How to Find a Great Web Design Firm

So everyday I take calls from people looking for a professional web design company and as I hear the same questions over and over; I decided to do some research about what other folks in the industry were saying about this exact topic. So I as I searched Google for things like:

• "how to find a great web design firm"
• "finding a website design company"
• "tips and advice for first time web design clients"
• "diving into finding your first web design company"

Finding a great web design company tips:

1. Review their web design portfolio for work that resembles your market
2. Call their previous clients
3. Ask about their process. Does it fit your style? Does it sound personalized?
4. Ask about their pricing structure. Is it project-based? hourly? retainer?
5. See if they've won awards
6. Check out their LinkedIn to see who their designers are
7. Check web design firm websites for reviews on them
8. Are their previous clients successful?

Website Design Inspiration Links

If you're looking to redesign your website, I'd recommend checking out the following links. Make sure you grab a coffee if it's morning or a cold drink if it's night where you are; these links will take up hours to go through.

100 Free Wordpress Themes (Smashing Magazine)

10 Wordpress Design Inspiration Sources (Blog Design Studio)

10 Great Blog Design Inspirations (id Web Template)

25 Amazing Free Wordpress Themes (Free Web Resources)


If you don't see anything above that you absolutely love, then contact this San Diego website design company.

Top 10 Questions on Website Design Quote Forms

When searching for the right website design company, you'll stumble upon a "quotes" page that has a long form and sometimes it's just an email to send your information. In all cases there are 10 things you need to have ready before sending your website design quote in and they are:

1. Your company information - contact name, phone number, email, twitter handle, LinkedIn, etc.
2. Type of project - new website design, website redesign, Myspace page design, etc.
3. Your current URL - so the website design company can review your current website if it applies
4. No. of web pages - Are there 5, 20 or 100 web pages? This can influence things like design cost, page build out cost and web page development.
5. Website Maintenance - Will you want to update your website yourself? Will you want the website design company to do this for you?
6. Features & Functionality - Is your website ecommerce-enabled? Is there interactive Flash animations? Are there a lot of forms and custom processes?
7. Content - Will you be providing all stock images in a web-ready format? Will you be providing copywriting for all web pages?
8. Timeline - What is your website design project timeline? When do you want to start and finish?
   
9. Budget - What is your website design budget? This is a tough question but the more you know your ceiling; the better website design quotes you'll receive.
   
10. Goals - What do you want to achieve from your website design project?