In this era of technology, an online presence speaks volumes about an individual or a business entity. Websites are an important part of this online persona, attracting a customer pool and boosting overall growth. And if you choose to hire a web development agency to create your website rather than winging it with a DIY templatised service, then there are certain things you need to keep in mind as you choose an agency.
Although they’re keeping up with and incorporating the latest trends, there are some common mistakes every web development agency makes. This doesn’t make them wrong, but only humans.
The following are 10 common mistakes every web development agency makes, which you can lookout for, while hiring a web development agency.
#1 Not Understanding Target Audience
Quite self explanatory, before building a website, it is necessary to know who the consumers would be to design and technically optimise the search engine accordingly. You don’t want to be pitching to the wrong customers, do you? That’d be an incredible waste of resources.
#2 Indecisive Decision-Making
Not all agencies will refuse their clients, which doesn’t mean they aren’t good at what they do. It just means they’re too nice. Which you, as a client, might think is a good thing because they will cater to your wants, but this could lead to chaos and an additional waste of time and resources. For example, if you want to completely change the look of your call to action button after it’s added to the website, this would mean an additional burden on the website development agency.
They would need to redesign and replace the button on the site, fix alignment and responsiveness and lastly re-test the user flow to ensure that the replacement did not break anything. One of the most common mistakes every web development agency makes while trying to please a client is that they don’t establish rules or boundaries with clients.
#3 Not Determining Specific Client Needs
The agency you hire should learn and understand what you need, or they would be unable to deliver the functionality and design elements you require. As the client, you must provide all details to the agency to avoid this. A web development agency can fulfil a client’s requirements only when they understand and adapt to their clients’ needs.
#4 Having Too much Trust
It is usual for agencies to bank on verbal or email agreements. But it could fast turn into one of the most common mistakes every web development agency makes if all the details are not finalised and agreed to on paper. Having a written agreement clarifies for both sides what is required and what is to be delivered and leaves no scope for any misunderstandings in the future.
#5 Not Providing Enough Hosting Storage Space
A web hosting service hosts websites for clients. This internet hosting service offers clients facilities that enable them to launch and maintain a website and make it accessible on the internet.
Companies that provide web hosting services are also known as web hosts, and as web host, one of the common mistakes web development agencies make is not reserving enough web hosting storage space or performance capacity for their clients. This storage space is used to store all the web pages’ data, any files available for visitors to download, any media or graphic content like music, videos, images, etc. If you’re spending a good amount of money on your website, you should receive abundant hosting storage space, or you could encounter problems down the road.
#6 Not Having an Articulated Portfolio
Another one of the most common mistakes every web development agency makes is ignoring their own website and portfolio. After all, if they’re designing websites, then their website is bound to look impressive, right? Apparently not.
Sure, the websites they’ve designed look great in the snapshots provided with their portfolios. However, perhaps the best way to assess them is to visit their own website and the actual websites from the snaps provided to look at practical pieces of their work. That would be the best way to judge their work.
#7 Quoting Fixed Rather Than Estimated Prices
Another common mistake that every web development agency makes while quoting prices is that they don’t give an estimated breakdown of their costs. They quote a fixed price in order to please the client. This may not always work out because you may approach a web development agency with a detailed plan of what you want your website to be like.
However, there remains a chance that you may have to change certain aspects of what you planned for the website moving forward. This results in extra work for the developers within the same budget, which could fall short and compromise work quality. In such cases, if the agency has given you an estimated breakdown of what costs would be required, then adjustments can be made.
#8 Website is not Mobile Compatible
This is one of the most common mistakes every web development agency makes. A consumer’s impression of a website hinges on its looks from a mobile device. Mobile compatibility means more than just a mobile responsive site. It means a site should be fast, responsive, and work well with every device. Many agencies do not develop their websites following the mobile-first rule, and as a result, their websites don’t always turn out to be mobile compatible.
#9 Weak SEO Implementation
Search engine optimisation is not limited to writing text content for better organic reach. Technical SEO - an equally important component of SEO - comprises lots of best practices to keep in mind, such as HTML tags, page load times, and website crawlability. However, one of the most common mistakes web development agencies make while making a website is not implementing search engine optimation from the beginning. Thus, you should learn more about a web development agency’s SEO practices to ensure efficient SEO implementation for your website.
#10 Not Assigning Equal Significance to Web Development and Web Design
Not assigning equal importance to web development and web design is another of the most common mistakes every web development agency makes. For a website to operate well and look good, classy web development and web design are two of the most important requisites. And while most people confuse the two for the same concept, they aren’t similar.
While web development entails the code to run a website, web design focuses on design elements and how to make a website look good. So, while hiring a web development agency, you should ensure that they offer both web development and web design.
Hopefully, you now have an idea about some common mistakes every web development agency makes. And you will be able to spot these mistakes early on, and work on how you can avoid them.
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