A time when they’ve hired a web designer and found the process painful. They didn’t see a return on investment. And the whole process took way longer than expected! 

You’ve probably heard these stories too. 

Or worse, you’ve experienced it yourself. 

And that’s why you want to hire the right agency. 

You don’t want to spend time and money working with an agency only to realise they’re total pants, and you’re not going to make a return on your investment. 

But how do you find such an agency/freelancer? 

How do you know who you can trust? 

How can you make sure you’re not just another business owner with a ‘bad web designer’ story. 

Easy! In this blog post, we’re going to give you a list of top web design agencies from across the world. 

Why Are You Writing This? Don’t You Know You Offer Web Design Services? 

Yes, we do offer web design as a service (we didn’t forget about that). But we know that we’re not for everyone. And there are many reasons we may not be the right fit for you. 

And we’re certainly not arrogant enough to think that we’re the only agency good at web design! There are lots of people in the industry whose work we admire and value. 

So we made a list of who we think are the top web agencies in the world. 

How did we choose these top agencies?

We have followed most of these agencies for a while (at least 12 months) and we’ve always admired what they do. Not only do these agencies create amazing websites, each and every one of them invests in their education to continually improve their knowledge. This was a HUGE factor in creating this list. 

How do we know they are the best agencies in the world?

Obviously, we don’t know every web designer in the world so we can’t include them all BUT we feel confident that the agencies we have chosen will deliver an amazing experience for you and a fantastic website. We fully appreciate that our opinion, might differ from yours and that’s ok but we can only include web designers we know and trust.

The Website Success Framework

This is what we have called the Website Success Framework. It’s something that we created in order to help you understand what makes a PERFECT website.

We’ve selected agencies that have knowledge and understanding of the six key factors that make a website a success. Here’s a fancy-pants wheel for you to see what these are. And you can learn more about the 6 key things that make a successful website in our blog post. 

Ultimately, a good website is not just a pretty website. And a good web designer is not just someone who makes pretty websites. 

Good web designers (like all the ones in the list) have an understanding of these 6 key things. And the web designers we’ve selected also have particular strengths in one or more of these areas… 

1. Appearance

Appearance matters if you want to make an impact, build a brand and stand out from the crowd. Sometimes web developers get a little caught up in the functionality and code, and they fail to make the site actually look good! 

2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is vital to your website’s success. We all want to show up on Google, right? There are particular ways and methods of building websites that make them more likely to rank in search results – such as making them mobile-friendly or fast to load. 

3. Content Marketing 

Content marketing can increase rankings, drive traffic and generate leads for your business. Good web design agencies should help you with content, such as figuring out how a user can view and search your content, or how to convert readers into leads. 

4. User Experience

This is a biggie. Every web design agency should understand user-experience. User experience is essentially how easy your website is to use. Agencies should create websites that will help your users flow through your site with ease.

5. Lead Generation 

If you want your website to convert visitors into customers then you need an agency to help you do that. Everything from call to actions (size/colour/text) to the placement of lead magnets has to be carefully thought-through. A good agency will do this for you. 

6. Website Copy 

We’re not saying that web design agencies also have to be copywriters (although some certainly are!) But a good agency will guide you on how to create your copy and convert readers into leads and sales. 

Web designers you can hire

So now you should have a good understanding of our criteria – agencies with knowledge in all of the above, and particular key strengths in one or more of them. It’s also agencies who continuously learn and improve, so they can pass on that knowledge to their clients, and apply it to their websites. 

The list is in no particular order but we have broken down the different countries to make it easy for you. You can select a country from the list below.

The BEST web designers in the world

*DRUMROLL

Without Further Ado Here Are The Best Web Design Agencies in the World…

UK Web Design Companies

Dickiebirds Studio

What They Do: WordPress Website Design and Development | White Label Services 

Who They Help:
Businesses
Personal Brands
Web Design Agencies (White Label Service) 

Overview:
The team at Dickiebirds Studio Design create phenomenal websites that focus on converting your visitors into leads and sales. They are all about the strategy and user-experience! 

Peter and Paul also have a white label service that can help other agencies create incredible WordPress websites. 

SO The Agency

What They Do: Branding | Web Design | SEO | Digital Marketing 

Who They Help:
Small business owners
The education sector (with a strong background in working with universities and FE Colleges)
Web design agencies offering a white label SEO service. 

Overview:
We’re big fans of Pete and the team at SO. They offer a wide range of services from web design to branding and are super knowledgeable when it comes to SEO. If getting first page rankings is important to you then get in touch with SO and see how they can help. They also offer an amazing white label SEO service specifically for agencies.

Due North Creatives 

What They Do: Website Build | Graphic Design | Copywriting | Website Amends

Who They Help:
Business owners across Tayside, Angus and Aberdeenshire

Overview:
Amanda and her team are based in Montrose, Scotland and offer a wide variety of services from web design to social media management. Amanda has created a wonderful agency with a great group of people. She has a wealth of knowledge and is incredibly passionate about getting great results for her clients. 

Flat Cap Creative 

What They Do: Website Design | Website Support Plans

Who They Help:
Sole-traders to businesses with a turnover of 3million+
They have a particular speciality of working with the education and medical sectors

Overview:
Nik runs Flat Cap Creative. A fantastic, Leeds based agency that is always highly sought after. Although Nik builds websites for all types of businesses, he tends to work mainly with medical companies and education providers. He’s fantastic at website copy too, and does offer as a service. 

Design Box Media

What They Do:
Web Design | SEO | Ads | Content Marketing

Who They Help:
Small to Medium Enterprises

Overview:
Thomas Amos and his team run a full-service agency in Essex, they do everything from paid advertising to email marketing. Not to mention they build incredible websites too. If you need a larger agency to manage all your marketing needs, then Design Box Media will be able to help.

Funeral Director Websites 

What They Do: Web Design & Development 

Who They Help:
Funeral Directors 

Overview:
Gerry King creates websites exclusively for Funeral businesses. This means that he knows his niche inside out and always creates high performing websites. Gerry’s reputation in his industry is rock solid, and although he’s based in Newcastle, he helps funeral directors all over the country build a better online presence. 

Umbrella Digital Media

What They Do: Web Design | Digital Consultancy | Maintenance Plans

Who They Help:
Business Owners

Overview:
Imogen Allen who runs Umbrella has a real passion for content marketing and has a wealth of knowledge in this area. She builds fantastic content-led websites that are extremely user-friendly. Imogen is always developing her skills and investing in her learning so she can deliver the best service to her web design and consultancy clients. 

Fiona Robertson 

What They Do: Branding | Web Design | Logo Design | Graphic Design 

Who They Help:
Small business owners

Overview:
Fiona is such a talented graphic designer and web designer. Fiona has a particular speciality in branding and this is reflected in all the websites she creates. They’re memorable and beautiful, but also extremely user-friendly too! We’re huge fans of her work.

No Label Studios

What They Do: Web Design | Development  

Who They Help:
Solo Agency Owners

Overview:
Oliver runs No Label Studios and offers a white-label, web design service to other agencies. If you’re struggling to keep up with client projects and need an extra pair of hands, then Oliver is your guy. You’ll see from his website that he has a real eye for design. He’s also a genuinely nice guy.

Amber Phillips Design

What They Do: Web Design | Development  

Who They Help:
Service-based Entrepreneurs

Overview:
Amber offers a unique web design service where the entire site is built within 1-2 weeks. Perfect if you’re on a tight time frame. Amber also has a monthly design retainer where you can have some graphic design assistance on a regular basis. 

 USA Web Design Companies

OGAL

What They Do: Web Design | SEO | WordPress Consulting 

Who They Help:
Small Businesses

Overview:
OGAL web design is run by Kyle Van Deusen who’s based in Granbury, Texas. I’m sure you’ll agree that Kyle’s website is AMAZING and so are the websites he builds. But, the thing that impresses me most about Kyle is his complete dedication to delivering incredible content to his potential customers. Every other agency should take note of what OGAL is doing. 

Thrive

What They Do: Web Design | Branding | Marketing

Who They Help:
Service-Based Business Owners

Overview:
I love this agency and their website. Noah, who runs Thrive is a super nice guy and he’s 100% committed to delivering honest help and advice to anyone looking for a website. All Noah’s websites are highly conversion-focused and the design is always fantastic. Noah is based in Seattle, Washington.

Impact

What They Do: Inbound Marketing | Content Marketing | Web Design | Hubspot Training & Support | Video | Ads

Who They Help:
Businesses

Overview:
Impact is a full-service agency based in New Haven, Connecticut. They have 60+ full-time staff members and offer a broad range of services from video training right through to technical SEO and even CRM support. They create incredible data-driven websites that are super focused on getting results. And for anyone who doesn’t know the owner, Marcus Sheridan, they pretty much know everything there is to know about Content Marketing. 

Kriss Did It

What They Do: Website Design | Brand Strategy

Who They Help:
Creative entrepreneurs

Overview:
Kriss creates stunning websites for personal brands and creative entrepreneurs. I love how Kriss just gets how to create a website that reflects your personality and brand. She’s created some AMAZING websites including Marie Forleo’s website and Franchesca Ramsey. In terms of branding and design, Kriss is one of our favourite web designers. 

Canada

Propel

What They Do: Web Design | SEO | Copywriting

Who They Help:
Business owners in Toronto, Canada

Overview:
Propel Digital Media is based in Toronto Canada and is owned by Chris Castillo. First and foremost, I LOVE this agency’s website. I don’t mind admitting… I’m a bit jealous of it. Chris’s design skills are also clearly visible from the amazing websites he builds. His attention to detail means his projects are always breathtaking and conversion focused. 

South African Web Design Companies

Lonely Viking

What They Do: Websites | Branding | Conversion Optimisation 

Who They Help:
Business Owners

Overview:
Lonely Viking is owned by Shane who is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Shane is an incredible designer and is highly sought after. Shane has an incredible brand that you won’t forget any time soon and his web design and branding work for his clients are extraordinary.

1 Day Website 

What They Do: Web Design | Sales Pages | Care Plans

Who They Help:
Creative female entrepreneurs 

Overview:
Chantal offers an amazing service – one website in a day! The websites are aimed at female entrepreneurs, and Chantal does a fantastic job of reflecting their brands and personalities through the website design. And you’d never tell that these websites are created so fast. So if you’re looking for a beautiful website in no time at all, check out 1 Day Website. 

Australian Web Design Companies

Launch Digital

What They Do: Web Design | SEO 

Who They Help:
Small to medium-sized business owners

Overview:
Tina runs Launch Digital which is based in Melbourne, Australia. Tina focuses on building high-performing websites that also look incredible. She can also help with SEO so that you can get more visibility in search engines. As a side note, I love Tina’s own branding, it’s so memorable.  

Elk Creative

What They Do: Web Design | Logo Design | Branding | Graphic Design

Who They Help:
Entrepreneurs to large business owners 

Overview:
Elk creative is based in Victoria, Australia and I can’t help but LOVE their branding. Although they offer web design services, they are super passionate about branding and design. This is clearly obvious when you see their portfolio of work. I especially love how transparent Corey is with his pricing information. You don’t often come across agency websites that are honest enough to do this and it’s, it’s really helpful.

Summary

There you have it, a list of the best web design agencies in the world. Don’t forget, a successful website is not JUST a pretty website. If you want to access our 54-point checklist on what makes a successful website, then download it below.

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post Who Are The Best Web Designers in the World? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

And we find this really sad because we have friends who are great web designers and who are constantly looking at ways to improve their clients’ websites. Yet, so many business owners have horrible experiences with web design. Does it mean the industry is full of ‘bad agencies’?

Probably not.

It’s more to do with the fact that business owners struggle to find the right web design agency for their needs. 

And sadly, that’s why this industry has such a bad reputation. It’s easy to hire an agency because of their ‘wow factor’. We make buying decisions based on their glossy website and fancy offices.

But what if the big agency with the comfy chairs and the shiny coffee machine isn’t the right fit for your business?

Why we aren’t right for some people

Not all web designers are clear about who their ideal clients are, and that doesn’t help consumers who are looking to make an informed choice and pick an agency that works for them!

That’s why we’re so passionate about using our copy and our content to spell out who we’re right for and who we’re not right for. Take this blog post – 10 Reasons We’re Not the Right Fit For You, as an example.

We’re probably a ‘bad agency’ for some people. If someone isn’t prepared to work on their website once it’s live and expects us to write copy and blog posts, change images for them, etc. then we’re not for them.

Because that’s not what we do.

And that makes us a bad choice for that particular client.

As an agency, we are right for people who are quite proactive, want to learn, don’t mind getting their hands dirty and are happy for us to provide them with remote support through training videos and emails. We’re the perfect agency for some people, and a terrible agency for others.

Why big web design agencies aren’t right for some people

Equally, a big agency with an amazing portfolio who will charge tens of thousands of pounds might not be right for someone with a small local business.

To give you an example, we once spoke to a florist who had her website designed by a big agency who worked with the likes of the BBC and Cadbury. They were industry leaders. And of course, this lady’s website turned out to be amazing (and very expensive!).

But in hindsight, she told us she’d have rather hired a freelance web designer because all she needed was a great-looking website that ranked her locally for her keywords. And the agency she hired didn’t help with that – they were almost too big for her business and her needs.

If you’re a small business (with a smaller budget), you’re better off hiring a web designer who cares about your business and will take the time to ask you exactly what you want to achieve with your website.

So, if you’re in the market for a new website or a website re-design, how do you know which web design agency is right for you?

How to Find the Right Agency For You

1. Be clear on what you need from your website

First of all, what kind of support do you expect from a web design agency? Do you want to work with a big fancy agency or a local freelancer?

Both are fine. There’s no right or wrong here – as long as you understand the differences between the various options and the pros and cons of each.

So start by identifying what’s important to you, for example,

• Do you want to rank highly in search results? Then you need an agency with SEO knowledge.
• Are you a luxury brand, and do you need your website to be all about the design? Then find an agency that fits the bill for that, with previous experience of dealing with luxury designers
• Are you a total technophobe and would find it helpful to have lots of face-to-face time with a web designer? A local freelancer might be best for you.

If you want some help in identifying your needs when it comes to creating or re-designing your website, download our FREE Website Buyer’s Guide. It’s an impartial guide that we created to help you find a web designer that’s right for you.

And if you want to hear about the time when we made a bad buying decision by hiring a designer who wasn’t right for us, listen to our podcast episode: Why our first website failed miserably!

But what other signs should you watch out for before you go ahead and hire a web design agency?

2. Stay clear of web agencies with a bad website

This sounds quite obvious, but an agency with a bad website probably won’t be right for you!

So don’t hire them! Even if you’re friends or if someone you know recommended them to you because they are friends! (Or even family!). If their website isn’t great, chances are they won’t know how to design a great one for you.

3. Make sure you are given access to the backend of your website

You need to have access to the backend of your website.

So before you hire anyone, make sure that the agency gives you full access to the backend (or Content Management System) of your website.

Even if you’re not yet sure how to navigate your way around it, you can always learn. And having access will definitely work better (and be cheaper) for you in the long run. You just don’t want to be in a situation where your web designer quotes you a ridiculous amount of money whenever you have to make a tiny change to your website!

If that happens, you’ll be angry. And you’d have a right to be!

4. Watch out for the web designers who use a lot of jargon

So you’ve been researching web design agencies, and their websites are full of talk about HTML, CSS, and PHP.

Great.

You conclude that having a website is technical and confusing, so you’re better off just handing it all over to these guys who sound like they know what they’re talking about.

Stay. Away. From. them.

They might (or might not) know how to build websites. But their copy is telling something else – they have no respect for you. Because they choose to ‘explain’ things in a way that makes no sense to you!

And you know what?

There’s no need to use jargony language at all – we don’t do it! Just have a look at our website, we’re not writing to impress our peers or confuse you, we try to explain things in a way that’s easy to understand.

We have no interest in wasting precious space on our website using words that mean nothing to our prospective clients. For us, it’s a missed opportunity to connect with our visitors and tell them exactly who we’re right for and who we’re not right for.

5. Beware of those who don’t want to show their face

Have you ever noticed how a lot of businesses seem to hide behind their website and never show their face? We call them hermits. And we feel so passionate about this that we even wrote a blog post a while ago called Show us your face.

We always recommend to website owners that you use professional images of yourself on your website as it helps you to build trust and authority with your audience. You can read more about this in our blog post What is the B.R.A.N.D. website framework.

Think about it. As a consumer, don’t you find it difficult to make a buying decision when you can’t see the person you’re going to be working with?

We find this very off-putting. Why hide? What’s so bad about being able to put a face to a name?

Of course, not having photos of themselves on their website doesn’t mean a web designer isn’t good. Maybe, just like a lot of business owners out there, they’re a bit shy about putting photos of themselves on their website. That’s all.

Just beware of this and do some more research to make sure you’re clear on who you’re hiring for the job.

6. Big or small doesn’t matter, as long as they meet your needs

Equally, we’ve seen plenty of examples of people who started their business from their kitchen table (nothing wrong with that!) who then went on to plaster their websites with stock images of shiny offices and big teams – essentially making themselves look much bigger than what they are.

There’s no need for that. And most people are genuine and honest about who they are and who they’re not, but not everyone is, so just be careful.

If you need a huge company or even just a team, don’t get caught out by one guy in his basement trying to be all things!

7. Stay away from obscure Content Management Systems

What will your web designer build your website on?

You may have heard of WordPress, Magento, Shopify, or Joomla, for example. These are common Content Management Systems.

So if the web designers you’re thinking of hiring use a specialist and obscure Content Management System you haven’t heard of before, do some more research! You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re fully reliant on your agency to support you.

The reason why we only use WordPress is that it’s the most popular and well-trusted Content Mangement System. If you need help with something and for some reason, we’re not immediately available, you can still find answers and resources on the internet. But if your website is built on a rare platform, you may struggle with that!

8. Avoid a web designer with a questionable portfolio

One of the first things we suggest you do when researching web designers is to look at their portfolio to get a sense for:

• what level they’re working at,
• what kind of websites they’re designing,
• and what kind of industries they specialise in.

A word of warning on this though.

If the web designers you’re considering tick a lot of boxes, but you’re not convinced about their portfolio, get in touch and ask them for more examples of their work.

We know from personal experience that keeping your portfolio up to date is time-consuming – we have a lot of websites we’ve built over the last few months that don’t feature on our site because we haven’t had time to add them. So do reach out to a prospective web designer if you want to see more of their work – they’ll be happy to oblige.

9. Watch out for web designers who don’t offer a discovery phase

If an agency or a freelancer doesn’t factor in how they’re going to find out more about:

• your business,
• your target audience,
• what you want to achieve from your website,
• and what kind of goals you have for your business,

stay well clear!

We have what we call a ‘discovery phase’ where we delve into all our new clients’ businesses. We get to know a lot about them during this process, and it’s the only way we get to design a great website for somebody.

So if a web designer doesn’t offer this service, consider this a warning sign that they aren’t invested in your business.

The price you pay will have a lot to do with this too. The agency you hire for £500 might not even know what a discovery phase is. And in a way, that’s understandable – the price tag doesn’t cover for that! But the agency that charges £5,000+ should get to know you as a vital element to the web design process.

10. Be wary of the agency that doesn’t put their prices on their website

We are huge believers in putting prices on your website.

Yes, projects and requirements vary and so do prices. That’s why we use a minimum package price on our websitethat our potential clients can use as an indicator. We even publicly write about the process we use to come up with our prices! Head over to our blog post Why We’re Increasing Our Web Design Prices to find out more.

But a lot of web designers won’t display prices on their website.

And while that’s not in itself an indicator of a bad web designer, you’ll want to get a quote quite early on in your research. The worst thing any business can do is to make you jump through hoops to find out their prices. What happens when you find out that the price is way over your budget? What a waste of your time (and theirs)!

So stay away from anyone who’s putting pressure on you to have several discovery calls before they give you a quote! They’re probably trying to make you feel so invested in the process that you won’t be able to say no to them. It’s an old-school sales technique that no longer works. And frankly, it shows that the other person doesn’t respect your time.

So how exactly do you find someone who’s right for you?

We’ve given you a lot of pointers to avoid picking the wrong web design agency for your needs. But how do you find one that is good for you?

Ultimately, and above everything else we’ve mentioned, look for someone who:

• cares about helping you move your business forward,
• you can trust and connect with,
• you see yourself having a good working relationship with.

We find this always happens with our clients. We get so close to their business that we end up getting to know them really well. And that’s both a pleasure and an honour.

Would you like us to help you with your website?

We are passionate about helping business owners build and grow successful websites. We also understand that people might have questions and concerns as they get into this process for the first time. Or maybe because they’ve had an awful experience in the past!

• That’s why we don’t use code or jargon.
• That’s why we are open and honest about the type of web agency we are.
• We are transparent about the type of clients that are right for us and those who aren’t.
• And that’s why we publish our prices on our website.

We want people to be able to make informed decisions.

So if you’re looking for a web design agency who cares about your needs and your business, and you think we may be right for you, get in touch!

Martin & Lyndsay

The post How to Avoid Hiring a Bad Web Design Agency appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

The web design industry has a bad reputation. It seems like every business owner you speak to, from large, corporate companies to freelancers, have had a crappy experience with a web design agency.

Why is this happening?

Personally, we know many fantastic web design agencies and freelancers. Are people just not finding them? Or is there something else going on?

In this episode, we unpack how to find the right agency for YOU, and how not every agency will work for your business. We also give you our run down on how to spot a bad web design agency or freelancer.

In this episode, we’ll cover…

• • Why some agencies might be right for others but not for you
  • Why we’re a bad agency for some people
  • How can you find the right web design agency for your business?
  • Signs of a bad web designer or agency

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

0.58 – Business owners have had a bad experience with a web design agency
2.20 – People aren’t finding the right agency for them
2.50- Examples of agencies that won’t work for some business owners
5.53 – How can you find the right agency for you?
8.57 – Avoid web designers with bad websites
9.26 – No access to a content management system
11.32 – Using jargon to confuse
13.33 – No faces on the business
15.31 – Obscure content management system
17.57 – Look at the portfolio
19.38 – Is there a discovery phase?
22.20 – Jumping through hoops for pricing

Useful Resources and Links

Agency Trailblazer 

Membership Community 

Free Facebook Community

What To Do Next

Thanks for listening to our episode. If you found this episode useful, please feel free to share it via social media using the links above.

If you want to know about search engine optimisation (SEO), website conversions, content marketing and website copy, then join our FREE Facebook Group.

We would love it if you subscribed to our podcast and left us an honest review. This helps us reach more people and produce more podcast episodes.

If you have any questions about this episode or you want us to cover something new, then contact us on hello@jammydigital.com or leave a comment at the bottom of the page!

• • Join Our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe and review
  • Contact Us

Episode Transcript Below

Welcome to the Make Your Mark Online Podcast where we help personal brands build and grow a successful business website. Please welcome your hosts, husband and wife team Martin and Lyndsay.

Welcome to episode 16 of the Make Your Mark Online Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about how to spot a bad web design agency. But before we get into the show, this podcast is sponsored by the Make Your Mark Online Membership. This is our signature membership community where we help personal brands build and grow a successful business website. The doors for the membership are currently close, but you can check out the details at MakeYourMarkOnline.net and you can join the wait list and we’ll notify you as soon as we open the doors again in January. Let’s get into the show.

Today we’re talking about how to spot a bad web design agency before you invest your money. Is that right, Lyndsay?

Yes. We wanted to in this episode because so many business owners have had a bad experience with a web design agency, haven’t they?

We hear it all the time.

We’re not a good industry.

No.

We actually had a discovery call with one of our members in our community. She said in the past finding a web designer you can trust or even recommend is really difficult. That made us kind of sad.

Yeah. We cried that night.

I know. We did. No. I mean we have friends who are web designers. We’re not all at each other’s throats. We might be competition, but we know ourselves some really good web designers. We’re part of a community called Agency Trailblazer run by the wonderful Lee Jackson, who’s a fantastic web designer.

We love you, Lee.

We love you, Lee. The community there is full of amazing people. We know that good web designers exist. We know plenty of them ourselves. It’s just why aren’t people finding them?

Yeah, exactly, because we know they are out there. We absolutely do. We’re part of our own membership community that Lee Jackson runs for agency owners. There are people in there that are constantly looking at ways to improve their business and improve their client’s websites as well, but why is it that people actually struggle to find them? If there are so many out there, which we know that there are, then what is the problem?

I think it’s a really interesting one because I don’t think people actually struggle to find a good agency, although that’s how they perceive it. I think people struggle to actually find the right agency for them and I think that’s the real issue really with it. Sometimes when people say they’ve had a bad experience with a web design agency, it can mean they haven’t found the right agency for what they need. Take us. We’re probably a bad agency for some people, although we shouldn’t really say that, should we? But we are.

If someone wants a lot of handholding and they don’t even want to touch their website once it’s live, they want someone to do the text and image changes and writing blog posts and all that kind of stuff and they need that much support, that’s not what we do. We work with people that are quite proactive, who want to learn and don’t mind getting their hands dirty. We support them through training videos and emails. We don’t just leave, but we want them to get stuck in. That means we’d make a terrible agency for some people because some people need that level of support.

Of course. Yeah. I mean if you take for instance somebody who just refuses to do anything, often they’re see clients, if they’re not prepared to market their business, I understand that marketing’s important, then absolutely don’t hire us as your web design agency.

Even if they’re a big business and they essentially want to throw 20, 30, 40 grand day and they need someone to manage their marketing on that sort of level, there are only two of us, so we’re not the right agency for them in that sense. Yeah, there’s loads of different factors really. I remember speaking to a florist who said she’d wish she’d gone with us and that’s not being big-headed. The website that she had was fine, but she had her website designed by a big agency. I think she spent a lot of money on it. A lot, a lot of money. This agency worked with big players like BBC and Cadbury.

They specialize in so many different areas, but what she actually needed was just a great looking website that ranked her locally for her keywords. She was annoyed because she felt like she paid a lot of money. The problem was the agency just wasn’t right for her. It was too big for her business almost.

Yeah, exactly. People get drawn in by these big industry leaders. We’ve worked with BBC. We’ve worked with Virgin. We’ve worked with Barclays. People think, “Oh, well, if they’ve helped them, they can help me,” but actually a big agency like that is right for those kind of businesses. They’ll be there if you need them to. They’ll have the company retreats. They’ll have bean bag chairs and coffee machines. They’ll wow you. But for a little small business, you just need someone that gives a crap about your business. Somebody who’s prepared to ask you what you want to achieve and that’s why there is such a problem out there in the industry.

It’s that people hire because of the big shiny things and they don’t actually hire the agency that’s right for them based on exactly what they need and that’s what you’re saying really.

Yeah. Essentially yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Really the problem can actually stem from both sides. The agency might not be clear who they’re a right fit for. We take the responsibility personally to say, “Look, we’re probably not the right fit for you.” Usually in our website and in our content marketing we say who we’re kind of not the right fit for and who we are the right fit for, but some agencies don’t do that. In the case of the florist, the agency might have or should have arguably said, “We might not be the right agency for you,” but it’s kind of your call whether really they should have said that.

What can you do if you’re looking for an agency then? How can you spot these signs to know if they are the right agency for you?

I think be very, very clear about what you need. Take the time to establish what support you want from an agency, what kind of agency you want to work with. You want to work with a big fancy agency? Then it’s fine. If you want to work with a local freelancer, that’s fine too. Take the time to understand the differences between them and the sort of plus points and sort of negatives of working with both. Just identify what is important to you. You could want to rank highly in search results. Then an agency with SEO knowledge is going to be important. You have to think about all these things. What is actually important to you.

If you’re a luxury brand and design is absolutely everything and you want it to be absolutely perfect, then find an agency for that. Just think about your business and how it’s unique and try and find an agency that really sort of fits with that.

Yeah, great point. Okay. Fantastic. This is why we actually wrote the Website Buyer’s Guide, isn’t it?

Yeah.

We wanted to give our listeners and our website visitors a tool so that they can go out and find a web designer that’s right for them. This absolutely isn’t just kind of a sales pitch tool that we use. It is actually pretty useful. We put quite a lot of time and effort into it for you to sit down and go through the Website Buyer’s Guide before you even think about hiring a web designer or even speaking to a web designer. You may go into like Lyndsay said thinking, “I just want a website that looks incredible.”

Then you pay out a few thousand pound for this amazing website by this award-winning designer and then you can’t rank in Google or they don’t know what they’re doing in terms of content marketing. We see that quite a lot.

We do. Yes. Yeah. It’s a good point about the Buyer’s Guide because I think a lot of people might think that yeah, we just promote us, but we don’t because like we said, we’re a right fit for some people, we’re a wrong fit for some people, so it is quite an impartial guide. If you are looking for a web design agency, then definitely check that out.

Absolutely. But there are still a few warning signs that you can use as indicators even if you don’t actually take a look at the Buyer’s Guide. You can actually have a plan when you’re out there looking for a web designer. Is that right?

Yeah. There are some kind of indicators of a terrible web designer should I say or perhaps one that you might not want to work with or consider perhaps delving into doing a bit more research on definitely. We are a packed industry. There’s web design agency industries. There’s thousands of us. Probably millions of us. There are going to be some bad ones are out there. That’s inevitable. We’ve made a little list really of things to look out for in terms of a bad web designer. I suppose the first one would be if they have a bad website.

Yup. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it?

That’s always a clear indicator, but it’s amazing actually how many people do sort of go with web designers who have bad websites.

I think it’s partly down to the fact that they might be friends. They might be kind of word of mouths. Someone’s said, “Oh, you should go with them. I know them. They’ve been to my networking group that I go to every Wednesday morning.” People naturally want to recommend people, but yeah, clearly a bad website should be a bit of a warning sign.

Yeah, exactly. Another one is no access to a content management system and this really, really irritates both myself and Martin because we …

More so you. You get really angry about it.

I get really angry about it because we’ve talked to so many business owners who say, “I want to make a change.” It could be a simple change of a word on their website, but they are not allowed access to the backend of their website. If you’re searching for a website, ask the web designer, “Do I get access to the content management system?” You should get access to it. If not, pay for the access to it because it’s going to work out a lot better in the long run because you don’t want to be making small changes and being charged a horrendous amount for doing so. It just makes people so angry and I totally get why.

Absolutely. This is something that we find with really kind of like codey web designers. “We want to hard code everything and you’re just a business owner. You shouldn’t be accessing the website. If you want me to do it, I’ll do it for you and I’ll make sure you don’t break anything.” But there is a balance there. You should have access to be able to make basic changes such as text changes. I want to add an image. I might want to change some information on the contact page. You should be able to do the bare minimum without having to pay for a web designer to do it.

But I would say that most of the things on your website obviously you probably have to pay for to update if you want to change the layout or the images. But if you don’t have any access at all, that’s a bad sign there.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, of course, there’s some things. If you’ve had purposefully designed your homepage and you’ve got actual specialist designs that are bespoken from scratch, that’s kind of hard for you to change. You should be able to go in, edit the text, maybe change some images on your further pages on your website. Maybe add further pages and things like that. You should be able to do those things, so certainly ask your web designer about that. It is sometimes a way of some web designers making extra money.

It is.

That they can charge you when you need to change your telephone number or something ridiculous like that. Make sure you do have access. Another thing is the use of jargon which we see all the time which irritates us. HTML and CSS and PHP. If web designers are mentioning all these things on their websites and you’re like, “Oh, this sounds very technical. This sounds very confusing-

These guys must be right for me.

… These guys know what they’re talking about,” then they just don’t have respect for you because they’re not explaining things in a way that you will understand. It’s like when I go to a garage, or both us, a car garage because we know nothing about cars, do we?

No. I’m not even ashamed to say that I know nothing.

Nothing. If the guy was like, “There’s something wrong with the left falange, you need to pay £500,” we’d be like, “Oh, okay. I don’t know what that is, so I’m just going to pay it,” but you kind of feel like you were being ripped off a bit I think. It’s kind of the same thing with web designers. We do get into this sort of or I’ve seen a lot of web designers get into this sort of codey language on their website. There’s no need for it at all.

I don’t actually understand why they do it. I mean it’s just crazy. It’s like when people put on the wrappers the ingredients. It comes with all of this like blah, blah, blah.

All the different names for sugar.

Yeah, exactly. It’s like I don’t really care about it. Just tell me exactly is it healthy? Is it not healthy? This is part of the problem with using language like this is because they know that you don’t know what it means. It’s just they put it in there to make themself, “Oh, well, we’re specialists because we know what this jargon means.” I can’t remember the last time we mentioned HTML or CSS on our website because it doesn’t actually mean anything to anybody, so it’s a waste of space. We are quite pretentious about that I think. We don’t want to waste any space on our website. Why would we put something on there that has no relevance to anybody?

I think it might even be an ego thing for them.

I think so.

They want to impress other web designers, but if a web designer’s got other web designers in mind or other designers in mind and not you, then that’s not the kind of person that you want to work with. That’s something to think about definitely. Another thing that a lot of web design agencies do for some strange reason is not put their faces on their business.

Hermits.

Hermits. Yeah. They are hermity. A lot of them. It’s difficult I think when you’re looking at a website and you can’t actually see who you’re going to work with. It’s kind of off-putting and you don’t really know who it is. Sometimes they’ll put cartoon images and things like that, but it’s very, very difficult I think not to see sort of who someone is. They’ll kind of hide away. I’d just do some further digging as to what kind of agency they are. I wouldn’t say it was a major point, but I would say do some further research.

I think people naturally are a little bit more timid about putting their face on their website like many of the listeners to the show. It’s just if you’re going to be picking up the phone and speaking to somebody, every time you phone, every time you want a question about your website or you need some help with it, you’re probably going to be speaking maybe one or two different people. What’s wrong with actually showing your face on your website?

More often than not, we see agencies do this all the time where they’ll just use like big agency stock images or they’ll use like a weird video that makes it feel like it’s this big exclusive agency when really it’s just Jenny who … She started up a web design agency in the back of her Truman. That’s all well and good if you’re open and honest about it.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean Jenny might be perfect for some people. But if she’s pretending to be a big large web design agency, then that’s not going to work because you think you’re investing in one thing when actually you’re not.

Exactly. It’s more misleading than anything else, which is exactly why we wanted to include it in the list.

Yeah, definitely. Another thing is sort of using an obscure content management system. Now what we mean by that is using a kind of content management system, so the backend of your website, that hasn’t really been heard of before. Now you may have heard of things like Magento, WordPress, Shopify, things like that, Joomla, and that’s fine if you’ve heard of those things. But if you’ve not heard of the content management system, just do a little bit more research. The reason we use WordPress is because it’s so popular and well-trusted.

If you have a problem with your website and me and Martin get hit by a bus, I don’t know why we’re getting hit by a bus, but let’s say we get hit by a bus.

Are you planning on it? She is the most skeptical I must admit.

It means that you can actually google a problem about … Someone on the internet will have answered the question about WordPress because it is so popular. Agencies that use sort of very specialist content management systems, quite unique ones, you’re reliant on them a bit more to help you. You haven’t got that outside resource. You can’t just go to YouTube and watch loads of videos and things like that to actually help you with it. You are relying on them a lot more. That can be a little bit of a warning sign, but as I said, it’s not a major point.

You just want to do a little bit more research on that content management system that they’re using.

Because it kind of ties you in. I mean we remember a few years ago actually when we used to like bid for work and stuff like that and go up against other agencies. There was an agency that used something … I don’t even think I heard of it, but they insisted that all of the websites they built … This was a big agency. Clearly they just wanted to tie you in. They knew that most people will be out there recommending WordPress. If they built on this obscure content management system that nobody ever heard of, then it would literally tie you in.

If you ever wanted to leave, other web designers don’t do it, so you’ll have to pay them the £500 a year hosting fees, whatever they were charging.

That’s a really good point because if you need to leave them, move to another agency, we’ve had people come to us who have a WordPress website and we can kind of take it over and look at it. But if you have a really obscure content management system, a web designer might say, “You know, I’m not used to this,” it becomes more difficult definitely.

Absolutely.

Another one is having a questionable portfolio. Check out the web designer’s portfolio. Have a look at the kind of websites that they’re designing. As you go on the websites themselves, do have an understanding that when people take over their websites, they can change it. What the web designers featured on their portfolio can look different on the actual website if the owner of the website has changed some certain elements, but you’ll get a sense really of what kind of level they’re at, what kind of websites they’re designing, what kind of industries they also specialize in as well. If they do a lot luxury brand websites and you’re a luxury brand, perfect.

That’s starting to look quite good. But if they do something completely different, if they do a lot of online shops and you’re something else, then you might just want to have a look at that really.

If they’re ticking a lot of boxes for you and the one kind of problem might be the portfolio, then reach out to them and say, “Is this up to date?” Because we know ourselves, finding the time to update your portfolio can be tricky. We’ve got loads of websites that we’ve built over the past six months and we’ve not just had the time to add them. It might be worth actually reaching out to some of these agencies and saying, “Look, I’m a personal brand or I own an online shop. I see that you sell online shops, but I can’t see any on your portfolio. Please could you send me a few that you’ve done so that I can actually have a peak?”

There’s nothing wrong with that. It shows that you’re interested and you’re doing your research and you’re being due diligent.

The web designer will appreciate it because they’ll go, “I really need to update my portfolio.”

Exactly. Exactly. If they ever get a chance.

Yes. That’s a really, really good point. Yeah. Not to rely on it completely. Just to actually ask as well. That’s a really good point. Another problem that a lot of people have with agencies is there’s no kind of discovery phase is what a lot of agencies call it.

This is so important.

What we call it too. If an agency or a freelancer doesn’t really talk about how they’re going to find out more about your business and what we mean by this is we have a discovery phase with our clients where we talk about who’s your target audience, what do you want to achieve from your website, what kind of goals do you have for your business in the next five years. We delve into all about their brand and all about their business. We really get to know a lot about them in this phase. The only way that you can design a good website for a business is by doing this discovery.

If a web designer doesn’t really indicate that they do that, that’s kind of a warning sign really that they’re not very invested in your business.

This is something you’ll tend to find when you start spending a little bit more on your website. The agency that you hire for £500 might not even know what a discovery phase is. Whereas the agency that might charge 5,000 might actually understand that this is a vital aspect to the web design process. It’s funny because when we do discovery phase, sometimes due to clients going on holiday, things like that, we could get delayed up to six months when we’re building a website.

It makes it great because if a client’s ready to go live with their website and we say, “But in the discovery phase you wanted a video live brought into your website. We’ve got it written down here,” and they’re like, “Oh yeah. I did want that,” and then we can build it for them and it worked well.

Yeah, definitely.

But if you don’t have a discovery phase and you’re completely reliant on, “This is what you said you want via this email and this is fine. That’s what I’ve built for you,” and you’ll be like, “Well, I’ve got all of these amazing business goals and these big ideas,” but you’re not going to get a website potentially that will allow you to do that unless you have a really in depth discussion with your web designer before you hire them.

Yeah, definitely. I would actually say just as a caveat really, it really does depend on how much you’re spending. I mean if you have a budget for 300 quid, you’ve got to be realistic. You can’t expect someone to spend hours trying to understand your business because then they’re going to be on, I don’t know, four quid an hour or something.

Might as well work at Marky’s.

Yeah, by the time they’ve actually finished everything. You do have to be a bit more realistic with that. But if you are spending a bit more money, then it’s something that I would expect from a web design agency certainly.

That’s quite interesting actually because it brings us quite nicely onto pricing. Is there anything pricing related that we can look for on an agency’s website?

We are huge believers of putting our prices on our website, even just an indicator because our prices vary depending on what people need, and people need a lot of extra things going into their website, which adds the price on, but we have a minimum package that we sort of advertise on our website. A lot of web designers don’t display their prices on their website. It annoys me, but I won’t say that it’s an indicator of a bad web designer because it isn’t.

It’s just so like you kind of think people copy each other. People are like, “I can’t really give a price because it’s a bespoke service and it depends on what you need,” but what you’re saying is, “Give people an indicator.” That’s all.

I would like it if web designers gave people an indicator, but they don’t. But what really irritates me and sort of shows me that you’re a bad web designer is when web designers make you jump through hoops for prices. I mean if someone gets in touch if someone calls, if you call a web designer and you kind of don’t still have an indicator of price after that phone call, that initial phone call or email, then it’s very, very difficult I think to start trusting them. If they want to have more meetings with you, if they want to have like three or four meetings before they actually give you a price, that’s going to be very, very irritating for you.

I think it’s a big warning sign really. I only say this because I used to work for a university and I had to find a website. I had a budget. I was going to quite large agencies. Actually getting a price out of them was so difficult. In the end, it was just sort of they were asking, “Well, what’s your budget? What’s your budget? What’s your budget,” and all they wanted to know was what was my maximum and then they said, “Oh, believe it or not, that’s exactly how much we’re going to charge.” That process took about four weeks and it was just so irritating. It was just very, very awkward for me.

It’s because they don’t respect your time as much as they respect theirs. It’s this old fashion sales mentality, which is tell me what you can afford and I will work out a deal for you. There is a simple way to do this. Just say, “Look, I don’t know what I’m supposed to pay for a website. I don’t even have a budget in mind. What is the average, what is the minimum that generally you take on clients for?” You can ask these kind of questions. I’m not going to tie you into anything, but I don’t have a clue. I don’t have the foggiest how much it should cost for a website.

We find a lot of people have said that to us in the past and that’s exactly why we put a minimum price on there. We are a lot more expensive than some other agencies, so it would make no sense whatsoever for us to just have an hour long conversation with every single person if we know that they literally don’t have that much money.

Yeah, definitely. Oh, sorry. I think as well that’s a really good point about you asking what the average is because if someone ask what our average price for a website is, we’d be able to answer them within the click of our fingers really, giving them sort of an approximate average, but yeah. When a web design agency is looking to take you through lots of hoops for prices, that’s when it gets difficult. Understandably, they have to understand what exactly what you need because a basic website is very different if someone needs a lot of extra sort of software or extra sort of page designs and things like that.

That does add on to the price. You’ve got to expect a web designer maybe to ask you some probing questions, but if it’s taking a lot of time, certainly if it’s taking weeks, then that’s a sign that they’re not respecting you as Martin said. These are just a few things that may give you an indication of what kind of web designer someone is, but the best thing for you to do is to try and find someone who is going to move your business forward and who you can actually connect with and have a good kind of relationship with. I mean our clients, we’re actually quite close to our clients, aren’t we, because we find out so much about their business, don’t we?

Yeah, exactly. It’s just a more enjoyable agency for us to run I suppose. That’s why we do it that way. But like you say, a lot of that comes down to we know you might have these concerns, we know you might be looking at our portfolio, we know you might have a budget in mind, you might not know exactly what you want to spend and that’s exactly why we’re putting off a lot of work into our website to make the communication easier for you to understand as well. It’s exactly why we don’t put HTML and MySQL and all that kind of codey stuff on our website because we always think about our visitors more than we think about our competitors I suppose.

But yeah, those are the things that we found over the years of people … Mistakes that people might make.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

Okay. I hope you found this episode useful. I know many of our listeners are building their own websites, so it should help. I hope you found that episode useful. If you are looking for a web design agency, then hopefully there is lots of information in this episode that you’ll be able to use when you’re out there looking for one. Please check out the Website Buyer’s Guide. Again it’s not a sales pitch. It’s a tool that you have to be able to print off and go through and take your time with because a website’s such a big money investment, but also a massive time investment as well. You don’t want to make a bad buying decision.

Hope you found that episode useful. If you are not a part of our free Facebook group, then feel free to check it out. Every Wednesday afternoon we do some free website critiques where we review your website for around 10 minutes telling you what you can do to improve it. We’d love you to check it out, if you go to jammydigital.com/facebook. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next time on the Make Your Mark Online Podcast.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post Ep 16 – Warning signs of a bad web designer appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Should You Build Your Own Website or Hire an Agency?

This is THE question we get asked the most!

In this episode, we’ll be covering…

• What’s riskier? Building it yourself or going to a web design agency?
• Whether you should invest in website design if you have a smaller budget of say £500-£1000
• When you should hold off on investing in website design
• Why you should spend your money elsewhere to grow your business
• How much it costs to build a DIY website and what platforms you should use
• Should you use a website template or avoid them?
• When you should invest thousands with a web design agency

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

1.28 – If you’re brand new to business should you build your own website or hire an agency?
4.04 – If you’ve been established sometime in business, but don’t have a big budget is that the time to hire someone locally or go to a freelancer?
5.58 – What should you spend your money on if not website design?
6.34 – How much should you invest in a DIY website?
9.08 – Should you ever use a website template/theme?
11.35 – What point should you be at in your business to invest in a web design agency?
14.55 – Summary of the episode

Useful Resources and Links

Why New Businesses Shouldn’t Invest Thousands In A New Website

Free Facebook Group: Website Tips for Non-Techies

What To Do Next

Thanks for listening to our episode. If you found this episode useful, please feel free to share it via social media using the links above.

If you want to know about search engine optimisation (SEO), conversion rate optimisation (CRO), content marketing and website copy, then join our FREE Facebook Group.

We would love it if you subscribed to our podcast and left us an honest review. This helps us reach more people and produce more podcast episodes.

If you have any questions about this episode or you want us to cover something new, then contact us on hello@jammydigital.com or leave a comment at the bottom of the page!

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Episode Transcript Below

Lyndsay: Hey guys. Welcome to Episode One of the Make Your Mark Online podcast. So, in today’s episode we are gonna be talking about whether you should DIY your website, or get an agency, or a freelance web designer to do it for you. I think it’s a question that every personal brand, and probably every business owner has asked themselves at some point isn’t it?

Martin: Yes, it’s a really common problem. I think it’s something that can really hold people back when it comes to getting a website live: should I do it myself using this online free software? Or should I pay for a professional agency? And that’s kind of why we wanted to do this as our very first episode, is because it’s such an important element, and one that we don’t want to hold you back as well.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely. And it is an odd one for us isn’t it? ‘Cause we are … Last time I checked, we are web designers. So, you might be thinking, surely you should just recommend everyone go to a website agency, one called ideally Jammy Digital.

Martin: But it’s not always the case is it? I mean, we speak to lots and lots of business owners, and sometimes we say do it yourself, and sometimes we say hire a web designer agency, and that’s really why we wanted to do this as our first episode.

Should New Businesses Hire a Web Design Agency?

Lyndsay: Okay. Well, let’s get into this then. Let’s say I’m a business coach, and I’ve just started my own business, what would you recommend that I do from there? Would you recommend I DIY or go to an agency?

Martin: Well, obviously it depends entirely on your circumstances. But, if it’s a brand new business, then chances are you’re probably not at the stage where you need to hire a full agency just yet. Mainly because if you are a brand new business owner, understandably, financially you might be wanting to be careful. You might want to watch what you’re spending your money on. And if you’re brand new, and you go to a big agency, and they charge three, four, five, ten, fifteen thousand pound. Then, that’s an awful lot of financial commitment for you to go in straight away, and that could be a problem within itself. Now I’m not saying you don’t have that money to spend. I’m just saying I don’t think it’s probably the right thing to do if you are just starting out.

Martin: Now that’s one reason. Another reason why it potentially is a bad idea is because with brand new businesses, it’s when … It’s so often the time when businesses are developing and changing. And you change your mind quite a lot at that stage. Well, we’ve watched loads businesses, and we’ve changed our mind all the time at the start of the process.

Lyndsay: Yes.

Martin: Not so much anymore that we’re established, but definitely at the start of it you get new ideas. You wake up one morning, and you disagree with what you said yesterday, and so much changes. That the last thing you want to do is pay thousands of pound out to a web design agency, and then a week later completely change your business direction because you’ve decided it’s not what you want to be doing. And you have a tendency at the start of the process to sort of change your mind more frequent than when you do later on.

The Risks of Hiring a Web Design Agency if You’re a New Business

Martin: So, with a brand new business, like a business coach, take your time. You’re not in any rush. Or you might feel like you are, to start generating some money, and that’s exactly why you should be careful on what you spend your money on.

Lyndsay: Yes. Definitely, I agree. And I think when we … I mean, for example when we started Jammy Digital, we offered everything didn’t we?

Martin: Yes

Lyndsay: We were social media management. We offered search engine optimization-

Martin: Graphic design.

Lyndsay: Graphic design. Logo design. We’d of done anything. We’d of took your bins out for you.

Martin: Yes. We’d have sent you an invoice, and we’d have done it!

Lyndsay: An optional service. But yes, exactly. So, I think that you do find that the longer you are in business, the more you sort of tailor exactly what it is that you offer. So, If you’re spending thousands upfront, you might need to change that in six months. Or that money is just gonna be wasted.

Martin: Of course.

Should a More Established Business Invest in a Local Web Designer?

Lyndsay: Yep. That’s a really good point. Okay, so let’s say for example I’m sort of 12 months, 18 months, or two years, whatever it is down the line with my business. I’m doing quite well. Maybe I’ve got sort of 500 Quid, or 1,000 pound to invest in a website. Is that really the point? Where I should I sort of invest, and maybe go for sort of a freelancer locally or something like that? What do you think?

Martin: Well, again the tendency really is to spend money when we have money. So, if you’ve got a little bit of money coming in, and you can afford 500 pound to spend on a website. Should that be what you spend that money on? I don’t think that it is. I mean, again we’re not trying to put you off from hiring a web designer agency at all. But, 500 pound or even 1,000 pound isn’t going to go very far if you’ve already had some success in your business. So, if you’ve already sort of done it yourself, and you managed to work out how to do it with some free software. Or you’ve paid a little bit to do it yourself. Paying 500 pound isn’t necessarily going to elevate what you have to get it to a substantially better level than what you’ve probably got already.

Martin: Yes, you might be able to get a more professional design, but 500 pound actually isn’t a lot of money. Especially when we build websites, or bigger agencies build websites, they tend to spend quite a lot of time on the research phase of your website. So, who is your target audience? They try to incorporate a little bit more about your branding. All of that takes time and money. And, you’re just not going to get it if you’re spending out 500 pound or 1,000 pound even on a local web designer. They don’t generally have enough wiggle room to be able to justify spending all that time on the discovery process. What they’ll do is you’ll give them your 500 pound or maybe they’ll split it into two payments or whatever; and there’s just not an awful lot that, that money that you’re spending, is just going to cover that time.

Lyndsay: yes, definitely. yes, I totally agree and I think it is something that we recommend to people that the actually do hold off and keep sort of developing their own DIY website really. I mean, there’s plenty things, if you’ve got 500 pound or 1,000 pound to spare to spend. Perhaps, spend that instead on actually marketing your business in a different way. Or, actually improving your DIY website. So, that could be … you could invest in a professional photo shoot. Because, new images for your website can make a huge impact. So, yes there’s definitely sort of new things that you can do, and new areas you can invest in.

Tips for When You’re Building Your Own Website

Lyndsay: So if someone wants to DIY their own website, what would you recommend they do? How much should they invest? Should they sort of go the Wicks route? Or you know, and just invest a little bit? Because, we know that people that have built their own websites have had to invest even up to 500 pound themselves. And, they’re actually doing it themselves. So, what should they do there?

Martin: Well, we have a couple of sort of rules to follow if you are wanting to build your own website. Now, there’s so many new tools out there. I mean, every time you go on YouTube, I’m getting advertised to buy Wicks. It’s understandable why so many business owners just jump on whatever, the first thing that they find. So, we always recommend to keep the costs as low as possible. Now, I’m not saying for free. So, you can start for free, you can get a Wicks domain if you really wanted to, and try it out and play around with it. Or, you can pay between 10 and 20 pounds a month to actually get something decent like Shopify, if you want to sell shop items on your website. That’s what a lot of people do. But, we actually recommend that if you are going to do it yourself, try to stick with WordPress.

Because, that’s the most recognized platform of it’s kind. It is the most widely used and widely recommended platform, and for good reason. I mean, we actually use WordPress exclusively within our business. So, we don’t build websites for people unless they agree to use WordPress because we trust in it so much.

Martin: What that means is with WordPress, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a website built. Because it’s so popular, there are lots of sort of frameworks to use. Like templates that you can buy for sort of less than 50 pound. And, you can spend quite a lot on templates and there’s lots of plugins that you can have. But, anyone with 100 pound to spend on a template and some hosting for the year, you’re pretty much covered. I mean, you can do a lot with that 100 pound.

Lyndsay: So, another good point is that obviously with WordPress being so huge and you know, having such a big following; is that because so many people use it, there’s so much support out there. And more importantly, if you’re a DIYer, there’s loads of free support out there, isn’t there? All you have to do is go on YouTube and generally you can find the answer to any issue that you might have.

Martin: yes, how to configure this contact form to-

Lyndsay: yes, how to move this image over there? Or whatever it is that you need to do. You know, there’s plenty of support out there with WordPress. So, that’s another reason why it’s good for DIYers to go to. It’s interesting you said about a theme. Obviously investing in a theme. Is there any sort of advice you’d give to people, what they should do when they’ve got the theme. Where do they go from there? Do they change a lot of it? What would you recommend?

Should You Use a WordPress Theme/Template?

Martin: Well, it’s worth pointing out that some people get a little bit nervous about using templates. They feel like it’s cheating and it’s really not. I mean, these WordPress themes have been developed because most of the time, they’re really good. They look good, they’re professional, they work well with search engines. Not all of them, but a lot of them if you keep an eye on the reviews, can be really really powerful little templates.

Martin: The important thing that we want you to understand is that, rather than the development of the coding or the aesthetics of your website. The best thing that you can do to have an effective website if you are building it yourself. Is to stick with the framework of the theme. So, find a template that works with … And we say template, we say theme, we mean the same things really. But, WordPress generally uses templates and themes sort of along the same page. So, don’t get too caught up in the technicalities. But, if you can keep the template as close to what they provide as possible, then that’s what you want to do.

Martin: So, keep your messaging clear. That’s a really important element. Make sure your content is nice and easy to understand. Make sure you get your point across. Don’t worry too much about how to change everything, and how to reconfigure it so that this is on this side. If you just install a WordPress theme, you can have your website up in 10 minutes. Follow a quick YouTube video if you really want to and you’ll be in a good position to have a nice, clean, and simple website. And, one that doesn’t take that much time. Don’t start looking under the bonnet and messing around with all the code. It’s just not necessary. Get your messaging across and stick with the framework of the theme. And you’ll be on to a real winner.

Lyndsay: yes, I mean I think that’s a really good point. And, we do see people who have tried to take a template and then spend a year trying to change it. And, it’s just … it’s just silly. Get a website up and start making money. Then you can start focusing on perfecting it as you go. Okay so we’ve really sold the benefits there of building your own website. We’ve totally put off anyone to ever come to us. But, at what point what someone have to be at to maybe think, “Okay, I’m ready to invest now in a web design agency. I’m ready to invest thousands.” When would that be?

When Should You Decide to Hire a Web Design Agency?

Martin: I think this really has to do with where you are in your business. So, if you are generating customers, you’re getting lots of traffic to your website, and you’ve … up to this point you’ve only built your own website. If you want to hire an agency, you have to think about it from a financial perspective firstly. So, when you hire an agency, you’re going to be handing over a certain amount of cash for that website. You need to be sure that you can generate that money back. We all need to make sure that we’re keeping an eye on the financials. And, if you can see that a 5,000 pound website is going to make it’s money back in six months, then it might be a good idea to hire one. If you’re selling a book at 10 pound and you’re only planning on selling 100 or 200. Then, you’ve got to be careful about paying thousands for a new website.

Martin: So, you’ve got to be careful. It does depend on your scenario. Another reason you might need to hire a web design agency is if you have a serious lack of time. So, many of the clients who hire us, they haven’t got the time to be building their own website. They might understand about what needs to go on a website. What’s going to make if effective, what’s going to drive traffic. But, they might not have the time, nor the expertise to actually create that new website. At that point, they might need to hire a web designer.

Martin: So, it’s that time and money scenario, really. If you’re a successful business, and you’re generating lots and lots of money. Then, why would you build your own website. You just wouldn’t. You’d rather just hire an expert and have it done for you.

Lyndsay: yes, or why would you continue with … if you’ve got a DIY website, you know and you’re becoming successful. If you’re spending your evenings trying to google why a plug in isn’t working, or get things working on your website. That’s just not a good use of your time. When you’re speaking here, there, and everywhere. Or you’re promoting your book. Or whatever it is that you’re doing. You want to be doing that. Not kind of messing around with a website like you did at the beginning of your business, which is fine.

Lyndsay: I think another things is that when you hire an agency. They should be able to identify sort of where you can increase profits. Where you can increase traffic, increase conversions. They should be asking you those questions and being able to figure that out for you. So, that’s to the point of your business where you think, “I Can take it to the next level.”

Martin: yes, it’s about investing in the knowledge and expertise of the web designer as well. I mean, we pride ourselves in the fact that we love learning more about online marketing. So, when somebody asks us a question, we’re able to advise them about how to grow their email list, for instance. And, you don’t generally get that knowledge just hitting you in the face when you’re trying to build your own website. That’s another reason why you might want to hire an agency. Because, you really know that that knowledge and that experience is valuable. And, you’re happy to part with your cash for an agency that specializes in that kind of help.

Summary

Lyndsay: Absolutely. So, I think that was a really good sort of synopsis there of when you should invest in a website and when you shouldn’t. So, just to summarize. I mean, I think if you’re sort of starting out in business, we would definitely recommend that you do a website yourself. Build it yourself. Certainly, if you are two, three years into your business, and you’ve got a little bit to invest, say 500 to 1,000 pound, and you’re thinking, “Maybe I should go to a freelancer.” Again, we would recommend you actually continue to develop your own DIY website and perhaps invest in something that will bring some money in. It might be a photo shoot, it might be a Facebook ad, whatever that might be. I think the point where you should invest a lot of money into a website, and go with a web design agency is as Martin said, when you’re becoming quite successful. You’ve got that audience there and you can see a return on investment.

Martin: Yes, definitely.

Lyndsay: Brilliant, okay. So, I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you would like our advice on anything web design related, we do have a free Facebook group. And, you can join the free Facebook group by visiting JammyDigital.com/Facebook. Now, I’m not sure how long it will last but as we’re recording this, we’re currently doing free website critiques. Where we tell you exactly how to improve your website. So, please join our Facebook group for that as well.

Martin: Yes, people are really enjoying that aren’t they?

Lyndsay: They are, and we’re really enjoying it aren’t we. We actually look forward to it.

Martin: Exactly, every Wednesday-

Lyndsay: Every Wednesday it’s like, “Yay! It’s critique time.”

Martin: Yes.

Lyndsay: So, yes and please, please do join it. Another thing that we would love, love, love you to do is to subscribe to us on I tunes. And, leave us an honest review. It really helps us to reach more people and deliver lots more content if you do. So, yes that would be really great. See you next time on the Make Your Mark Online Podcast.

Martin & Lyndsay

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