In this article, you will learn how to get the best offer from a reputable web designer with the help of a systematic, goal-oriented approach.
It feels like the internet agency and web design industry changes completely every few years. Understandably, it's not only laypeople that are often uncertain about the flood of possibilities and want to avoid sinking unnecessary budgets. Different approaches and terminology also make it difficult to compare offers.
The first time you make enquiries at an Internet agency, you may be surprised by the different offers you receive. It's not always easy to compare these offers based purely on content. However, some aspects will speak for a serious offer right from the start.
Are all positions offered in full? Information such as "Content maintenance per page: 2 h" can become a trap if it's unclear how many pages your website will contain. In any case, try to close these open positions.
If you ask five web design agencies for quotes, you'll probably get five barely comparable offers, starting with the agencies' services and work processes, each with different names for the same services: Some call it "concept", others "user experience design". This can mean the same thing or something completely different.
This actually happens. Source: revision6
Put yourself in the position of your web design service provider: A website is a complex product that takes months of intensive cooperation to develop properly. On receiving the question "How much does a website with ten sub-pages and a blog cost?" the service provider must estimate and assume any information you do not provide.
Some will set the bare minimum to meet your meagre specifications, while others may think sensibly and round off the offer as they see fit.
Give a very rough budget framework - plain text saves both parties a lot of effort because: You can build a decent site for 5,000 or even 30,000 euros - the result will still be different.
Creating a website is no small matter, whether for an individual or a medium-sized company. A good service provider will point out where you can take action yourself.
Not all internet agency services are purely technical. If you, as the client, have the corresponding manpower or time, you can either greatly reduce the following items through good preparatory work or, if necessary, even take them on completely yourself.
Content input into the CMS:
An introduction to the content management system of your new website is part of the process anyway. It's an advantage if you can gain experience while your website is still being created. Why not just enter the desired content yourself?
You certainly want to make your website investment sustainable. In doing so, it's important to consider the following cost factors.
For larger projects, there may be additional running costs such as the operation of a staging environment, a content delivery network (CDN) or other services. These can vary greatly and would go beyond the scope of what is reasonable here.
First of all: It's not always easy! There are no standardised service specifications in web design as there are in the construction industry. The biggest mistake – which is indeed often made – is to compare only the large number at the bottom right, assuming that all service providers have understood the same thing and will offer the same thing.
If you do not want to compare apples with coconuts, you will have to bring all positions into line. You can save yourself a lot of work here if you make sure you provide all service providers with complete, comprehensive and equal information. If you have neglected to do this or the offers still seem hard to compare, these steps can help.
Source: revision6
Rule of thumb: The less the sums for the individual bid items of a provider stand out, the more realistic and accurate the calculations probably are.
As a matter of principle, and as already mentioned here: Never choose a provider for a project simply based on the total sum without comparing exactly what is included and, in particular, what is missing. So here are the biggest mistakes you should avoid when asking for quotes and choosing an internet agency or web designer:
Don't be dazzled! There are agencies with excellent salespeople where you only get to know your actual contacts or project staff – often interns or students – after you've already signed.
Or will you just end up with a functioning website? What is the point of this question? What does "functioning" mean? Isn't the creation of a website simply a technical service? Depending.
Here is a question you need to ask yourself before choosing an internet agency or a web design agency, in plain English:
Would you like someone to set up a technically flawless website for you, to whom you can tell what you have in mind in every respect?
Or would you like to work with a service provider who thinks for you like an entrepreneur and designs your success, for whom technical functionality is a matter of course anyway?
Good conception is based on many factors, but the visitor to the site is always at the centre. You can only create a website that's successful with both users and search engines if your service provider understands you, understands your business model, understands your potential customers and acts accordingly.
This is the difference between user experience design and an aimlessly clicked-together website that is also somehow "pretty".
OK - enough talking. Here you will find a rough corridor of how we at revision6 would offer an average project, for example, and in full.
Of course, our detailed offers meet all the above criteria. These here are only example figures (PT = person days):
= 12 - 33 project days at €720 each.
Choosing the right service provider and offer is not something you should do on the toss of a coin if you want to make the best possible decision.
This guide deals exclusively with the hard facts - but, of course, other factors such as "can I work with them, and do I really want to work with them at all?" also play a role.
Nevertheless, we hope we've provided a helpful approach here.
