If your Orange County-based business has reached the point where you are ready to set up your website, then it’s probably a time of great excitement for you. Soon your site will go live, and customers will start finding out what it is that you have to offer them.

If you have no experience with web design, though, then this will also be the time that you hire a website design company. But therein lies the challenge. If you do not know much about website design, then how you can tell if a company that you are considering has the skills for which you are looking?

It’s not as difficult as you might have feared. Here are the features that the best website design company in Orange County share, so keep these in mind as you interview the candidates.

Who’s On the Team?

You should be able to meet the team members of any website design company that you hire, Orange County businesses. They should not be fronted by a single representative, and then you never get to meet any of the other individuals who will be working on your site.

They should have no trouble meeting with you at your place of business so you can put a face to each name. They should also be willing to show you the place where they work. Even if you don’t know too much about website design of a technical nature, all of them should still be able to give you a reasonable explanation of what it is that they’re going to be doing for you. You might not understand the technical jargon, but you should be able to at least get the gist of it.

They Should Be Willing to Talk About the Timeline

Your Orange County business is always going to have deadlines associated with it. You might need to sell a certain number of products by a particular date, or you’ll be looking to have a certain amount of new social media followers on each of your platforms per month. You’ll hold your marketing and sales teams responsible for their goals, and the same should be true for your website design company.

When you ask them when they’re going to have your website up and running, they should be able to give you a concrete date, or, failing that, they should be able to provide you with a reasonable ballpark estimate. If what you’re hearing from a candidate is that it might take a week, or it might take a month, then that’s unacceptable. You should be able to impose a reasonable deadline on your website design company, and that shouldn’t be a problem for them.

Your Goals

They should also be willing to talk with you about the goals associated with your website, and they should have some suggestions as to how they can help you achieve them. You might have a general idea of what you want on the site, but you’re hiring a design company in part because of their expertise. They will likely have some ideas that haven’t crossed your mind yet but that you will be willing and eager to implement.

Because of this, you’re also looking for creativity from any website design company in Orange County that you hire. There is an artistic element to website design. The team you select should know how to incorporate all of the best features at their disposal that are going to make sense for your industry.

The Size

There are some companies that you can probably disqualify based only on their size. Some website design companies are enormous, and some consist of only a handful of people. 

In all likelihood, the size of your company should correspond to the size of theirs. If your business is a mom-and-pop startup, then a boutique agency might be the thing for you. If your business is already a juggernaut and you need a massive website to match, then the amount of work that must be done on it will justify you hiring a much larger agency.

Style

Remember how we mentioned the artistic side of website design? You probably have in your head some notion of what you want your site to resemble. Look at some of the previous sites that the companies you are considering have created. They should have an extensive portfolio for you to peruse.

Do their sites look anything like what you want? If what you’re seeing from them is a long way off from what you want yours to be, then you might want to go with somebody else. Your vision is going to need to align with theirs if you’re going to be satisfied with what they end up producing for you.

The Cost

Unfortunately, money is likely to be a factor in this decision-making process as well, Orange County. You want the best team for the job, but you might not be able to afford them. Your financial resources are finite, and you can’t blow your budget to hire a company that comes highly recommended. 

As you’re getting started with the hiring process, be sure to let the candidates know how much you can afford to pay them. If it is acceptable to them, then they’ll stick around. If it isn’t then you can cross them off the list. You do not want to string them along and then reveal that you can’t pay their asking price. That does both them and you a disservice.

Orange County website design companies are some of the best in the state, if not the country. You should be able to locate one that can create a site for you of which you can be proud. Be careful with your selection process, and trust your gut. Just as with any hire you can make, your first instinct will probably be the correct one as to whether any of the companies you’re considering have the combination of skills and dedication for which you are looking.