Choosing a cheap website design company is often full of risks — in most cases, you’ll never be able to meet the website designer and you’re taking the initial chance that you’ll pay upfront or a hefty deposit, without any reassurances that the work will actually be completed!
After years of experience and through working with hundreds of different cheap web design companies, we’ve put together this short ‘due diligence’ guide for prospective buyers to review before taking the plunge with a web designer they’ve never dealt with before.
It’s not all doom and gloom and there are many cheap website design companies which do offer professional, cheap websites without such high risks — check out this website as an example. By looking at the WHOIS you can see they have been established since 2002 and have a money-back guarantee.
First and foremost, it’s always important to make sure that you gel well with the company you’re considering. Have you spoken on the telephone or just via email? Does the company even have a telephone number to call? These are the first initial checks to make. We also have a list of some slightly less obvious checks to make:
1. Does your chosen designer have a registered company?
Take a look at their terms and conditions, privacy policy or even just the footer of their website to see if their registered company name is listed. If it is, great — drop it into Google and have a quick skim through the first page. In the US, you can also search SEC.gov and in the UK you can use Companies House too to check the history of the company.
Look out for any clear warning signs of financial problems — if there are markers on the company which suggest accounts haven’t been filed, stay away. If the company has only just been registered, proceed with caution as they may not be around in 12 months.
2. Have you checked the reviews?
Nope, i’m not talking about the glowing testimonials on their website, but honest reviews which you can find through searching a little deeper. Use exact match searches on Google such as “[company name] reviews” and have a browse through the first few pages. Always bear in mind that there are often negative fake reviews, but if you see many different ones which may even name the contact you’ve been dealing with, be cautious.
3. Check previous work and any websites in their portfolio
A simple thought, but often overlooked if you’re in a hurry. The web design company may have a great looking website themselves, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality and results you’re going to get with yours. Have a look at the portfolio and where possible, scan through their previous work for any obvious mistakes, poor quality design and errors.
However, keep a relatively open mind on this as anyone who’s in the web design industry knows, customers often have a tendency to spoil great design work and usually love editing their own websites after they’ve been built.
4. Check the terms and conditions around leaving and taking your website with you
A common problem among business owners is that they have a mediocre experience with their website designers and end up losing patience with them or vice versa and the agency has asked them to find a hosting company elsewhere!
In this case, it’s important to make sure you’re protected and are able to freely transfer your website out, without limitations. Check which CMS (Content Management System) is being used as a hidden trick with some companies is to save a HTML copy of your WordPress website which means although it will load, it’s static and you won’t be able to login or update your website through the control panel.
5. Confirm where the offices are located and who is doing the work
More established cheap web design companies will have process and teams in place to manage the sales process, lead generation and then project management. In such a competitive industry which is often treated as a commodity vs. a value proposition, it’s commonplace for cheap websites to be outsourced to other countries. This can open up a real problem with mis-communication, delays and quality control issues as your project manager will likely just be forwarding on your emails.
There are endless different checks you can make, but ultimately it likes with your gut instinct. Do you feel like the web designers have truly listened to your company and taken it onboard? If so, consider working with them. If you can arrange a meeting with a local company, even better. It will give you peace of mind and you can often interact with the members of the team who are going to be working on your website.