Web Design Blog

Type in the phrase “web design” or “web site design” or one like unto it, in a search engine like google and you’ll find a multitude of so called web design businesses who will gladly build you a website for whatever money they can get out of you.

As I have been in the web design & development industry for some time now, I have noticed a wave of start-up web development companies that have grossly abused the phrases, “Top 1% of web design companies in the world!”, “Certified, trained professionals”, “Top Engineers”, “Quality Service”…

I am here to tell you that the majority of those companies claiming to be what their site portrays are misleading in the quality of service and product they provide, and sadly, they tend to overcharge their clients for web development that is some of the poorest in the industry…

My intension here is to show you the signs of a “bad egg” web development company compared to the good ones, deserving of your business and how to choose the company that will meet your needs & not charge you for things you’ll never need or use.

My credentials you might ask? Who am I? I started designing and programming web sites, web applications and web projects at the tender age of 14. I have since worked for numerous web development & design companies as a Design Lead, Manager, and coordinator, a programmer, and a manager of all web development departments. Eventually, out of complete frustration with those companies and their handling of good honest clients, I left the “rat race” and started my own web design & development company.

My approach to a web development company was shaped by the many shortcomings of each company I had worked for. From overcharging clients to misleading them with the popular, “Get a website starting at $199.00″ (which should read, “Starting at $199 and ending where your budget stretches the most”) I began to see that all these companies had one main problem. Retention… They got the customer in, but after a few weeks or months, the customer began to see that they were either being overcharged for something they never asked for or that the quality of the product promised was lacking and sometime missing altogether.

So how did I resolve this problem? I carefully started to build a company where the customer feels like they are sitting in a sofa, with lemonade when they call us. Where the customer comes out of our doors or phone conversation knowing more than they did before they rang. Where the customer knows exactly what they are getting, why they are getting it, and why it costs what it does. Where the customer has the same level of decision that the manager does on the other side of the phone… Isn’t the website that we are building your website? Why do so many companies force their customers into a battle of power over the control, design and development of the website? Shouldn’t you be able to touch the product you just paid for, or at least feel some sort of ownership to your website?

I have never felt so bad for a customer until I was in my third week working at a company in Utah who’s claim to be in the top 1% of the Nation may be true, but they make up for that one truth with plenty of other misleading statements, to name a few: “Certified Website Designers -Top of their Class, Experienced, Certified Graphic and Layout Designers!” What certifications? I never had one… Neither did any of my co-workers, in fact, most of us had just come in from high-school as either a drop-out or we just needed a job and we took a trainer course in photoshop or dreamweaver over the weekend to pass the design or HTML test they gave us… Certified? No. Experienced? Sure, if you count the many bad designs performed on clients websites while working there?

Without further delay, and without going into specific details of many companies I have worked for or am very aware of their practices, here are a few red flags to watch for while choosing a web development & design company.

1. Buy a site for $199.00
Why is this number one? We too, offer sites for $195.00… Take notice when you call the company offering this steal of a deal, how many details they either choose to tell you or try to avoid… Yes, a website of that price can be very nice and is very doable… If a company explains to you all the basic details of that particular package, then you usually will come out ok. But, keep in mind that with bigger companies that are really big, a $199.00 site will be treated as a quick site… thus you will get some designer in the far corner throwing and piecing together your site. You might as well have paid $500.00 for a good design. With Everest Web, you only get the best. Take a look at our portfolio. You will see many sites that we have designed for $195.00… We look at our clients with equality. Your $195.00 site will look as good as the $1100 site, because we only do good work! The extra costs come when you begin to ad “enhancements” to your site. (i.e.. photo galleries, shopping cars, flash, payment forms, etc.)

2. Sales Pitch vs. What is the purpose of your website?
Most web design companies will give you a hard sales pitch when you call in. This shows you as a customer that they want your money and probably won’t care much about the success / failure of your business. So, pay attention to the questions they ask you and the interest they show in your business or ideas… We at everest not only care about your business, we enjoy spreading the word about your business by SEO enabling your site and putting it on multiple indexing sites to help you get more customers and visits.

3. Promising the moon
Beware of those companies who will do amazing things with a website at a fraction of the cost. This usually means that they are in a garage with a telephone waiting for the next chance to go learn the skill they need to build that customer who just paid them hundreds or thousands of dollars.

4. Sincerity
If you call a company and you feel confused within a few minutes of the conversation, then they either are trying to confuse you to have you just let them take care of it, or they don’t care that you understand what you are about to pay for.

5. Certified Designers, Programmers, etc.
In every company I have worked for, not one of my co-workers or managers at that have ever been certified as a designer or programmer. The company might give them a certificate stating that they passed a test in some program. The best way to tell if a company really walks their talk is to view their portfolio… Not just once. But come back a few times to see if they constantly update it, or if they just keep the once in a blue moon best designs up so you never see the bad ones…

With those things in mind… come back and read my next blog about one of my experiences with one of todays fastest growing web design companies in the US. Why are they the fastest? I find it funny that they brag about this all over their website, when all it says to me is that they are the fastest to spend money buying their customers from google.com’s adwords campaigns. Oh yes, we could easily climb up to be the fastest growing company in the us, but that sure doesn’t help you as a customer… Fast growth equals more quotas to meet, less time for quality work, more time for quick work…