Table of Contents
- What Is A Web Development Company?
- What Does A Website Development Agency Specialize In?
- Why Are Websites Important For Your Business?
- What Is The Difference Between Web Development & Web Design?
- What Are The Different Types Of Web Development Companies?
- How Much Do These Types of Agencies Charge?
- Why Hire A Reliable Web Development Agency?
- How To Hire The Right Service Provider
- 10 Questions To Ask When Hiring These Firms
What Is A Web Development Company?
A web development company builds custom websites, apps, intranets, or digital platforms with the features and functionalities brands need to grow online.
Some of the experts that work on website development projects include:
- Project Manager
- IT Specialists
- Frontend Developers
- Backend Developers
- Web designers
- Security Specialists
- App Developers
- QA Testers
- System Administrators
- And more
The team works together and coordinates the project to meet the client’s needs with the end product.
What Does A Website Development Agency Specialize In?
These firms specialize in building, designing and launching high-quality websites, as well as maintaining their performance.
These agencies typically specialize in:
- Design and development
- Software development
- Front-end development
- Back-end development
- E-commerce design & development
- Platform-focused or platform-agnostic development
- Website maintenance & support
- Technical SEO optimization
- And so on
Why Are Websites Important For Your Business?
Having an online presence and a website enables you to market your business online.
In the age of technology, consumers turn to the internet when they want to find suppliers or make a purchase.
According to Brendify's local search consumer survey, 74% of consumers perform local searches at least once a week.
In fact, 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information.
That means a sweeping number of business purchase decisions start with a search engine search of websites.
Simply put, if you don’t have a website, you are selling to only 7% of your target market. Customers expect serious business owners to have an online presence.
Having a website for your business is highly important if you want to stay relevant in a competitive market.
And that’s where expert companies step in.
By providing you with a fully functional website, these agencies help you grow your brand’s awareness, enhance your business image, get more prospects and increase sales.
A Brief History Of Web Development Companies
The rapid growth of the Internet has caused websites to become ever more complex with web developers having to learn to be way more adaptive in their programming.
The development of web technologies and the evolution in web design have allowed web developers to provide personal and immersive web experiences, in line with the needs and demands of users.
Web engineering as we know it today started with the creation of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) in the early 1990s and still is the core technology of every web page created.
Though an incredibly fast-growing field, with new trends and frameworks continuously unfolding, these are the main development tools used to create websites:
- HTML
- CSS
- Javascript
The growth in mobile usage as well as the quick expansion of eCommerce has led responsive, mobile-first development to be the dominant practice.
Today, user experience is the guiding force behind all websites created, as visitors expect a seamless experience on any device they use to access a website.
As a result, web developers must now adopt best practices for both software development and user interface design.
Accordingly, these companies have continuously evolved from providing essential development services into offering a wide range of mobile-focused services such as mobile, eCommerce or app development.
What Is The Difference Between Web Development & Web Design?
Although web developers and web designers work together to create custom websites, they fulfill very different roles.
A web designer’s role is more similar to graphic design than it is to coding. These specialists add aesthetic details to the wireframes as static images in programs such as Photoshop.
Once the designs are approved, they are sent to web developers, who then write code to build each feature and functionality.
Front-end developers specialize in writing code using programming languages such as HTML and CSS. The code they write will be seen by your website visitors.
Back-end developers work in .NET, PHP open source framework or JAVA. The code provided by them connects the frontend to the database.
Hence, web design refers to the aesthetics and usability of a website.
On the other hand, development uses programming languages and tools to build the backend and the frontend of a website, making it functional and bringing the design to life.
What Are The Different Types Of Web Development Companies?
There are a few different ways to categorize these companies in the US.
The first way is to evaluate the exact type of services they provide:
- Development-only agencies focus almost entirely on development services including website design, software development, web engineering, WordPress website design, eCommerce development and so on.
- Mixed services agencies cover a wide selection of development services but also offer marketing services such as branding, digital marketing, PPC, SEO, content production, copywriting and so on.
- Full-stack agencies can be anything from software development companies to blockchain development companies that have begun in development but have since grown to provide a vast range of services like outsourcing software development, offshore software development, PHP development, .NET development and so on.
- Full-service eCommerce agencies provide end-to-end eCommerce development, from eCommerce development and design to eCommerce marketing and SEO, or consulting.
Secondly, these agencies can be categorized by the platforms they specialize in:
- WordPress development companies: These agencies specialize in using the most popular platform, i.e. CMS, to design a custom website or adapt a template while building a client-friendly backend.
- Drupal development companies: Drupal-focused developers also provide an intuitive backend, adapting a template or creating custom modules on the platform.
- Magento development companies: Magento web developers specialize in building online stores on the feature-rich eCommerce platform, maintaining and scaling them, or providing technical SEO optimization.
- Shopify development companies: These agencies focus exclusively on developing Shopify websites, building e-stores and ensuring their performance and functionality, as well as providing maintenance and support.
- Ruby on Rails companies: These companies specialize in developing, testing and maintaining custom platforms created on the server-side website application framework Ruby on Rails.
- Platform-agnostic agencies: These web developers consider clients’ unique demands to establish the best-performing platform for their business.
- And more
Lastly, some firms also choose to specialize in a few specific verticals, among the most popular being:
- Healthcare
- Fintech
- Retail
- Insurance
- And more
How Much Do These Types of Agencies Charge?
The majority of web development agencies charge between $100 to $175 per hour.
But agencies outside of the U.S can charge as little as $55-$75 per hour.
Charging hourly allows companies to dedicate certain parts of the day to your project. And you can see the breakdown at the end of the day.
However, this is a pricey venture. Your business needs to create a specific budget due to the many costs involved.
All in all, the cost of a professional website varies based on your brand’s needs.
For example, a simple informational site will be easier to produce than a complicated eCommerce platform or an in-depth service booking interface.
When it comes to project-based pricing, new projects are typically valued between $10,000 and $50,000, regardless of location.
Why Hire A Reliable Web Development Agency?
This type of professional agency will help you create a high-quality website that will generate business value.
A high-quality website is not only fully functional, easy to navigate and engaging, but it provides valuable information that will help you reach your target audience, resulting in acquiring leads and driving sales.
Moreover, setting up a website for your business has the undeniable potential to produce outstanding results with a relatively inexpensive investment.
Here are the main reasons why you should hire expert agency:
- Brand visibility
- Web traffic
- Conversions
- Interaction
- Sales
- Market expansion
- And more
How To Hire The Right Service Provider
Before choosing to work with professional reliable web development companies, it’s key to have a clear picture of your business goals.
Follow these steps when hiring a web development agency:
- Determine the services you need: Whether it’s software development, responsive design, app development or eCommerce development, you must know exactly what you want out of this partnership.
- Look at their talent and expertise: The best companies usually hire specialists meaning that no junior web developers would be involved in your project. Having only experts working on your project will lead to successful results.
- Examine their professional portfolio: Examining an agency’s portfolio enables you to comprehend what kind of experience they have, how they excel and where their services exceed the expected.
- Decide your budget and potential ROI: Outline your budget to ensure you can work with a specific agency. You should also take into consideration the return on investment a top web development agency can provide: higher conversions, greater CTRs, more sales and so on.
- Look at their results and reviews: Past successes and failures will give you a fair idea as to how they will tackle your project and achieve results. Other brands’ reviews about their experience with an agency can prove to be very valuable in choosing one company over another.
10 Questions To Ask When Hiring These Firms
Before you decide to partner with any of the expert companies, you ought to get a full understanding of their processes, approaches and the quality of their work.
Ask them the following questions:
- Have you worked on projects with similar goals to ours?
- Tell me about the projects you’re most proud of and why. Can we see some before and after examples?
- What is your process and how would you approach a project like mine?
- What is the timeframe for a project? How much time a project will take from start to finish?
- Who is our point of contact and how often can we expect meetings and updates?
- What parts of my project will be implemented in-house vs. outsourced?
- Do you cover SEO in your services or is it a separate service?
- Would I be able to perform edits in the CMS on my own?
- Would my website be fully customized or a template?
- Would integrations such as CRM be included as part of our project?
