs and content pass approval, the project will move on to the second task: Design, or Prototyping.

Recommended reading: Everything About Managing Website Projects

2. Design

This task is to fulfill the ‘look and feel’ for the site and make sure that it serves the purpose of attracting visitors and generating sales.

It starts with high-fidelity wireframes, which outline the realistic content, fonts, image dimensions, or button styles that help visualize how the site works before adding colors and imagery.

Then, the design team will rely on the brand guidelines to create the website user interface (UI) with full-fledged content including photography and copy. With the flow diagrams, they begin to optimize the user experience (UX) to make it engaging and efficient.

When the UI and UX are ready, the design team will make a prototype that enables you to interact with the design as if you are using the real website. Tools like InVision or Figma might be necessary for this task.

3. Development

This is when web developers step in and collaborate with web designers on the website’s technical parts. There are some instruments that need mentioning:

GitHub is a common tool in this phase. Basically, it’s a digital repository where developers can work on the code base, track changes, revert back if there’s anything wrong, and collaborate with other developers.

Google Cloud Platform is for website hosting, and Lavarel or WordPress is commonly for setting up the Content Management System (CMS). And in order to store and interact with content, there should be a database and custom fields.

A common requirement from clients is that the website should be compatible with different devices and screen sizes. In this case, a responsive web design approach is adopted in front-end development.

Plugins, third-party Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, and marketing automation tools such as SharpSpring, Salesforce, or Hubspot, will be installed on the website. Content will be populated. After the websites are fundamentally complete, developers will optimize the codebase to improve site performance. This is very important for SEO.

The site will be tested on various browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox) and devices (desktop, tablet, mobile, both iOS and Android) to make sure that it works universally. Then a small group of users will be invited to test the site and leave some feedback for bug fixing and amendments. If everything works well, the design is ready for launch.

4. Testing and Deployment

There will be final checks on the website before launching. The checklists might include the aspects of SEO and tracking tools (Google Analytics, Webmaster, Audience Tracker, etc). Some client training sections will follow so that the company can know how to use the CMS properly. After launching, there will be a period of time to fix any post-launch defects.

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5. Operation and Maintenance

Web design services do not end at the deployment stage. You will need to keep optimizing the site performance and conversion rate, especially when customer demands and market trends are continuously evolving. And if there are any changes in the site’s infrastructure or design, you definitely need to work with the company you hired on the improvement plan. Especially when you have a website with CMS, it is advisable to have a support and maintenance plan. This helps you update CMS and plugins without exposing yourself to security issues.

Recommended reading: How To Outsource SEO & Web Design Processes?

Why do You Need Help from a Professional Web Design Company?

With all those services, a web design company can help you seamlessly start your online journey. But what benefits does that company bring to you? Below are several pros you may receive if looking for expert help:

1. Expertise

Design companies offer a talent pool that is proficient in user interface (UI) design, user experience (UX), and visual aesthetics. These skilled workforce also have an in-depth understanding of usability principles, the latest design trends, and even technical aspects of web development. This helps create a website design that adheres to industry-specific standards and works well with the back-end.

2. Access to Advanced Technology

Professional designers leverage advanced software, coding practices, and testing tools to deliver high-quality products. The technology choice depends greatly on different projects. For example, people at Designveloper use Xcode (an integrated development editor released by Apple) to code features in iOS native languages, while employing Android Studio to create Android native features as it supports Java, Kotlin, and Dart.

3. Time and Cost Efficiency

Professional designers work effectively to deliver your website within budget and on time. For example, people at Designveloper follow Agile frameworks – typically, SCRUM and Kanban – that focus on designing the most critical elements of your website. Through customer feedback and market changes, we continuously update your website to ensure it always meets growing needs. This saves you time and cost, hence enabling your to focus on other strategic initiatives.

4. Customization

Design companies can customize the web design to fit your unique demands and goals. The tailored design not only aligns with your brand identity and resonates with your target audience, but also sets you apart from competitors.

5. Enhanced Competitive Edge

Professional designers help you increase a competitive advantage. Particularly, they design a website that is compatible with your brand, integrates security practices (like encryption or secure hosting), and easily adapts when your business grows. With a professionally designed website, your business can attract and engage more potential customers. This helps you stay competitive in the market and acquire higher return on investment (ROI).

6. Mobile Optimization

The global smartphone ownership is estimated to reach 6.1 billion users in 2029. To help you catch up with this trend, web design companies also focus on optimizing websites for mobile devices. This ensures your website look and function flawlessly on different smartphones and tablets.

Recommended reading: Web Design Business: How Difficult Is It to Start?

How Much Does It Cost for Website Design Services?

When outsourcing your design project, you may be concerned about one important factor: web design and development costs.

Normally, web design companies don’t list their prices on their websites. But with just a few tries, you can easily find out that the average cost of designing and building a website can range from a reasonable $5,000 to a jaw-dropping $500,000. It depends on different elements, from the functionality and security level of your website to the look of the user interface and the infrastructure’s stability.

And it’s important to note that deployment and the official launch are not the end of the website design services. After that, you have to pay a certain amount each month or each year for ongoing maintenance and updates. So, every year, the total amount of money spent will be added up, and it could reach millions of dollars.

Plus, this cost varies based on the services you require. Are you looking for a full-fledged design team to cover the entire process, or do you need a few designers to augment your existing team? Will you opt for a fixed-price contract or an hourly rate?

Also, the location of web design companies affects the cost. SalaryExpert says that the average hourly rate for a web developer in the US is $44.46. This number might be higher in the UK and Europe but lower in India and Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam. This is why many SaaS companies choose to outsource to these developing areas, as long as the quality of service is guaranteed.

How to Know If a Design Firm is Good Enough to Hire?

Choosing the right web design services company for your project can be daunting. With so many options, finding the best fit for your needs might seem impossible. Fortunately, by following these tips, you will find a professional that is perfect for you.

1. Credibility

We can tell if a design company is reliable or not by looking at its portfolio, which is a list of the projects it has done. It would be great if they gave us links to those products so we could look at them on our own.

Check out the projects that Designveloper has accomplished here.

But even the products can be made up, so you need to check the references they give you. You should also talk to the company’s former clients to find out what they thought of the services.

You should also look at the company’s profile on review sites like Clutch or Trustpilot to see what other people say about it.

2. Communication Skills

Next, consider another important factor: communication skills.

Clients, especially with small business web design projects, are often worried that the design and development team doesn’t know how to “speak the language of businesspeople.” They often talk in technical terms instead of explaining them in a way that is easy to understand.

Therefore, a good design company should know how to quickly explain technical ideas to clients and also goes into detail about how those ideas affect the business.

Besides, when judging a design firm’s communication skills, consider how quickly and effectively they respond to your problems.

Recommended reading: Top 20 Best IT Outsourcing Companies

3. Professionalism

A standard procedure, which we’ll talk about in the next section, has a lot to do with this. Good web design companies gives you a full set of services, from consulting and business analysis to support after the site is up and running.

These companies never make promises they can’t keep or miss deadlines. They always stay on budget, on time, and on scope. Even if something goes wrong, they’ll let you know right away.

Just ask for a Zoom meeting and watch how they set the schedule, how they listen to your concerns, if they take notes, and if the solutions they suggest are good. This will tell you how professional they are.

4. Competence, the key selling point of web design services

This is about the tools they use to solve your problems, such as the frameworks, languages, and web design software. It’s also about how aware they are of things other than the technical side of business, like branding, content marketing, or SEO. A good web design company knows how important SEO is and will make the site so that it works well with search engines.

Above are just some factors that you should take into consideration when hiring a company for website design services.

Recommended reading: The 6 Factors to Choose a UI UX Design Company

Why to Choose Designveloper as Your Ideal Design Partner?

In case you’re looking for a reliable partner for your design project, Designveloper is a good option. With over a decade of experience in website design and development, we’ve undertaken 100+ projects that make a big difference and bring success to our clients. So, why should you consider Designveloper’s team?

Proven Track Record

Our teams are highly appreciated for trendy yet effective solutions that help enhance website traffic and conversion rates. We also stay updated about the latest trends like progressive web design, chatbot integration, and micro-interactions to help our client stay competitive or even stand out in their industry-specific market. Check out how clients talk about us on Clutch!

Clear Design Procedures

We adopt professional techniques – including Agile & SCRUM, Pair-Programing, Pomodoro, and weekly workshops – to deliver scalable, customized solutions to our clients. See more about how we work here!

Timely Delivery and Reasonable Pricing

By clarifying our clients’ requirements and adopting Agile frameworks, we’re committed to releasing your website on time and within budget!

Wanna to discuss your design idea further with us? Fill out this form with your contact information, and someone from our team will get in touch with you as soon as possible.