As with all major decisions for your business, taking the time to do your due diligence before you hire a service to help you bring your marketing plans and business goals to fruition will be time well-spent. Choosing the right web design company is no exception; in fact, since your company’s presence on the Internet has the power to launch your business to wonderful new heights, the web design company you hire to create this essential marketing tool needs to be experienced, creative, innovative, and quality-focused. Unfortunately, however, even many of the well-established web design companies in Philadelphia make common mistakes when creating a client’s website. Here’s a look at 5 of the most common mistakes many Philadelphia web design agencies make:
Mistake #1: Diving in without checking the water.
Just like you’ve always been taught not to dive into a body of water unless you first know its depth and if there’s anything hiding below the surface that may be potentially harmful in the long run, an astute web design company must also explore below the surface to see what the issues, challenges, and concerns are with your current website before they dive into redesigning it or designing it from scratch. Unfortunately, not all web development companies do this; instead, they simply start building the website without identifying, addressing, and solving the concerns or challenges the client may have about it. As a result, the web design agency may fail to realize several things:
- there are visitors stopping by the client’s website, but they’re not staying very long;
- there are visitors, they are perusing the website and reading the blogs, but they’re not being converted into customers
- maybe there are no visitors going to the website, or
- perhaps many of the website’s links are broken
All of these potential challenges could have been addressed ahead of time if the web design firm would have taken the time to explore the site’s stats and talk to the client thoroughly before diving into the design.
Mistake #2: Not knowing the client’s customer.
Failing to first identify the ideal customer for the client is a common mistake many leading Philadelphia website design companies make. Without this essential information, it’s like building a beautiful steakhouse restaurant and hoping to attract vegan customers. It makes no sense. If an agency you are considering hiring doesn’t inquire about your customers and your buyer personas, look elsewhere. It’s impossible to convert a visitor into a client if the visitor is looking for a different product or service than what your website offers.
- If the design company doesn’t know your audience, they can’t properly promote your products and services via your website.
Mistake #3: One size fits all.
Many busy web design companies in Philadelphia are simply selling whatever standard website design they happen to know best. Instead of identifying the client’s particular unique needs and offering the best solutions to address any potential problems, these design companies offer one basic design or technology for everyone.
- If all the samples a web designer shows you in the company’s portfolio all look basically the same – you can bet your website will be just another one produced off their company’s ongoing conveyor belt.
Mistake #4: Not connecting the dots.
Many Philadelphia web design agencies often make the mistake of building websites without factoring in how that site will integrate with the rest of the client’s business systems, applications, and programs necessary to run, promote, integrate, and operate their business effectively. As a result, websites that are not integrated have fragmented sales, marketing, purchasing, processing, and other departments that don’t connect with each other.
- If the client’s sales department has a sales force, are all the leads generated by the website qualified, tracked, and scored?
- Are website visitors nurtured until they become a sale, or is the ball dropped somewhere along the path and all the attention given to a new customer instead?
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mistake #5: Not asking, “You Want Fries With That?”
It should be easy to add landing pages, daily blogs, graphics, photos, calls to actions, and videos to the website. Unfortunately, many web design companies don’t create a user-friendly website for their clients. While it may still be best to have a professional marketing agency produce and incorporate top-notch videos and graphics, the website needs to be easy for the client to access so that new SEO-keyword-rich content can be added on a regular basis.
- If you can’t add new information to your website in a simple and hassle-free manner, keep shopping for another design agency.
While certainly no web design company would purposefully want their products and services to be less than exceptional, mistakes happen. If you know what to look for and what to ask, it will help ensure your website doesn’t become another mishap statistic.
