How to choose the best Los Angeles Web Design Company?
What type of web design company are you looking for?
These are the specific expertise areas of a web design company; however not all companies provide all areas and/or have in-depth knowledge or high level of expertise in some of these areas.
A – Website Design
B – Web Development
C – User Experience
D – Content Creation
E – Marketing (SEO)
F – Security
A – Choose a web design company by website design skills:
With the onset of website builder services such as Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and others, customers or a web design company with entry-level project requirements can quickly create a website with basic functionality. Anyone can create a website without technical skills when using this type of service. The benefit is that you can have an entry-level website in a few days. The downside is a limited selection of designs, design capabilities, and functionality options. Once you have reached the end of what a theme can provide, there is no further extension or customization possible.
Monthly costs are typically on the higher side ($16-$50) for a website builder service. The monthly fees for having your own website system generally is less expensive ($5-$15).
Most pre-made themes of website builder services look great with their sample content, and once you start adding your own meaningful content for your specific needs, it quickly turns problematic. The results are usually mediocre at best or straight-out confusing with a terrible user experience – visitors easily detect these websites as “copy-and-paste”, “self-made”. Therefore, they are perceived as less trustworthy, resulting in lower conversion rates. Mid-level and higher-end customers require more flexibility, attention to detail, a great user experience around their content, more customization possibilities, and custom functionality additions such as particular e-commerce customizations or connectivity and integration to Hubspot or other external CRM systems.
Custom Web Design can be split into two main categories:
1 – Fully Custom: Start from scratch, using an empty CMS theme framework and implement all design and functionality aspects individually. Nothing exists anywhere else, and everything is new and unique.
2 – Hybrid Custom: Start with an existing CMS theme, then customize within the theme’s capabilities to its full extent to fit the company’s brand and content. Additional customizations are possible through theme template customizations and custom-developed plugins.
B – Or choose by web development chops:
A firm’s web development capabilities directly indicate the success of any custom designed and then implemented web application. Not necessarily needed for a brochure website, it is essential when functionality additions to a website are needed, possibly not available as an of-the-shelve plugin. It is required when no drag-and-drop editors are available in CMS frameworks and is absolutely essential when creating a custom web-application or when extending existing functionality.
Web development requires a deep understanding of programming languages and frameworks such as React, Node, PHP, and Java. The higher the experience level of a web development company, the higher the likelihood that industry standard patterns and best practices in programming are applied. Using best practices is vital for the scalability, speed, and maintainability of your coding project, which helps reduce costs and TCO.
C – Select a web design company by user experience skills:
User Experience design is what ‘web design’ used to be called. Even for custom websites, CMS frameworks provide many convenient shortcuts. Most of the standard functionality has been created and modularized and can be used as pre-fab items, and nothing has to be re-invented. Web design companies are now less occupied with developing the tools from scratch for a website; instead they are using the existing tools to create the desired user experience of a brand or website project. User Experience design has morphed into using existing tools to develop the website experience.
D – How well is content creation handled?
Content creation requires the assessment of a company’s brand, goals, and target audience. While most website design-seeking companies can describe what they do to their peers, it is less likely to succeed when speaking to their customers. A professional content writer can extract complicated value propositions into digestible, meaningful audience messages. It is all about the user and the user’s experience. Content development is a crucial strategy and skill in creating a successful custom website with helpful content. Content and design work in parallel to convey the audience’s message. Content writers aid the marketing team in writing ad content for a website’s target audience. The best Los Angeles web design company is the one providing the best content creation for you unless you already have a prolific and skilled writer on your team.
E – Does the company provide marketing (SEO)?
Marketing efforts are categorized into two main sections ‘on-page’ optimizations and ‘off-page’ efforts. Both are to increase a website’s visibility and increase revenue. On-page SEO efforts require thematically organized page content that adheres to a well-defined content structure, both logically adhering to the rules of proper tag hierarchy. At the same time, content needs to remain digestible for the end-user. The web development team has to provide the ability to use appropriate content hierarchy if CMS themes do not offer this properly. Off-page marketing efforts range from Google Adwords, to promoting products on blogs and Youtube or radio advertisements. A web design company’s marketing role ranges from creating a marketing strategy, developing a content creation cadence, conducting website audits, speed tests, ad writing, ad conversion measurements, A/B testing, and tracking & analyzing results for improvements.
F – Choose by security:
Website security should be a top priority for any web design company you choose. A web design company’s security team should be at the forefront of CMS security. Specto Design monitors client websites for intrusion activity and has developed remote monitoring tools to automate website risk assessment. Read How to Prevent WordPress Username Scanning to tighten security.
Website security is assumed to be present however is often found on auto-pilot. Hackers constantly use new tactics probing themes or plugins to exploit any vulnerability. A hacker’s goal is to gain access to the website’s server and to install malicious code to either harness CPU power, propagate malware, or take control of customer data only to release it for a ransom. Website security is a must, not an option. We recommend that no matter what the best web design company might be for you, ensure security is on top of the list and not considered an afterthought.
After reading this article we hope you find it easier to pick the right Los Angeles Web Design company for your next project.
