Building a website with a third-party designer

Before you start working with a third party on creating your website, it’s important to think about what you want it to achieve and how it will align with your business goals. For example, do you want your website to raise brand awareness, or will it be used to drive sales or provide customer support?  

You should also start to think about how you want your website to look and feel.  

Once you understand what you want your website to achieve, and how you want it to look, it’s time to put together a web design brief.  

A web design brief is a project management document that specifies what is expected. This is an important step when working with a third party to design your website, as it gives an overview of scope, desired timelines, budget and any other vital information.  

But what does a good brief look like? Here are some of the things you should include.  

1. Budget  

Working out how much you are able and willing to spend, then informing your third-party developers, will allow them to give you a realistic price guide for your website. 

2. Housekeeping

This is essential to the performance of a website once it has been built. Glitches, coding issues, error pages, speed issues, administration access, and bad URL creation are just some things that need to be looked out for and addressed. State what your plan is in relation to this in the website brief. Do you want constant, day-to-day communication with the agency regarding issues or are you happy to raise a ticket and wait for a response? Do you want the agency to carry out analysis to find any issues and errors on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis, or is your preference to have an in-house person do the analysis and pass it on to the developer to fix? Make these clear in the design brief. 

3. Timescales    

Let your developer know when you’d like and expect your website to be completed, particularly if the launch of the website coincides with the launch of your business, a new service or a special event.  

4. Background  

Give as much background information on your business or brand as possible. Detail the products or services you offer and the sectors you operate in. Specify who your target audience is and include any market research you have carried out.  

5. Objectives  

Outline what the objectives of your website are and what you expect it to achieve. Also include details about whether you’re updating an old website or building a new one entirely.   

6. Functionality  

List the functionalities you’d like on your website. These could include things like:  

• Video and audio clips,   
  Online payment,   
  Registration forms,   
  Login areas  
  Search tools  
  Event calendars  
  Social sharing 

7. Marketing   

A good website should work in sync with your wider marketing strategy, both online and offline.  

Think about the calls-to-action you want people to see when they land on your website and include them in your brief. Consider things like landing pages, terms of use, privacy notices, accessibility pages or any blogs or social media profiles you’d like to feature on your website.  

8. Technical considerations 

Consider any technical requirements of your website, like whether you will host the site yourself or whether this will be done externally. Will you use back-end systems like a Content Management System (CMS) or database?  

Once you have created your design brief, it’s time to find a developer to build your website. There are a few things to consider here, as you want to ensure you’re working with the right party to get the best outcome possible.  

1. Ask to see their portfolio 

The best way to judge a web developer or agency is by looking at their previous work. Request to see a portfolio of their previous work and look at some of their clients’ websites.  

Check the quality of their previous work, make sure the websites are quick, responsive, well designed and easy to use. Also, look for other things that are important to you, which you’ve detailed in your design brief.  

If you have special requirements for your website - such as an ecommerce platform or animated site - you should be looking to work with an agency or developer who specialises in this.  

2. Ask for recommendations   

Speak to friends and colleagues in your network and see if they have a developer they would recommend. Or, if you see a great website that really impresses you, try to get in touch with the company and ask them who they used and what their experience was like.  

It’s also a good idea to ask agencies if you can speak to clients they have worked with in the past, that way you can gain an honest review of their work, rather than relying on a sales pitch.  

3. Don’t judge based on price 

Asking how much it will cost to build a website is like asking how long a piece of string is. The cost will depend entirely on what you’re asking for and how much the developer charges. Usually, freelancers will cost less than working with agencies. However, just because one developer or agency is charging more than others, does not necessarily mean that the work is going to be of a higher quality or right for you. This is why it is important to work out how much you are willing and able to spend, then find a developer that works within your budget. 

It’s also important to ensure there are no hidden costs for things like hosting your site.  

4. Decide how your website will be maintained  

If you’re going to be regularly updating your website, you need to make sure you have access to it. This is something you need to communicate to the developer you choose to work with. Some sites are built around content management systems, meaning you can easily update and add to your site whenever you like.  

If you don’t want to maintain your website yourself, your developer can do this for you, though you will need to pay for the service.  

5. Who will own your website? 

When you’re building a new website, remember to specify who will own it on completion. If you do not specify in your contract that you will own your website, the developer or agency could retain ownership of the design, structure and databases behind your website. Securing ownership may come at a higher price, but a worthwhile one.