Selecting a trustworthy and experienced web design company can be a daunting task. After all, with all the smooth talk and buzz words being thrown around, how can you determine who to trust?
You’ve probably even heard a few web design nightmares…someone hires a web design company or freelancer to build them a new website, pays 100% of the fee up front and never hears from the web designer again, or gets the perpetual runaround with the project being delivered way past schedule or in some cases, not at all.
Here is our list of the top 5 red flags to recognize when shopping for a web design company.
1. They don’t have a portfolio of work.
Not having a web design portfolio of work within a web design company website usually means one of three things: a) They are new to the business/inexperienced; b) They are embarrassed about their work; c) They don’t want you to contact their clients for references.
2. They want to register or transfer your domain registration to their account.
Letting the web design company control your domain name is bad news because they can hold you hostage so that you won’t ever leave them. In such case, many businesses end up registering a completely new domain name, this time, under their own name.
3. You can only host the website they build on their server.
Some web design companies won’t let you host the website that they build on a web hosting provider of your choice. Instead, they require that you host the website that they build for you on their servers. They do this because they can hold you hostage so that you won’t ever leave them. It’s best to work with a web design company who will allow you to store your website files on a hosting provider of your choice, such as Godaddy, in an account that YOU control, not the web design company.
4. You must sign a long-term, monthly payment contract.
Some web design companies have a contractual pricing structure where you will pay them hundreds of dollars per month over time under the guise of less money up front from you. However, in the long-run, you will spend much more money (sometimes several thousand dollars more) on the total cost of the website with this pricing scheme. Another common feature with these long-term contracts is that you don’t actually “own” the website content. So, if decide to go elsewhere with your website after making years of monthly payments, you essentially won’t be able to. You may be required to pay an additional, exorbitant one-time fee to “buy” the complete rights to your website. Otherwise, you simply walk away and recognize that you will need to pay another web design company to build you a new website.
5. They take your money and disappear.
This actually is not a red flag because most clients won’t be able to determine this until it’s too late. The only way you could possibly anticipate this before you hand over the credit card is by verifying client references.
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