Four steps to choosing a web developer
As the Internet becomes the main (and for many companies the only) promotion tool, competition between sites intensifies. Now, companies are vitally important not only to ensure a presence on the Internet, but also to stand out among competitors, offering better communication with the consumer. Those who have not yet realized this are quickly losing the market.
The effectiveness of sites is almost independent of the equipment on which they are developed. Basically, everything is decided only by frames. And the surest way to gain leadership is to work with a better team of performers than competitors. But how to make an informed choice, if neither the price of the web studio services, nor its big name, nor the smile of the sales manager guarantee that the site will be profitable?
The editors of the analytical portal of the web development market CMS Magazine have compiled a small guide that will help to search and select artists with a favorable price-quality ratio.
Clearly state the task.
Fix in writing the requirements and wishes for the functionality and design of the site. You should not hope for a meeting with a telepath artist who will understand without words and perfectly realize your secret expectations. It is better to prepare a document (brief) with a maximum of useful information that will immediately cut off most of the trivial questions of a web developer. This can be an e-mail in a random form or a completed application form from an agency.
If you already have a site and you plan to upgrade it, try to formulate in as much detail as possible what does not suit you in it.
The brief should answer at least the following questions:
- What tasks will the site fulfill?
- Who represents the target audience of the site?
- Why will visitors come to the site and how to attract them there?
- If the site promotes a product or service - why would visitors want to buy them?
- How does your company position itself in the market?
- Who are your main competitors and how do you differ from them?
This document will be the starting point for subsequent communications with representatives of web studios, and in the future will form the basis of the terms of reference. The more detailed the brief, the easier it will be to engage in dialogue with potential performers.
Tip: You can download a brief on the development of the site, prepared by the editors of CMS Magazine and Runet Rating. This document presents the main issues that will help to more clearly formulate the objectives of the project.
Define the circle of bidders.
In Russia, more than 3,000 professional web studios, of which more than 1,000 - in Moscow, more
300 - in St. Petersburg and tens and hundreds in other cities. Therefore, from those who want to make a site at the market price, there will be no end. The super task of the customer is to choose from the total mass of the contractor who will offer the best value for money.
It’s worth starting the search with recommendations - and the best recommendation, as you know, is a job well done. Find out who made the most successful sites of the type you are interested in, and contact their developers first. If you personally know the owners of these sites, do not be too lazy to inquire about the contractor: how accurately he managed to complete the technical task, meet the deadlines and budget, what were the main problems in the development and how they were solved.
At the second stage of partner selection, you can turn to web studio directories and ratings. Using the CMS Magazine portal, you can immediately get brief information about the studios that work in your city, as well as market leaders. This is currently the most comprehensive directory of web studios in Russia. To quickly navigate the list of companies, make a selection and sorting by relevant data - the city of presence, the date of foundation of the studio, the number of works in the portfolio. At CMS Magazine there is an opportunity to make a selection at a price, as many studios indicated the size of standard budgets for creating corporate portals, promotional sites, online stores and portals.
If you couldn’t select an artist according to the recommendations and the catalog, you can turn to the search in Yandex and Google. But it should be borne in mind that many professional companies do not invest heavily in search engine optimization of their sites on the Internet (their main promotion tool is PR). In the first positions of search engines, companies focused on the mass client and developing typical, often not very high-quality sites are more common. It is also worth considering that there is no correlation between the quality and cost of the company's services and its current place in the top ten search engines.
Tip: When forming the circle of bidders, we recommend that you first of all pay attention to the number of quality projects and the number of clients in the web developer’s portfolio. There should be at least 7-10. The second important indicator is the time the web studio has been on the market (preferably from two years). The third is the company's reputation, expressed in positive reviews of work and references in the media. In the short list, we recommend including 4-15 companies that you like.
Hold a tender
It is most convenient to request commercial offers from a group of web studios through an electronic tender site. The ability to send one application to several companies at once saves the customer’s time, and the public offer form fosters competition between performers. Electronic tender sites are currently being developed on several professional portals of web developers and differ in functionality and popularity. One of the most popular is the tender site of the “Runet Rating”. Within the framework of the proposed service, you can create your shortlist of studios, set the parameters of the tender (project type, description, budget, deadlines, wishes for the partner’s geography, etc.), and then send the requests together with the attached brief. The site is especially convenient when searching for artists using the "sowing" method.
If for some reason the electronic tender site is not suitable, inquiries can also be sent by regular e-mail. In this case, ask the performers to detail the offer. It should contain the following information:
- Cost of services in relation to the main stages of work (Internet consulting and writing technical specifications, creative design, technical design, html-layout, site integration with CMS, programming (in case of non-standard solutions)
- Timing and schedule works
- Resources (how many programmers, designers and other employees will be involved in the project)
- On which CMS (content management system) will the Internet project be developed
- What documentation will be prepared
- Warranty conditions, the cost of post-warranty support
- Portfolio work that demonstrates the contractor’s experience in solving tasks similar to yours (this is especially true for non-standard projects)
These are the main criteria by which you can compare offers.
Web studios are usually given 3 to 10 days to prepare responses. When evaluating a commercial proposal, it is advisable to pay attention not only to the fixed conditions, but also to other points: reaction speed and follow-up, attention to details, communication comfort, and whether the studio offers any new ideas.
Tip: Regardless of whether you use the electronic tender site or send requests manually, call the key executors to establish a contact and confirm receipt of the application.
Analyze offers and choose a partner
The average cost of developing a corporate website in the regions usually does not exceed 100 thousand rubles, in Moscow - 180 thousand rubles. And to cross the threshold of top companies is only if you have a budget of at least half a million rubles. It often happens that the customer receives commercial offers that exceed his capabilities, especially when it comes to the debut site. If such a problem arose and you did not receive a commercial offer that meets both the requirements of the brief and financial opportunities, then re-evaluate the required functionality and budget that you can invest in development. Perhaps, after requesting the cost of services in the companies you like, the shortlist will have to be adjusted and resent to several more places (or contact freelancers if the budget is small). The second option is to immediately proceed to negotiations with company management. It's no secret that many customers look at the price as an indicator of the quality of work and the status of the company. And a number of performers, in turn, take this into account in their pricing. If you have a well-known brand or an interesting project, there is every chance to come to a compromise. Sometimes it’s useful to hold negotiations in the offices of web studios in order to see firsthand the employees and evaluate other company resources, and not judge them only by the site. Personal meetings will help not only to achieve more favorable conditions in terms of cost and terms of services, but also to determine which of the performers is most comfortable in conducting a dialogue. Personal compatibility is very important, since most often after developing a site, partnership with a web studio does not end. It is necessary to promote, maintain and update the site, develop new functionality for him. Effectively performing these tasks is possible only with long-term cooperation.
Tip: Website development is only a small part of the cost of promoting a business on the Internet. About how to convey the site to the target audience, you need to start thinking at the stage of setting the task.
The effectiveness of sites is almost independent of the equipment on which they are developed. Basically, everything is decided only by frames. And the surest way to gain leadership is to work with a better team of performers than competitors. But how to make an informed choice, if neither the price of the web studio services, nor its big name, nor the smile of the sales manager guarantee that the site will be profitable?
The editors of the analytical portal of the web development market CMS Magazine have compiled a small guide that will help to search and select artists with a favorable price-quality ratio.
Clearly state the task.
Fix in writing the requirements and wishes for the functionality and design of the site. You should not hope for a meeting with a telepath artist who will understand without words and perfectly realize your secret expectations. It is better to prepare a document (brief) with a maximum of useful information that will immediately cut off most of the trivial questions of a web developer. This can be an e-mail in a random form or a completed application form from an agency.
If you already have a site and you plan to upgrade it, try to formulate in as much detail as possible what does not suit you in it.
The brief should answer at least the following questions:
- What tasks will the site fulfill?
- Who represents the target audience of the site?
- Why will visitors come to the site and how to attract them there?
- If the site promotes a product or service - why would visitors want to buy them?
- How does your company position itself in the market?
- Who are your main competitors and how do you differ from them?
This document will be the starting point for subsequent communications with representatives of web studios, and in the future will form the basis of the terms of reference. The more detailed the brief, the easier it will be to engage in dialogue with potential performers.
Tip: You can download a brief on the development of the site, prepared by the editors of CMS Magazine and Runet Rating. This document presents the main issues that will help to more clearly formulate the objectives of the project.
Define the circle of bidders.
In Russia, more than 3,000 professional web studios, of which more than 1,000 - in Moscow, more
300 - in St. Petersburg and tens and hundreds in other cities. Therefore, from those who want to make a site at the market price, there will be no end. The super task of the customer is to choose from the total mass of the contractor who will offer the best value for money.
It’s worth starting the search with recommendations - and the best recommendation, as you know, is a job well done. Find out who made the most successful sites of the type you are interested in, and contact their developers first. If you personally know the owners of these sites, do not be too lazy to inquire about the contractor: how accurately he managed to complete the technical task, meet the deadlines and budget, what were the main problems in the development and how they were solved.
At the second stage of partner selection, you can turn to web studio directories and ratings. Using the CMS Magazine portal, you can immediately get brief information about the studios that work in your city, as well as market leaders. This is currently the most comprehensive directory of web studios in Russia. To quickly navigate the list of companies, make a selection and sorting by relevant data - the city of presence, the date of foundation of the studio, the number of works in the portfolio. At CMS Magazine there is an opportunity to make a selection at a price, as many studios indicated the size of standard budgets for creating corporate portals, promotional sites, online stores and portals.
If you couldn’t select an artist according to the recommendations and the catalog, you can turn to the search in Yandex and Google. But it should be borne in mind that many professional companies do not invest heavily in search engine optimization of their sites on the Internet (their main promotion tool is PR). In the first positions of search engines, companies focused on the mass client and developing typical, often not very high-quality sites are more common. It is also worth considering that there is no correlation between the quality and cost of the company's services and its current place in the top ten search engines.
Tip: When forming the circle of bidders, we recommend that you first of all pay attention to the number of quality projects and the number of clients in the web developer’s portfolio. There should be at least 7-10. The second important indicator is the time the web studio has been on the market (preferably from two years). The third is the company's reputation, expressed in positive reviews of work and references in the media. In the short list, we recommend including 4-15 companies that you like.
Hold a tender
It is most convenient to request commercial offers from a group of web studios through an electronic tender site. The ability to send one application to several companies at once saves the customer’s time, and the public offer form fosters competition between performers. Electronic tender sites are currently being developed on several professional portals of web developers and differ in functionality and popularity. One of the most popular is the tender site of the “Runet Rating”. Within the framework of the proposed service, you can create your shortlist of studios, set the parameters of the tender (project type, description, budget, deadlines, wishes for the partner’s geography, etc.), and then send the requests together with the attached brief. The site is especially convenient when searching for artists using the "sowing" method.
If for some reason the electronic tender site is not suitable, inquiries can also be sent by regular e-mail. In this case, ask the performers to detail the offer. It should contain the following information:
- Cost of services in relation to the main stages of work (Internet consulting and writing technical specifications, creative design, technical design, html-layout, site integration with CMS, programming (in case of non-standard solutions)
- Timing and schedule works
- Resources (how many programmers, designers and other employees will be involved in the project)
- On which CMS (content management system) will the Internet project be developed
- What documentation will be prepared
- Warranty conditions, the cost of post-warranty support
- Portfolio work that demonstrates the contractor’s experience in solving tasks similar to yours (this is especially true for non-standard projects)
These are the main criteria by which you can compare offers.
Web studios are usually given 3 to 10 days to prepare responses. When evaluating a commercial proposal, it is advisable to pay attention not only to the fixed conditions, but also to other points: reaction speed and follow-up, attention to details, communication comfort, and whether the studio offers any new ideas.
Tip: Regardless of whether you use the electronic tender site or send requests manually, call the key executors to establish a contact and confirm receipt of the application.
Analyze offers and choose a partner
The average cost of developing a corporate website in the regions usually does not exceed 100 thousand rubles, in Moscow - 180 thousand rubles. And to cross the threshold of top companies is only if you have a budget of at least half a million rubles. It often happens that the customer receives commercial offers that exceed his capabilities, especially when it comes to the debut site. If such a problem arose and you did not receive a commercial offer that meets both the requirements of the brief and financial opportunities, then re-evaluate the required functionality and budget that you can invest in development. Perhaps, after requesting the cost of services in the companies you like, the shortlist will have to be adjusted and resent to several more places (or contact freelancers if the budget is small). The second option is to immediately proceed to negotiations with company management. It's no secret that many customers look at the price as an indicator of the quality of work and the status of the company. And a number of performers, in turn, take this into account in their pricing. If you have a well-known brand or an interesting project, there is every chance to come to a compromise. Sometimes it’s useful to hold negotiations in the offices of web studios in order to see firsthand the employees and evaluate other company resources, and not judge them only by the site. Personal meetings will help not only to achieve more favorable conditions in terms of cost and terms of services, but also to determine which of the performers is most comfortable in conducting a dialogue. Personal compatibility is very important, since most often after developing a site, partnership with a web studio does not end. It is necessary to promote, maintain and update the site, develop new functionality for him. Effectively performing these tasks is possible only with long-term cooperation.
Tip: Website development is only a small part of the cost of promoting a business on the Internet. About how to convey the site to the target audience, you need to start thinking at the stage of setting the task.