Choosing who builds your website is a bigger decision than it looks. You will work with them for years, and they will hold the keys to the place most people meet you first.
Before you start, write down what the website is for and what it must do: take referrals, sell tickets, recruit volunteers, or simply explain what you do. Then ask every designer the same questions.
- Have you built websites for organisations like ours? Can we see them on a phone?
- Can we speak to two or three of your past clients?
- What exactly does the price include, and what costs extra?
- How much do changes cost after the website is live?
- Will we be able to update it ourselves, and will you show us how?
- Will we own our web address, our words and our pictures?
- Can we take everything with us if we ever leave?
- What happens to our website if you are ill or stop trading?
- How do you keep it secure, and who updates it?
- Do you set up the basics for Google, such as a map of the site?
- Will it work for disabled visitors, and how do you check?
- How quickly do you reply, and how will we hear about progress?
Pay attention to how quickly and clearly each designer answers. The way someone talks to you before you sign is usually the best guide to how they will talk to you afterwards.
And get everything in writing before you pay anything.
