If you are wondering how to get your website designed for your company, business or project in Zimbabwe, you have come to the right place. I know the feeling can be overwhelming when your supervisor asks you to spearhead the marketing department’s website project for your company or your business competitor is way ahead of you because they are now selling online.
While taking the plunge to find the right website designer for you can feel daunting, I’m going to walk you through five steps on what to know, what you need and what to look out for when you are looking for a professional to set up your website.
Do you want visitors to leave your website as quickly as possible? I don’t think so. The percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page is high if the website’s performance is not up to the mark in four primary categories; technical, content, design and layout, and visitor intent.
Finding the best website designer in five steps
- Website design agency or freelance website designer
- Portfolio, reviews and testimonies
- Ask about their CMS (Content management system)
- Compare costs
- Choose the perfect domain
Your domain name (www.yourcompanyname.co.zw) is the gateway to your website. The domain name should follow the below criteria for your brand to be professionally identifiable;
Make it easy to remember
My recommendation is to use this as your company name or abbreviation. Do not use slang! If you get this wrong, your company brand will take the hit.Choose an appropriate domain extension
Everyone knows .COM, the unrestricted domain extension for companies or commercial enterprises that is the most recognised TLD (top level domain) on the web. Most people in our country also recognise .ZW, the ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain Name) that represents Zimbabwe.Read more on domain extensions. If you are considering registering a local .CO.ZW domain name, you can check its availability on ZISPA (the Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers’ Association) website.
- Get secure and scalable website hosting
Website hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients. In a nutshell, it is a service that enables your website content to be accessible on the internet.
To keep keep the integrity of your business information intact ensure the web hosting you are going to acquire tick these boxes;
Security
Web hosting should be secure to protect your website from being tampered with by hackers. Subscribe to the appropriate website security scripts to keep your information safe.Scalability
Choose a hosting plan that allows you to add more content and feature to your website in the future.Reliability
As your information is stored in servers, the servers need to be online to keep your website files readily available for access through the internet. Uptime, should not be less than 99.99%.
Are you looking for professional website design services?
Register today and choose your preferred plan.
Website design agency or freelance website designer?
What is a website design agency
This is a business responsible for the design of websites. This collective of professional personnel dedicates their resources and time to the provision of website design services.
An Agency will have a lot of collective experience with a tried and tested design process that falls within its mission statement. Their business setup is generally expensive, so pricing for their service will be steeper. Website design agencies have more resources for additional services such as long-term support, SEO and paid ads.
On the other hand, a Freelance website designer is an individual who provides website design services to clients. Freelance designers are more flexible than Website design agencies because they offer a personal touch while being open to new ideas to improve their craft.
I know you are thinking about the costs if you decide to use a freelance designer. Your suspicions are correct. Freelance website designers have limited resources compared to website design agencies.
The pricing of their services is lower, and due to limited resources, freelance website designers opt to shy away from long-term support and services such as paid ads to keep their pricing competitive.
To conclude, if your website design project is big, say an online store with over 5000 lines of products, your safe bet is going with a website design agency as they have more hands to spare. However, for small businesses or startups, I recommend using a freelance designer is ideal.
Portfolios, reviews and testimonies
Do you want your business fate to be in the hands of someone whose work you have never seen? Do you want your business fate to be in the hands of someone whose work you have never seen? I don’t think so.
Remember, your website needs to be cutting-edge and needs to perform exceptionally. It is, therefore, essential to check what your prospective designer has done before.
Website designers have digital expression catalogues of their work, Well, the work that makes them feel proud. This information is found on their websites or upon your request. Getting a detailed portfolio helps you see the aptitudes and quality of an agency or freelance designer’s work. You can tell if one uses a template design, which is a no!
Search for reviews on their social media profiles search engines to see what their clients have to say about their work. These testimonies reflect how the agency or the freelance designer handles their profession.
Ask about their CMS (Content Management System)
Why do you need to know about CMS?
A content management system (CMS) is an application that is used to create, manage and publish digital content. The popular CMS examples are ;
It is crucial to understand the website platform because you will need to establish if you can make changes and updates on your site. I would recommend that you become a little bit familia about the CMS that is going to be used to avoid extra costs and a longer wait time just to update your customers about an upcoming event. I would say WordPress is the easiest CMS to grasp for content updates.
Compare costs
One of the most significant aspects of business is to save money. A website design project is an investment that needs caution. Website designers in Zimbabwe charge between US$100 to upwards of US$5000 depending on the scope of the website’s needs.
