HOW TO SPECIFY A WEB DESIGN QUOTE REQUEST FOR YOUR WEBSITE

WHAT TYPE OF WEBSITE IS IT?

First specify what type of website you're after...HTML, Flash, database enabled or e-commerce. HTML would be your average standard website. Flash would be 'flashy' with animation, database enabled is for either very large catalogue type websites or websites that the owner would like to be able to update themselves, and for forums, portals, blogs etc. E-commerce is for online shopping capability.

DO YOU HAVE/NEED A DOMAIN OR WEB HOST?

If you do not already have a domain name or web host, chances are your web designer either offers this service or will have contacts in this field and will be able to organise this for you at a decent rate. But first you need to ask yourself if you really need it. If the website is an intranet (internal company website...not viewable on the world wide web), you will not need a domain or a webhost. All you will need here is to confirm with your IT department whether they are able to host the site on the company server. If, however, the website does need to be viewable by the world wide web, you will need firstly a domain, which would be the website address, usually yourcompanyname.com and a webhost, which is the permanently on-line server that the physical files of your website will be located on. A domain name has a 2 yearly fee and the price depends on the extension (.com .net .biz .au etc) and what mark up you are charged by whoever registers it for you. A webhost will also charge you on a monthly basis, and prices vary drastically. More on this in a another article.

HOW MANY PAGES?

Determining this is not as easy as it sounds...many clients make the mistake by counting the number of sections they want on the site and imagining this will be the number of pages. A page is defined by everytime you click on a link and see different information in the browser. So, if you have a product page, with three products on, that when the user clicks on the product they see more information, then you already have four pages. Usually web designers will charge you less for a sub page than a main section page, so a good, concise way to ask for a brief is to state how many main sections the website will have and how many pages per section.

DOES IT NEED TO BE MARKETED?

Do you require it to be optimised for search engines and have it submitted to engines and directories? A good web company will keep search engines in mind when they are designing and optimise it for this purpose, but actually submitting it to engines and directories is quite time consuming and usually requires an extra cost. Also submission is not a once off task, and in order for good rankings to be obtained, you will need to contract the web company to do submissions on a regular basis. Every 2 or 3 months is a good option, but anything more regular than that can result in penalisation from engines.

CONTENT

In terms text, will you supply the content? If not, perhaps the web design company offers copywriting or has contacts in the copywriting industry...either way, it will more than likely cost you extra. Pictures, especially can be a pricey ordeal, if you yourself are not supplying them but want specific pictures included. Unless the designer offers photographic services, he/she will have to purchase the pictures from a stock art company.

RESOLUTION

Would you like your website designed for a specific resolution? The industry standard is 800x600 but screens are slowly shifting to 1600x900. If you have an entirely flash website, it can be scaled up or down to fit any resolution, but the drawback is that many search engines can't read flash so your ranking will suffer. Another way to achieve this scaling is if your designer uses relatively sized tables in the design, so the page adjusts to any resolution. Another option is to ask your designer to design for either 800x600 or 1024x768 but to centre the website in the browser with attractive scalable borders. This way your site will look great in most resolutions, and it avoids the problem of overcoming that stretched look.

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GUIDE TO CHOOSING THE RIGHT WEB DESIGN COMPANY
Choosing a web design company can be a little tricky, and many times it's a gamble, but if you know what to look for, you can save yourself a lot of stress and frustration. If you don't, however, you could be stuck with poor service and empty promises as well as being faced with ridiculous bills. Take time to empower yourself with the following knowledge, and learn to spot a bad choice in web design companies from a mile...

LOOKS
This is one of those times that judging a book by it's cover is in your best interests. A webdesign company's website is it's book cover, so naturally if their website is not stimulating...chances are that they will create an unstimulating design for your website...which in turn is YOUR book cover. If your bookcover is amateurish, your potential client may very well pass you by, imagining that your service or product to be as exciting as the site they've just seen...not very!

LOOKS VS PRICE
If the client liaison of the webdesign company drives a Ferrari, there's a very good chance that they are overcharging their customers. Web design prices vary greatly. There are no set guidelines for quality nor are there any recommended pricing structures, so one must use one's own discretion here. I can't tell you that R 4000 is a good price for a small website, because it depends on the web design itself. If I may use a fine art analogy here. R 1 million is a ridiculous price to pay for a Trechikoff, but an incredible bargain for a Van Gogh.

EXAMPLES
If the web design company does not supply examples of their work or some form of portfolio, it can mean one of two things. Either the company is just starting out and has no work to showcase yet, or they are not confident to display their work because it is not very good. The other problem I've come across here is when a web design agency has a long list of clients that they have allegedly done work for, but no links to the work itself. In cases like these, you can rest assured that at least half of their clientele are made up and the other half of their clientele are upset by their shoddy workmanship. Bottom line is: If the company is any good, they will proudly display examples of their work. If the company just doesn't have any work to display, you're taking a gamble. It's your call.

SERVICE
There are three kinds of service you will come across in the web design industry. The first kind are lazy and unreliable, the second kind are very enthusiastic and will promise you the world, but won't deliver, and the last kind (which is the kind you are looking for) will get back to you promptly, and meet or even exceed your expectations. The latter is very difficult to come by. Here's how you can spot the different kinds...Should you ask for a quote from a web design company or get in touch with them via email and they do not get back to you within twelve ours, then you can expect this kind of service for the entirety of the job. They are lazy and do not feel that you are important enough for them to reply promptly. The second kind is more difficult to spot. This kind are skilled in promotional talking but lack the technical skill/knowledge to deliver, so asking a few technical questions should do the trick. Instead of listening to the words they use to reply, watch their body language to see if they look uncomfortable with the question.

LOCATION
A good internet connection for both parties, in most cases, rules out the significance of where the designers offices are located. In fact, if you have a tight deadline, it is probably better to have an online relationship because when you send an email with instructions, the webdesigner is already at his/her computer to make the changes, as opposed to having to drive back to their premises and prepare themselves for work mode again. Even material for the job can be emailed because unlike their graphic designer counterparts, the files are low resolution, therefore small in size. One thing to keep in mind though, is that if their offices are in a very exclusive area/office park, you can probably expect to pay "exclusive" prices.

SEO
A good web design company will design your website with search engine optimisation in mind. It is no good to have a beautiful website that no one is ever going to see because search engines can't read the format in which it was designed. Ask your designer about their website marketing options. A lot of companies say they offer this but really don't know much about it. If a designer can't tell you exactly how they have optimised your site for search engines, then they probably have not.

DEADLINES
The last factor to take into consideration is the web designers ability to work within given deadlines. In a deadline situation it is almost always better to deal directly with the person/s who are going to be doing the work. In many large corporations, they will send a client liaison to receive instruction from the client, but in many cases the client liaison is only trained to appease the client, by saying "yes we can do that", "sure, you will have it tomorrow", but does not have an inkling of what the work entails, and then will go back to the designer only to be told that there are problems with what was promised. This back-and-forth liaising lends itself to miscommunication and is ultimately a waste of valuable time. The best way to see if a web design company can meet your deadline is to give them a smaller job first, with its own deadline. The Bible says "Those who can be trusted with little, can also be trusted with much".