How to Choose a Web Development Company: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Updated on 12 Jan 2024
- 8 min
Yaroslav Krutiak
Solution Architect, Back-End
Are you planning to take your business online but don’t know where to start?
With over 23 million website developers worldwide, choosing the right one can be overwhelming. But we’re here to help simplify the process for you.
In this article, we’ll guide you through the key steps of selecting a web development company and website developer that meets your needs.
Our guide covers the following topics:
- Defining your business goals for an online presence
- Determining the necessary capabilities based on those goals
- Evaluating developer portfolios and client reviews
- Interviewing potential teams
- Making a decision on the right strategic partner
Let’s get started!
Before Selecting an Agency
Now, before hiring a web development agency, keep a check on a few considerations.
Start with your objectives. These will help you identify and validate your idea. Then move to the team and the services.
Define Your Goals
You must know what exactly you want and in what measure. It is cliche but your final goal defines your path and your partner.
For example, if you are looking to build a website from scratch, you need an army of developers to work on project discovery, validation, designing, and development.
| Test product hypothesis and build an MVP | You are skeptical about gaining customer validation for your product or service. One of the ways to do this is to build an MVP. Testing the product hypothesis helps establish the viability of the software’s value proposition. In addition, this strategy helps verify the outcome as well as monitor usability. Airbnb did the same. The founders tested their business idea with people who came to San Francisco to attend the design conference. It worked and the rest is history. |
| Scale existing product | You may find it difficult when your website meets certain limits and does not grow. Here are some of those issues regarding the same:
These can block the growth of a website. Hence, you may be required to resolve these by scaling the website. Website scalability is the process of mitigating any hurdles (especially, talking about SaaS development). Identifying the blockers and inaccuracies helps in deciding how to choose web development company. |
| Develop a landing page or corporate website | If marketing is on top of your mind, get a landing page developed. A landing page is a specific type of web page created mainly for marketing purposes. Often used for lead generation, it contains limited content and CTAs for a user to take the desired action. A lot of white space around CTAs and no unnecessary elements. Even an experienced website developer can help in designing and developing a landing page. How to choose a website developer is discussed later in the article. On the other hand, a corporate website is all about branding a business online. The target audience is the clients who buy services, making it vital to present services lucidly. Therefore, the website should reflect the corporate brand as professional, reliable, and credible. |
However, it must be noted that these are not the only instances. There are many more goals that a web development company can help you realize. Draw a clear picture in your mind.
Your Goals Dictate the Agency Requirements
What you want determines how to choose a web development company.
Case 1: You Need Advanced Business Expertise & Ability to Do Pivots
Intelligent websites are the need of the hour to support an online business. These websites boast of some advanced features such as,
- Multi-Level Management
- Advanced Framework
- Colossal Database
- SEO-friendliness
- Seamless content addition and
- Synchronization with the latest trends on the internet
Also, advanced web development requires knowledge of different languages such as CSS, Javascript, PHP, and HTML5.
For example, while HTML5 is a content adder, CSS is used to style the content of web pages. In addition, expertise in the latest frameworks, namely, Angular, Laravel, DotNet, etc., are also needed.
To implement such requirements, you need people with specific skills. Not only that, sometimes businesses adopt pivot strategy out of necessity.
Therefore, the web development company should be able to do pivots as required and quickly.
Case 2: You Need Strong Design Department
The burning question “how to choose web development company” depends mainly on its design department.
The leading members of a design department include the following:
- Art director
- Design team lead
- UX designers
- UX copywriters
- UX analysts
- UI designers
- Graphic designers
The design department will work to ensure a simple, intuitive, clean, and accessible layout by utilizing the right color combination, typography, and fonts.
Moreover, they will also take care of navigation to be smooth.
Case 3: You Need Quickly Recruit Additional Developers
Once you have identified the tech experts you want, it’s now time to recruit them using the services of a company. But you should not waste much time doing it. Here are a few tips to hasten the process.
| Look for talent at the right places |
You may even ask for referrals. |
| Learn tech guys language | Build a relationship with your tech talent. Speak in their language. No, that doesn’t mean you have to learn the language. Just know the basics of the programming language. |
| Understand the position | Unfortunately, the recruiters do not come from a technology background. This makes them lack the understanding required to hire a specific position. It is also essential to know what skills and experience you need from the talent. |
| Create candidate persona | How to choose a website developer if you do not understand the candidate’s personality? Hence, try to know the following:
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| Understand their needs |
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| Offer a Challenge | Stripe and Quora use this strategy often. Test the professional’s skills. Allow them to showcase their wit (This opportunity is also a lead generation tactic). The challenge can be as complex as we had for our team once. The Video next client requested us to migrate the app from the desktop to the cloud. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as simple as said. Read the entire process here to know how we met the challenge. |
| Make the challenge fun. | Add an element of surprise disguised as a mystery. One way is to find it on the website. Still, another is by presenting the challenge via product. Pick wisely. |
| Search social media | How to choose a website developer using social media for a startup development? Simple. Check the following:
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| Increase Job Applications. | Make attracting new talent your priority. Then, measure it with ATS (Application Tracking System). |
Finally, when hiring remotely, ask relevant questions.
How to Select a Team?
How to choose web development company or team should not be hard for you once you are clear with your goals. However, some parameters define the path.
Criteria 1: Review Portfolio
You may ask, “where to find the portfolio? How to use it?” The answer is simple.
Every web development company has a dedicated online presence today. Visit it, check out their previous work under section “Case studies” or “Portfolio”. Study them deeply.
This will give you a better insight into their work and the kind of clients they prefer. If possible, pick an agency that has worked with similar clients like you.
This implies they would already know the challenges and how to meet them.
The web development company portfolio should be full of original projects, each meeting the individual client’s unique needs. Take a glance over client feedback as well.
Besides, you should not work for a company with no portfolio.
Check the Core Expertise
The answer to how to choose a web development company lies in their expertise. What do they specialize in building an MVP, scaling products, or providing a tech resource?
What kind of websites have they worked on previously?
Do they focus completely on MVP development, or are they into providing a tech resource only.
Check the Language: Simple or Technical?
Read their language. Is it too technical? In such a case, you may find it hard to communicate with them in the near future.
So, you may either ask them to use simple, understandable language or switch to another company altogether.
Criteria 2: Check References and Reviews
Here are a few types of social proof you may consider for your benefit:
| Positive reviews | 88% of consumers trust online consumers. Look for positive reviews on the leading industry websites. For some local agencies, you can check Google and Yelp. For more prominent agencies, visit sites like Clutch. |
| Customer testimonials | Satisfied customers often leave good words about the company. Read them. Even better, if there is any name or address available, reach out to them to better understand the kind of work received. Get their feedback. |
| Number of customers | Who would you like to take services from? A company that has served five customers or a company that has helped 500. Indeed, the second. Even better, if they share the names of the well-known businesses they have served. |
| Awards/Recognition | Everyone likes to deal with trustworthy businesses. Of course, one of the parameters is evidence in the form of awards and recognition. |
| Social shares | Not many would agree that social shares are a kind of social proof. But think of it, aren’t these the evidence coming from real people? This could also mean that an agency with no social proof holds people back from sharing their opinion. Check social shares on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc., or any other website they are active on. Look for the buttons on their homepage. Check their subscribers too. See, Yelp has more than 2 lakh subscribers. Think, would you trust a website like this? Make a wise decision. |
Some examples:
- Wix enrolled supermodel Heidi Klum as celebrity social proof. It serves two purposes. One, adds a well-known name to the brand, and second, voice the product’s benefit (that anyone can build a website).
- Skytrax, Yelp of airlines is one of the best places to check about the airports and airline services. The users can add reviews that are in turn subject to review by other reviewers, making it a trustworthy website.
Key Criteria: Conduct Interviews
Once you have created a list of a few selected companies, it is now time to meet the people before hiring only one of them.
Try to get a grasp of the skills and potential of the team and whether or not they are fit for your work. This is indeed time-consuming but worth the effort.
Or, in case you are looking for a one-person army for some minor work, the strategy is the same. Meet him or her face to face.
How to choose web development company on the basis of an interview. It is easy if you ask pertinent questions. Ask the following questions to analyze closely and professionally.
- How do you manage your development team?
- Do you use version control?
- How do you track bugs/issues?
- How do you ensure a quality product?
- How do you ensure that the output is functional from a user perspective?
- Who does your design work for the front end?
- What is the process you have for doing development?
Looking for a Premier Web Development Company?
After following this comprehensive guide, you should now feel equipped to find the right web development partner for your business goals and budget.
As you evaluate options, consider SpdLoad. With over a decade of experience building custom sites and web apps for startups and enterprises, we have the strategic insight and technical expertise to launch and scale your online presence.
View our Clutch reviews and case studies for examples of solutions tailored to industries from e-commerce to SaaS.
Ready to bring your digital vision to life?
Reach out for a personalized quote on your project or schedule a consultation to discuss how our team can help optimize your brand’s digital experience.
We also invite you to explore our library of guides covering other aspects of web development:
