Welcome to Red Fish Media

Developing your web site can be a challenging process. Picking the best website design company for your site is extremely important. Unless you run a web-based business, you probably do not have website design experience within your company. Structure your web site will take some time and a little research!

To create a website for your business, follow these 4 simple actions:
1. Develop your goals

2. Determine your budget

3. Pick a web design company

4. Pick a webhosting company

Develop Your Objectives

Before you begin trying to find company to help you design and build your web site, take the time to understand the goals of your web site.

This will be extremely important to help set expectations with the website design company you choose.

In order to set your web site goals, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why do you want a website?

2. Are you selling something?

3. Do you have a brochure of products that alters on a regular basis?

4. Who is your target market?

5. Do you currently have a brand?

6. What is your industry?

7. Who are your competitors?

8. Do they currently have web sites? If so, what do they look like?

9. If you’re selling something, will you accept credit cards online?

10. How soon do you want your web site?

11. What happens if you never create a website for your business?

Put in the time to address each of the above questions and if you have time, compose the responses down on a sheet of paper. These are the same questions the majority of website design companies will ask you before they begin to create your site.

If you have these questions addressed up front, you will have some criteria for selecting the right website design company.

For instance, if you are a real estate agent, and want to release listings on your web site, you should look for a web design company that learns about the real estate business and has created web pages for other real estate agents.

Determine Your Budget limit

Just how much do you want to spend on your web site. Web sites can cost you anywhere from $100 to $100,000 relying on what you want it to do. Know your spending restrictions before you begin working out with design companies.

Whatever you do, do not inform a web design company what your budget is!! Always get pricing based upon your needs, not you budget.

Pick a Web Design Company

Your option of a web design company is an extremely important step. Take your time to investigate all of your alternatives. Here are some important items to think about.

Design vs. Build

Depending upon the scope of your web site, you might need to choose two various companies. Developing a website is an extremely technical process.

Designing a website is an extremely creative process. Many marketing firms specialize in web site design which does not necessarily need any web development abilities whatsoever. The process of producing a website is similar to the process of building a new home. Before you ask a building and construction company to start structure, you initially look for an architect who develops a plan of your home taking into account what you want (variety of stories, square footage, and so on).

Developing a comprehensive plan before building and construction starts can help you properly estimate the final cost. Without the plan, you might end up paying a great deal of money for a home that does not fit your needs.

Developing a website is exactly the same other than the majority of web site “contractors” also claim to be “designers”. The good news is that you can take a look at other websites a web design company has created (like looking at other houses that a house builder has made). Make certain you ask the website design company what their process is for developing a website vs. building a website. They should understand the difference between these two ideas. If they don’t, they’re probably builder that think they can also designer.

Evaluate Experience

Has the website design company created web sites similar to yours? Do they have appropriate industry experience?

Similar to any services company, selecting someone that has appropriate experience. If you want to offer products through your web site and accept credit card payments, does the website design company you are considering have experience doing just that?

Review the Portfolio

A well developed website design company will have a solid portfolio of web sites that they have created for other clients. Request links to other site the design company has created and evaluate every one. Do you like what you see? Do the websites have a style that interest you? In addition to reviewing web sites, request customer referrals. Contact their clients and ask about their experience with the website design company. Were they happy with the outcomes? Did they get what they spent for? Just how much did they pay? Would they suggest them? The length of time did it take? What didn’t they like about the company? How responsive was the company when they had questions?

Compare Rates

Pricing for producing a website can differ. Normally, website design companies will charge one of three methods:
Time and materials: cost varies based upon the real variety of hours spent dealing with your site. For instance, a web design company might charge you $75 per hour. If it takes 100 hours to create your web site, your cost would end up being $7,500.

Set Cost: some design companies will charge you a repaired fee based upon a repaired set of requirements. If you detail your requirements extremely thoroughly, many web design companies will estimate you a single cost.

Element Pricing: some design companies will charge “by the page”. By producing a cost based upon the variety of pages, you can manage the expense by developing a specific variety of pages.

Purchaser beware: some design companies will charge by the page but will have “unique pricing” for parts such as custom-made graphics, animated images, and the like.

The most important step in pricing is to make sure the potential design company detail all of the rates connected with the work and puts all of it in writing.

Never ever participate in a deal unless all of the expenses are well comprehended up front. Likewise make sure that you understand what “done” means.

Try and structure the payments such that a significant part of the fees (20%) are not due up until you “accept” the final web site. Consist of the agreed-upon dates in your contract and arrangements for what will take place if these dates are not met.

Get bids from multiple website design companies and compare both the pricing designs and the rates themselves.
There are thousands of web designers throughout the nation and they should all battle feverously for your business!

Be fussy! If a web design company dismisses any of your questions regarding their design process, pricing, or client referrals, take your business somewhere else!

Call us today.