A web design company posting about how to choose the best web design company, hmmm? How about a Salem, Oregon web design company posting about how to choose the best web design company in Salem, Oregon?
Obviously the best web service company to hire is the one that gives you the most value for your money.
Most people that hire web professionals are busy with their own work and expect the professional they hire to perform as promised. Determining the value of what you’re paying for is the tricky part because evaluating any work requires knowledge of specific skill sets relevant to the work. In lieu of having those skill sets yourself, here’s some advice for finding that reliable web resource.
We’ll look at three common web services (online digital marketing & search engine optimization, web maintenance & security, and web design & development), and then help you figure out how to evaluate and determine the value you’re getting from your investment, i.e. are you being charged too much for too little?
Digital Marketing & SEO
Online (or digital) marketing and search engine optimization are the services that are most frequently abused in our industry. Read the parable of Barney if you’re interested in how this service is typically abused.
What is search engine optimization? It’s building a web page, then developing and arranging the content and code in a way that gets your page indexed by Google and other search engines with the objective of being listed at or near the top of the search results to your preferred customers.
Online marketing describes efforts performed after your website pages have been optimized. It includes different activities such as interacting with your company social profiles, creating press releases and advertisements, monitoring and responding to your public reviews, link building, and other activities that promote your objective and establish and protect your company’s online reputation and maintain your website’s credibility.
SEO and online marketing efforts work together in gaining you conversions, such as new leads, generating sales on your ecommerce site, signing up for memberships or emails, etc., all of which require site visitors. We want to establish your site as the go-to, trusted resource when your targeted audience types into a search engine looking for what you’re offering. To do that, the search engines evaluate the value of your website based on your online reputation and content. The algorithms they use to determine who ranks highest are a highly proprietary and secret, which means nobody should be making any guarantees about getting your site to rank high.
Here’s a short list of knowledge points on the subject in no particular order:
- NO BLACKHAT TECHNIQUES – If it sounds too good to be true it likely is. Simply put, anyone trying to game the system and work a current loophole in some search engine’s algorithm is going to have any site using such blackhat techniques penalized when caught; and it will get caught. Stick to what I call “content integrity” which basically means work according to the rules which assist the search engines and be rewarded for it.
- MONTHLY FEES – If anyone promises you that by paying $x per month you’ll get to the top of Google they are lying to you. Nobody can promise that because of the proprietary ranking algorithms used. If you do pay monthly fee it should be for MANUAL WORK – because all whitehat SEO and online marketing services require custom written, proprietary content. This should show detailed reporting of work efforts and time on your invoice.
- PHONE & EMAIL SOLICITATIONS – Again, if it sounds too good to be true…, as the saying goes. I’ve seen every sort of email and phone scam soliciting alleged “SEO” or online marketing services and haven’t seen any that are worth the money. Worse, most of them are outright lies. I highly advise you to be skeptical of email and phone solicitations for alleged search engine or digital marketing services. Feel free to call Joseph at 503-391-4801 before buying and I’d be happy to help evaluate the offer.
Final Notes on Search Engine Optimization & Online Marketing:
If “SEO” is included with your website development project and you’re not specifically paying extra for this part, chances are you’re not getting much. What we do is optimize the home page, include the tools for you to emulate the technique throughout the site, and we provide instructions for recommended follow-up actions should you prefer to delegate these ongoing efforts in-house. Or we can do it by running a tab for you.
Web Design
When looking for a web designer try this:
- Visit their website, then visit their portfolio and check their work.
- Go to Google and type in the name of the company you are considering. On the right side column the company should have a local business box with reviews; read them.
- Call the web services company yourself, explain what you’re looking for and expect at least a ballpark estimate or a formal discovery document. Judge for yourself the attitude and helpfulness of the potential web developer. Their customer service and willingness to help will speak volumes about the company. Are they desperate to make a sale for a one-off customer or are they helpful and diligent, treating you as a long-term client?
- Pricing: pricing a website is a 3-factor equation. 1) The first consideration is the website functionality necessary to meet your objectives. 2) Next is the amount of customization you are buying and the level of expertise of the designer. Check the portfolio of the company you’re investigating, this is where the real labor and attention to detail differentiate between a mediocre site and a complete, professional web presence with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. One that delivers the ROI you expect. If you perform due diligence try asking for other opinions about the different designer portfolios you’re vetting. You can also ask other design companies what they think of each other’s work.
Final Note on Web Design: Do your due diligence by calling the company that you’re vetting and evaluating their willingness to help you, read their public reviews, and ask other people about the portfolios that you’re evaluating.
Web Maintenance
A website should be considered an ongoing investment. Besides your monthly hosting fees and your annual domain name registration fee, you should also perform periodic maintenance on your site. Namely this: monthly updates to any core platform or theme files, updates to any modules or plugins, backup of your database and site files, and regularly performing a security check on your website to ensure it’s free from malicious script injections. Typically these efforts should take between 1/2 hour to 2 hours per month.
If you outsource your site maintenance, look for a company that offers contract-free hourly rates and applies those rates to every type of web service they offer – from maintenance to marketing. We run a tab for our clients, report in detail all work performed and the time involved, we bill in 1/2 hour increments, and send either a quarterly invoice or when it reaches a threshold amount that you prefer.
He has an Associates Degree in Graphics Communication and refers to his metal detector as his "search engine". His favorite hobby is gardening and spending time with his wife, children, and family. His favorite pastime is swimming and drifting across rivers and lakes exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
