Episode 26: Website Companies Brisbane

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00:00:00  Saul: Hi everybody, and welcome to the Web Design Brisbane podcast. This is episode number 26, and today's episode is entitled Website Companies Brisbane. My name is Saul Edmonds, and as usual, I'm joined by the lovely Gillian Smith.

00:00:12  Gillian: Good morning, Saul and hello, everybody.

00:00:15  Saul: Hello. We are the co-founders and creative directors of Roundhouse, the creative agency, a local business with a passion for helping our clients grow. Over to you, Gill. 

00:00:24 Gillian: Okay, thanks. Saul.  Well, today, we'll be talking about website companies. As we answer the question, how do you choose a website design development company that's right for you, your budget and your business?  Now, our goal here is to help small business owners’ start-ups and entrepreneurs in the city of Brisbane, Australia, take their opportunities to the next level with brilliant website design. If you're from another location, or city, welcome. Thanks for joining us today and we hope we can help you grow your business in the online space.

00:00:56  Saul: So what's today's topic, Gil?

00:00:59  Gillian: Well, today we'll be talking about website companies, so you're looking to begin a new website project or website redesign. What do you look for when you're choosing a website company to work with? Now we've got you covered here with the key points you need to keep a lookout for when you're starting that journey.

00:01:17  Saul: Okay, so let's get started.

00:01:19  Gillian: Okay, well, let's go back to basics. What can you say about why a quality website is important for every business?

00:01:27  Saul: Okay, so I guess one of the first things everybody wants is more leads, right? The obvious thing is that people have their website primarily as a guest, two primary points. One is to get more leads, and then the second one is to be a great brand representative, and to provide people with valuable information that people need about their business and to contact them, which of course, goes back to the same point of getting more leads. 

00:01:57  Gillian: Okay, well, if you just looking for a website company to work with. Are all website companies the same? Like why not just go with the cheapest option?

00:02:06  Saul: Okay, well, as with any services, everyone's Of course, very, very different people offer a range of different services that also includes building websites on a range of different platforms to so all of those different choices. Probably a good thing, and something that's always going to happen, there's always going to be a broad spread of levels and types of services and want to go with the cheapest provider. Well, I think most of us know that cheapest isn't always best. It may sometimes be suitable, though, because that's all you can do, and it fits your budget with what you want to spend.

00:02:47  Gillian: When you're in that initial meeting, what are the absolute key points that you should look out for is a consideration about branding important?

00:02:56  Saul: Yes, it can be if  any brand, your brand logo, and everything that comes along with branding is a key part for any business whether somebody has a great level of knowledge about the importance of branding, have somebody that you can work with who also deals with that aspect of your business is a huge plus.

00:03:19  Gillian: And does content strategy come into the mix? 

00:03:22  Saul: Yeah, I think we all we all accept very readily that content, as we've said numerous times before, in this podcast, and will probably continue to say the content is king. So having

00:03:36  Gillian:  drove more leads.  

00:03:37  Saul: Yeah, and so good content, not only for search engines, but also just for the experience that people have when they come to your sites that it's not necessarily only about getting people to call you or to contact you as quickly as possible. Sometimes, you want to take them through a journey in order to convince them and to nurture them into a lead and to give them the information that they want. 

00:04:06  Gillian: depends where they're at on the conversion circle?

00:04:09  Saul: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Of course, you don't always know that. So 

00:04:15  Gillian: Not everybody's ready to buy. 

00:04:17 Saul: Yeah, not everybody is already a qualified lead. They may be just looking for information. But no matter what type of person they are, and they've arrived at your side, you should still apply certain rules to how you treat your website for everybody, and you can only be true for yourself to

00:04:41  Gillian: And now when you're talking to website companies and meeting with web designers. Should the user experience be something you talk about?

00:04:48  Saul: Yeah, any digital experience the user experience is very important. If you hear the hear the term, UI and UX refers to the user experience, and that's used probably a lot more within apps, but it's the same is  very true in websites to help people navigate, and the sort of things you asked them to do on your website. 

00:05:21  Gillian: And of course, the navigation is the UI, the user interface.

00:05:25  Saul: Yeah, that's right. But also the elements throughout the site that lead you to other parts of the site and what you do within those elements as well. 

00:05:35  Gillian: Now, when you talk to this to your web designer, your potential web designer, should you talk about CMS platform options and how the CMS is implemented? 

00:05:44  Saul: Well, yeah, you should, if it's not, it's probably not as relevant for people who don't even know what a CMS is. But at the same time, if this is somebody whose first website or if the second or third website, and they're quite well versed in using something like WordPress, which is probably the world's most popular content management system, it's still really great, helpful information to find out what they use, and perhaps even why they use it because it will give you an insight into how people probably approach doing a website for a client.

00:06:28  Gillian: Okay, well, let's just say a word also about creativity in web design. Why is the creative approach of value here for small businesses?

00:06:37  Saul: Okay, so a creative approach, let's just very briefly define what a creative approach is to creativity is, I guess, for a lot of people is having things that are going to be creative, like,  in inverted commas, but for us, creativity is creative thinking, innovation, so that means and of course, just visually, the end result looks great, but that should always be tied into the goals that you're setting for your website, and to tie into your brand to but to have a creative thinking approach to how you going to do that, and to be innovative in every aspect of what you do, which is what we do, and everyone should be doing that for their clients. 

00:07:29  Gillian: Okay, well, what are the key tips you have here? When people are meeting with website companies? What are the key tips of things that they should be doing?

00:07:37  Saul: Okay, some key tips, some key takeaway points is their portfolio. Okay, so that's all the all the talking in the world is great, and finding out information, but also just seeing past work, their portfolio, and within that portfolio, too. It might even be helpful for you to ask them about some of the process that they went through for an example that you like, within their portfolio. 

00:08:12  Gillian: So with the portfolio, you get to one to see the type of work they've done for them in a visual and performance way, but also see who they've worked with.

00:08:20  Saul: Yeah, that's right, and perhaps then, if you're talking with them about that, and having some kind of case study, you get to get a feel about what they actually did, and even how long it took.

00:08:32  Gillian: Okay, well, another key point, I guess, would be price. 

00:08:34  Saul: Yeah, price is always important for everyone so value add price points to so value and price really being tied into each other.

00:08:44  Gillian: Not all websites are created equal. No, there certainly are,

00:08:47  Saul: Well, nothing's created equal, really. So and that's also very much the case for websites. There's a lot of providers out there, and it's very hard for people to discern, really what is good, and what isn't but about the perceived value that someone will get, of course, you don't know until you actually have something done for you, then you have that experience. But you can take a lot about the value that somebody would have received for the certain price that they would have actually paid from the reviews and testimonials that other people have left, you can gauge a lot by that, and so we're price is important, and a cheap side is important to you, then that's always going to drive your decision, but at the end of the day, everyone wants a good result for their business.

00:09:44  Gillian: It's all about performance metrics. 

00:09:46  Saul: Yeah. And great value. 

00:09:48  Gillian: Okay, well, yeah. So as we said, it's always a really good idea to check out reviews and customer testimony, customer testimonials, and take the time to have a really good look through those website company’s website. If they have a blog, check out some articles, and really go through all the pages and see what you think about it from their point of view. 

00:10:07 Saul: Yeah, exactly. Have a look at what they're doing, if they're doing websites for other people see what they're doing for themselves, because ultimately, they're a small business as well, to see how they're representing themselves on the top of content and a blog is a really good one to have a look through as well, and with that in mind. That's it for today, guys, thank you so much for listening. Before we go, please don't forget to rate review and subscribe to this podcast. We'd love to hear your feedback. Also, if you'd like to read the transcript of this episode, please visit our website at roundhouse.cc forward slash web-design. We're on a journey to help local Brisbane businesses grow their opportunities online and exceed their goals. Thanks for listening and we'll see you tomorrow.

00:10:57  Gillian: Bye, guys.