“Website is the Corporate Face of your Business”
~Dhanesh R. Jayathilaka | CEO – Xiteb PVT Ltd ~

When needed to develop a website, customers will first search on Google for a Web Development Company. Once searched, if the Web Solutions Provider’s website is not optimized, that shows the status of the online recognition of the Web Designer.

Your website is a 24/7 available e-brochure

When planning on developing or revamping your website, you have to keep in mind that the same website will be available for another four years. When your company has a website, it communicates many facts including quality & nature of your business *. Somewhere, someone could be always looking at your website. Your website reflects the story of your business.

There are five main criteria that an ideal web development company should have.

• A Registered Private Limited Company
• Which has been in the industry for more than 10 years.
• Work Portfolio of the company
• Client Reviews for the service of the company
• The quality of the web company’s website in terms of performance and UI/UX.

A company specialized & experienced in developing websites will provide the best solution for your requirement. A web solution provided by a web development company has better quality than a web solution provided by freelancers & other start-ups which are highly volatile (Figure: 01).

Why is it difficult to pick a good Web Development company?

*This is due to the increasing number of web development companies, freelancers & other start-ups. Most of these parties aren’t even stable enough to handle projects. Therefore stated below are a few points that any client MUST be aware of when selecting a web development company. 

Stability of the company.

A company that has been in the industry for at least 5 years, proves their reliability. Company with less than five years of experience in the industry, is a threat. Because there is a tendency of such companies dropping off the business at any time due to the reasons provided in Figure: 01. 

A research done by Erin Griffith in 2014 proves that over 60% to 70% of start-up companies cannot survive beyond their first five years in the business for various reasons.

Starting up a new business is proved to be a hard task for most of the entrepreneurs across the business world. The rate of failure within the first five years of business operations varies due to multiple internal & external factors, like the nature of the business, the economic zone, politics, market competition etc. 

Furthermore, many established companies at some point tend to give up on web development & concentrate on product-based software solutions. Because web development alone is not profitable anymore due to the unhealthy price competition created by freelancers & short term companies, the amount of Quality control & Assurance activities & unreasonable demands requested by customers. 

Specialized Web Development companies will be able to provide a unique & most importantly a qualitative solution for your requirement. Over the years the employees who work in the firm adapts an exceptional thinking pattern, where they are able to come up with unique ideas.

Have you checked THEIR website yet?

All web companies’ websites will present their portfolio which will include the multiple projects they have handled. But there is a better way to check the maximum quality of their work. Simply go through their own website. If a Web Developer’s website is not up to the standard, there is no guarantee that they are able to provide their customers a qualitative website. But what is this standard? Further explained under SEO.

Quality of the product.

Once you examine the Web Designer’s website, you can check their portfolio.

While going through the portfolio list, customers can visit some other websites the Web Solutions Provider has developed & check the footer of the website. Here it will say, Site by (Developer name). & that is proof that the website has actually been developed by the service provider themselves.

Even the client testimonials will be helpful because it expresses the impression the service provider has left in the eyes of a third party.

Responsiveness of the staff.

If the staff responds promptly, that shows how important the client is to them. In the world of business there is a common saying, ‘Customer is King’. Indeed the customer is king, & should be treated so. The service provider you have selected should be responsive towards you. 

This can be assessed from day one itself. Despite the method of communication, the staff should be available for their customers all the time.

Also, the Web Designer’s website must consist of several call to action features. From the very traditional ways to the most modern ways. Because customers will use you the communication method convenient for them & not for the service provider.

Search Engine Optimization, commonly known as SEO.

SEO recognizes & optimizes websites among search engines. If the relevant term is used, such as Best web development company in Sri lanka (or the respective country) & the web development company’s website optimizes & appears among the top of the search result page, it means that the Web Service Provider is excellent in terms of SEO.

Making your website SEO friendly sounds very important because it is all about,

Being there when your customers search you online.

There are over 200 ways to make a website SEO friendly. Use of accurate meta tags, titles, descriptions & keywords, changing the content of the website frequently, using a genuine code to develop the website, the age of the domain, domain authority, page authority, page rank are only a few of them. 

Customers can check, through the source code whether the service provider themselves have used these SEO techniques to optimize their website.

Step 01 : Simply visit the website.

Step 02 :  Press Crtl + Shift + U. A window similar to the below look & feel will appear.

Step 03 : Press Ctrl + F & a search bar will appear at the top of the window. You can now type words like description, title & check whether they have been included in the code.

It’s not only the coding that matters in SEO. It is also the UI & UX, respectively known as, User Interface, User Experience & also User-friendliness & social media integration. The more user-friendly it is, the more visitors will retain in the website. If the Web Development party you picked, have all these features on their website, it proves their capability to provide a qualitative solution for your requirement.

Know your budget!

Clients often inquire for quotes from several companies & settle for the company with the lowest quote. Financial wise this would come very handy. But it is always good to pick companies with the same price range. Standard private limited web development companies will always provide a competitive price, compared to freelancers & other start-ups.

As a long experienced web development company, we always advise our customers, especially those who brag about the price, to get quotes from at least three other private limited Web Service Providers to compare the fairness & equity between the prices. This is famously known as the Apple to Apple comparison. 

Why specifically, Private Limited Web Development Service providers.? Because it’s the best parallel comparison that can be suggested. Most customers don’t have a budget to match their requirements. They are willing to pay very little but expect a plentiful. 

When customers, say they can’t afford the price, Web Solutions Providers offer them discounts. These are the various ways such discounts are offered.

• Using outsourced staff to work on the project
• Removing the project from seniors & allocating juniors to work on it. 
• Reducing the requirement WITHOUT the client’s consent

These reasons which are not revealed to the customer will negatively affect the quality of the product.

Visiting the service provider

An optional method to assure the reliability of the Service provider is visiting their workplace. If they are not keen on letting you visit their office, actual reasons might be that them not having an actual physical workplace. But if they are willing to have you in their company, that’s when you can observe and get a glimpse of the company’s internal functionality.

You can judge how friendly the marketing team is towards the client and what importance they give you. A little observation on the machines the technical team uses & the number of developers would be helpful too. 

Consider the total number of employees as well. Companies with 20 – 50 employees are recognized as medium scale companies. Companies with over 100 employees are known as large scale companies.

There is no job specialization in small scale companies with less than 15 employees. In such web development companies, there is a likelihood where all employees work as developers. 

The HR department, while taking care of HR-related work, they’ll help in developing sites. The financial department, while handling finances will do designing as well. This is unhealthy because there is no job specialization. There’ll be no experts in designing, coding or testing QA. Such companies cannot survive in the market for long & do not perform a proper job.

Maintenance

Website development alone is not sufficient. After service, also known as maintenance is the next step. If a web development company offers maintenance, it proves that they are able to take responsibility. It is always advised to get the maintenance for your website from the same web development company that developed your website. Because they are more familiar with your website than a third party who is willing to handle your website’s maintenance.

Customers must have an idea about maintenance service. As a practice, a web development company would charge between 2% – 3% out of the total development cost, for monthly maintenance.

Pick the best, Get the best

It is the customer’s responsibility to match the qualifications & select the best web development company to develop the face of their business. Your website will speak a lot about your business, and it is not limited to a place or a time.

Once you have picked the service provider that matches the basis, you have to open up & transfer your ideas to the relevant analyst. A standard web development company will be able to provide customers with the best web solution, even if the customer is unaware of what he/she actually needs. If the service provider is trying to connect with the client, empathize, be friendly & gather the whole idea in the client’s mind, that’s definitely a sign of successful website being developed.

With all of the information provided, one can now make a good choice in selecting the best web development partner for a business. Make sure the criteria is met. Ask questions & know the actual process. Don’t hold back questions, as it may be disadvantageous in the future.

A genuine company will have no reason to turn away from your questions or even conceal details about the development of your own website. Therefore make you sure you make the right choice.

What does a website communicate about your company?

• Your awareness of the importance of online presence 
• Whether you are up-to-date 
• Maintaining the quality
• Having the capacity to afford a website  
• Established entity 
• More transparent 
• More professional 

Why clients find it difficult to pick a good company?

• They look for Web Service Providers at the last minute.
• They get the website developed by known parties, who may not be professionals
• Clients don’t have sufficient budgets and also try to go for the lowest forgetting that the lowest always has its drawbacks.
• Clients don’t do enough research

Ready to find a web development company for your business? Well why not check out our website NOW? Xiteb