Overwhelmed with the thought of researching a web development company in the USA? We know it can feel like a never ending maze trying to sift through all your options on who to choose.
That’s why the crew over here at CMDS have compiled a few pointers on how business owners or marketing managers can find a trusted web dev partner and why “American-Made” is the way to go.
How to Find a Web Development Company in USA
Before you even begin your search, you must get your ducks in a row. The first step in the process of finding a trusted agency is to identify your own business goals, both short-term and long-term.
Ask yourself:
- Do I need to build a new website from scratch or do I just need a website redesign?
- How much am I willing to spend? What is my budget now and for future maintenance needs?
- Who is my ideal customer? Where is my audience and what pain points do they have?
- What is my unique value proposition? How do I stand out from my competitors?
- What is the purpose of my website? Will I sell products or services or will it be purely informational?
- How do I want my website to look, function, feel regarding the user experience design?
- Will I need CRM integration?
- How many pages does my website need? Do I need new content or a refresh on existing copy?
- Will I need a progressive web app or a native app?
- What are my must-haves; what are my wants?
Once you have thought through these ten points, you’re ready to start looking around. Fortunately, we have a lot of helpful articles to guide you through the process. We especially like, “25 Questions You Should Be Able to Answer Before You Write a Website Development RFP,” but “How to Write an RFP for Website Development” is pretty good, too and even comes with a free RFP template.
Take the time to answer the questions above and be sure to bookmark those two articles to read through before you start talking to any companies.
When the time comes to start looking, just be careful of being baited by false promises…
How to Minimize Your Risk with Offshore Web Development
Have you ever been tempted to outsource your company’s web development needs offshore? The lure of cheap rates from offshore developers in India, Russia and China can be tough to ignore. But, offshore outsourcing carries big risks that can cost your business.
In addition to the fact that an offshore development team will often just “do what they’re told,” rather than offer original concepts or strategies, you’ll end up pulling your hair out trying to actually speak with a human about your website. Due to language gaps and cultural differences, they’re not in the business of giving advice on branding or content strategy. Simply put, they take orders.
Consider the amount of time (wasted) that you would have to spend waiting for overnight responses, rewriting content, fixing broken code and functionality or worse yet, patching up customer relationships and reputational damage when your website doesn’t deliver as promised.
We see it happen more than we’d like to admit.
Clients come to us with a messy site that was developed offshore; understandably, they’re frustrated with communication problems, poor code quality, lack of testing, zero strategy and concerns over GDPR security. Sometimes the site is too broken to fix, so we need to explore redevelopment.
So, how can you avoid all this mess?
We’re not going to lie, it’s not just offshore web development companies that carry risk. You’ll find those “too-good-to-be-true” temptations in the USA, too. But choosing the right team is more involved than comparing hourly rates. That’s why brands have to do their due diligence and research the web services agency before hiring anyone.
Keep reading to learn more about finding your trusted web development partner, not just an order-taker.
Check Under the Hood
It’s time to check under the hood of the web development company you’re considering.
Ideally, you’ll want to find a web development company that comes highly recommended from someone you know, so don’t be afraid to ask for referrals. Check their Google reviews, Facebook feedback and scope out their team to get a sense of who they are, their approach and how they work. See if past clients are saying nice things about their work or if they have any particularly bad feedback luming.
It’s ok, we don’t consider this stalking… go ahead and poke around until you find what you like.
Also, take a look at the quality of their portfolio. Do you like their work? Check out their website and view it on mobile to ensure they practice what they preach. Just like you probably wouldn’t hire an overweight nutritionist or a hairdresser with a bad haircut, you should probably never trust a web development company that doesn’t have a stellar website themselves.
At the end of the day, you have to be happy with their work, so trust your own judgement.
We’re Made In The USA
Here at CMDS, all of our web development work is completed in-house at our office in Colts Neck, New Jersey… we’re American made! We like fast cars, apple pie and baseball. All kidding aside, even though we’re located in the USA, we have vast experience working with clients internationally.
Whether your business is a local NJ restaurant who needs a redesign or an international enterprise with complex needs, we respect that your website will not only need to be reliable now, but also dependable enough and flexible enough to grow with future needs. We’ve written a few articles on it, check out “How to Choose a WordPress Web Development Agency” to get you started.
Our team collaborates to bring each client the most reliable service, completing your project on time, on budget and just the way you envisioned it to be. We pride ourselves on taking the time to dig deep and really understand brand goals target audience and unique pain points through an extensive discovery phase where we ask all the key questions to deliver the best possible web strategy that meets (rather, exceeds) your expectations.
And, hey…you get to speak directly to the dedicated team working on your project and we’ll meet with you in person!
As a side note (not to toot our own horn or anything) CMDS has a pretty solid background. Check this out:
- NJ Marketing and Design Agency CMDS Named to Inc 5000 List
- Chris Mulvaney Named as One of NJ’s Best Marketing Pros Under 40 (He’s the main man behind CMDS!)
- 15 Characteristics That Helped a Local Marketing Agency Reach Its 15 Year Anniversary (That’s us!)
- CMDS Is Ranked Among America’s Top Marketing Agencies (See how we stack up!)