How to choose the right web development company
Whether you are thinking of building a website for your business or replacing the website you already have with a new one, you are thinking wisely. Developing a modern business website is the best thing you can do for your business.In both cases, however, choosing the web development company and the features that your new website should have is certainly a difficult task.
The Internet has been in our lives almost since 2000. In early 2004, facebook was created. But already in 2003, the first version of the popular opensource CMS Wordpress platform was released, as reported on Wikipedia, and in 2005 the popular Joomla platform was also released. Today, there are about 300-400 Content Management Systems with which one can build a website.
Content Management Systems for web development
Content Management Systems or CMS allows its users to create, manage, and publish web content without the necessity to know or use any programming language. Instead, the above processes are executed through a graphical management interface. Simply put, using a CMS anyone in front of their computer can build a website with their mouse and keyboard.
If you have the disposition, patience, appropriate time, understand some things about the internet and computers and you are willing to search and find out some more, you can even build your website. You will, of course, need a server to host your site, so you will eventually need a partner. For more information on hosting your website, you can read our article How to Choose the Right Web Hosting.
In a CMS, the appearance is created and can be changed with a template installation and functions are added with the installation of plugins or modules. Some of them are free and the best must be paid. Because opensource CMSs have been used to build millions of websites, however, they are vulnerable to viruses. Picture that only Wordpress, the most popular CMS, has been used to build 172 million websites, of which 73.2% are vulnerable to viruses.
Where do we want to end up with the above? Given that with the multitude of tools available and the ease with which one can build a website, it makes sense that there are thousands of businesses and/or people, dealing with web development.
Of course, there are other ways to build a website. A website can be static, usually consists of HTML files or custom, that is, files that are hand-written by experienced developers.
Web development company features
Our advice on choosing the right affiliate is as follows: Even if you want a website for just having one, it would not be wise to choose anyone to build your website. Because you can either loose aimlessly the required money to build it or, even worse, your website could be hacked resulting in the loss of valuable customer data and you getting involved in terrible situations. If you think you just want to have a website, you can read our article Isn't it enough if I just have a business website?
But if you want a website that will have benefits from its operation and return you many to hundreds of times the money you invested for building it, our advice would be to continue reading this article. So what are the features of the company you should hire to develop your website?
Have a physical address
You certainly do not want to give money to someone who does not have a physical location, that is, no legal business. In the same way that you buy from online stores that have a physical location and a landline phone in order to be able to contact them, you should also be careful in choosing a web site partner. Takis from Patras with phone 698 ***** 24 and activity "building site" is probably not the best option for you to pay him a small or large amount of money.
Have programming knowledge
At this point you may wonder, since with CMS web design is done through a graphical interface, why should my partner have programming knowledge? Well, there are three reasons.Initially, because you may need a feature that is not included in any of the released plugins. Or you might find a plugin with the features you want, but it's too expensive to purchase. In situations like these, the developer must intervene to construct these functions.In another case, you may have paid dearly for a template or plugin and you may not want to replace it, once it has run into problems due to outdated versioning. Once more, you will need a developer to correct the errors and make your website work properly.In a third case, if you want a custom website with handwritten code and without all of the above problems, you will absolutely have to find a partner with excellent programming knowledge.For more information on custom websites, you can read our article Custom Platforms for Website Development.
Have an IT degree
Of course, we cannot overlook the knowledge that has as well as the abilities and the way of thinking of a human being, with a bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science. Such a partner is more likely to be up-to-date on evolutions in IT and able to help you and your business move to a higher level than you have ever imagined.
Previous works
You certainly don't want a partner, someone who builds a website for the first time. It would make sense to check out some of his previous efforts to assess the quality of the development. But we do not believe that the greater the quantity, the better the quality. There are young people with excellent knowledge and skills in web development who have not been able to come to the fore.
But beware! When we say quality, we don't just mean the look of the website, but also the features of the website. How fast it opens, how friendly it is to search engines, whether it's displayed properly on mobile phones, etc.
For more information on the features, a modern website should have, you may read our article When you should build a new business website?
Provide choices to pick from
Do you remember the time you went to buy a car? Did you went to the first car dealership on your way and asked for a car? Or did the seller gave you the necessary documents to sign and delivered you a car? I'm pretty sure he didn't.
So, why you should hire someone who builds websites, to develop a website for you? He should give you options, with their features and the corresponding cost. He should explain the advantages and disadvantages of each option so you can then choose the one that best suits your needs.
To help you or undertake the creation of the website content
If you are willing to fill your website with self-shot photos or pictures you'll find on the internet, then you don't have to worry about the content of your website. Otherwise, the content of your website is an extremely important factor for your visitors, function, and ranking of your website in the search engines.
The content of your website can be either text, images, graphic designs or any combination of the above. Content is as important to the visitors as it's to the search engines. The visitor wants to see big, high-resolution images. However, this slows down the speed of your website, and therefore it's ranking. Visitors are bored with reading large texts where you repeat the keyword you are trying to achieve. On the contrary, search engines 'love' large texts and 'want' to see a keyword. So the partner you are about to choose must have the knowledge and experience to find the golden cut in the content of your website.
To help you promote the website or taking over it entirely
Suppose you built your website, added some content and it's time to promote your website. How will you promote it? Will you design brochures with the address of your website and share it in your city? Will you use Google Ads? Or will you try to promote it through a social network? But which social network would you choose, since you don't have the time to promote your website to all of them? Will your post have some text, an image, a graphic design, or a combination of these? You should logically choose someone who can help you with the above queries.
Provide technical support
You've found the right company, you built your website, spent an amount of money, spent countless hours adding content and promoting it, and you are relaxed.
But someday, either due to malicious attack or outdated version of the code, your website is running poorly or even worse it is completely shut down. Your partner should have the necessary knowledge to correct errors and resolve the problem or at least have informed you from the beginning that he or she cannot provide technical support. And, believe us, those who can provide true technical support in an opensource CMS, are not many.
Features of the site you choose
Suppose you have found the right company and you are in the process of selecting the website you will be building. What features should your new website have in order to benefit from it? Don't you want to get back at least the investment you made to build it? Or is this not enough for you and you want to make real money from your website?
Do you want a presentation website for your business or an online store where you can sell products? Want a static website or a dynamic website to add new content? Do you want a website for people to find your business phone and address or do you want organic search engine results? Do you want a website to 'play' and 'experiment with' or want a solid tool to get the job done? These and many other questions we will try to answer in our article, Everything you should know about web development.
If you want to see how much a website can cost, you can check out our web development and eCommerce products. If you have a hotel or any tourist accommodation, you can see our products for hotel website development.
If you need more information on what you have read or have questions that we would like to solve, you can contact us.
