Design is important, but you cannot use that one element to judge the quality of a web development agency.

While most people tend to judge a website on its aesthetics alone, the reality is that the anesthetics are not always the most important aspect of a successful website. We certainly believe that beautifully designed websites matter, but we often see aesthetically pleasing websites that fail to perform. Likewise, we’ve found some poorly designed sites that outperform many gorgeous websites.

We believe the balance is to create a beautiful website that well represents your brand while making money for your business.

A successful web development company should be able to capture your vision while keeping your brand consistent, and ultimately build you a website that makes you money.

While there are many capable web designers out there, it’s rare to find one that knows how to communicate well. One of the most common complaints we hear from businesses is that their web developers don’t seem to understand their needs.

One of our clients said, “I spent countless hours on the phone with [my previous company] and they didn’t seem to hear a word I said. That cost me a lot of my time for no results.”

This common issue comes down to poor communication skills. While many website designers have stunning work to display in their portfolio, they simply fail to deliver similar results for clients because of an inability to communicate properly with their clients.

The solution is to vet your prospective web development company and test their communication skills. Ask them about their onboarding process and to explain how they helped a similar client achieve their goals.

While this is related to communication, availability is its own topic. A web company may communicate quite well…when you can reach them.

But many business leaders can tell you that it is very difficult to find a responsive digital marketing team, especially if something goes wrong over the weekend.

Make sure to ask about response times and what the plan is for night and weekend issues that may arise.

Don’t work with a company unless you can get the cell phone number for your account manager, and preferably their business leader. If they won’t provide it, move along.

It may seem trivial, but if you don’t like the person you’ll be working with to get results, then it’s likely you won’t be happy with the result.

Just like with any other industry, your web development team should be courteous and treat you like a valued customer.

If your gut tells you that something is off with their demeanor, move along.

To build a rapport that will serve your business purposes, don’t be afraid to speak off topic to get to know the kind of person with which you will be working.

Your onboarding process should include several team members who will be involved in the design, development and management of your website. While you don’t need every single person involved to attend the onboarding meeting, you should involve the team leaders who will be overseeing the process to ensure they all understand your vision.

During this process, you want to evaluate your competition to see what is performing well in your market and in other markets as well. Conduct in-depth research to find out what your competitors are doing and what you need to do to beat them online.

Once you sign on with Numana SEO, we schedule an onboarding meeting, and our team begins researching your competitors, your market, and your business.

During your onboarding meeting, you will meet with several department leaders who will need to understand your business objectives. We will take a deep dive into your business and help you better understand the work we will be doing on your behalf.

Once our design team completes a website design, it is sent to our content writers, to our SEO team, our web developers, and to our lead generation team so that each department can provide feedback.

This collaborative approach saves you time. We work out the kinks before ever sending over a design for review.

When you get your web design, if you are unhappy for any reason, we will work quickly to get you the perfect design for your website.

That’s right: you get unlimited revisions.