How to find BEST WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY?

Website is the first building block to the growth of any business. In today`s time, where you might find a website developer in every nook and corner, it is indeed a challenge to find an appropriate website developer or in other words “the Best Website Developer” for your business .There is a huge clutter in this space and everyone claims to be “the best” and the “expert” of this field.

We need to understand that a website can be as simple as a single profile page, simply stating company information or as huge a project like amazon etc.

Few things we should never forget while choosing a website designer for us are mentioned below:

1) What`s the Purpose of your Website?

Every website has a purpose of why it is developed. The purpose defines how it should be designed. So, do your home-work first and clearly state the reason of building your website. Now, this motive will elucidate what your expectations should be from your developer.  To put this simpler, let me take an example.  While designing a website for my SME, I need a basic website with all the information clearly stated. The purpose of such a website can be to generate leads or simply giving information to the clients. Conversely, think of an event management website. It is apparent that this website has to be a fancy, creative and a very attractive one. The layout, design, content, structure, navigation etc for both these websites will immensely vary. So, decide you website purpose before you choose your developer!

2) What is the complexity of your project?

A simpler project calls for very less communication between you and the developer. And this might not require researching too much about the development team and the code, etc. While, on the contrary, a complex project requires a lot of research regarding the capability of the developer, quality of code, similar past projects, technology worked upon and so on. So, you have to see, whether your project is more on a simpler side or it is a complex one.

3) Experience & Knowledge of the developer.

Excellence comes from experience. So, this is crucial while choosing the best website designer for you. The knowledge acquired varies with the no. of years served in the industry, the no. of projects delivered, the capability of the team, the qualification and the attitude of learn new things, technology being a fast-changing field. Initially, websites were mostly informative and its “design” was sufficient to make it a “good” or a “bad” one!

Today, the meaning has changed altogether. We talk of Bounce Rates, ease-of-navigation, Page views, “fold”, Call-to-action button, and rankings etc. A website has ideally no meaning without these.  Right from the logo design, to the color combination used, the structure of the website, the layout chosen, the breadcrumbs, the site map, all these things are targeted to make the experience of the user good so that he love to spend time on your site.  This UI and U-Ex are very important and comes from experience and knowledge. Hence, do not forget to check this with your website developer.

4) Past Work or portfolio.

This is just a way to ensure that the designer and the developer have the capability of developing dynamic designs. You can also ask the website designer to share a few demo designs that he thinks should be apt for your business need. This gives you a fairly good idea of what exactly his choice is and whether it matches to your ideology or no.

5) Are they providing you Guidance too?

Many of us do not know too much about websites and even those who think that they know should make sure that the website developer they choose should be willing to do frequent discussions. Developers are very rough and tough people. They have more of technical understanding and usually miss the business view many a times. As the development of your website progresses, you become clearer of your needs and that is the time you need maximum support from your developer. The developer should be patient enough to incorporate that newly thought features without being too complaining about it.  In addition, the willingness to share his knowledge and views on the project should be there rather than blindly following your instructions. This helps in building a better product, anyways!

6) Does the location of the "Best website developer" matters?

Well, in today`s Global world, honestly, the location of your website developer does not matter provided you are landed at the right developer. Rather, it is always a good idea to make a purchase decision where the cost of manufacturing is low. Eg: Developer cost/ hour is very high for people in Delhi and Mumbai region whereas in Kolkata it is relatively lower.  But certainly, the developer should be authentic and reliable. This can be cross checked by talking to few of the references or clients of your prospective developer.

9) Are they giving you a complete Package?

It is always a good idea to take the complete solution from one vendor. This enables you to focus into your area of competency rather than wasting your time and managing multiple vendors for various things. The minimum that a complete solution includes, building of the website, hosting, domain booking, official email/web mail booking, internet marketing support, and the right guidance through-out!

11) Are they willing to share the control panel and your website`s code?

Many developers are comfortable sharing the code and the control panel. While some are not. Please preferably do not opt for a developer who is not willing to share your code and the control panel. This gives the black-mailing power to the developer, in case he is not delivering a good service or product, he restricts you from moving to some other developer. So,friends, beware!

12) What about website Maintenance?

Often the mistakes that most people make is that they think that we will think of website maintenance later!  This is a blunder! Making a website is not sufficient. Simply making a website and floating it in the world wide web is like adding a drop in the ocean.

You need to have a distinguishing mark, something noticeable about your website that makes it interesting and unique, and uncommon than others. This also calls for following the W3C validation and other basic rules to design a website before rolling it out in the web universe.

Frequent and regular updates in the content, regular submission of the website in several webmaster tools, checking the website code against any malware, etc are all crucial for the success of any website. Apart from this the analysis of the page views, the bounce rate etc can reveal many information and help in taking strategic decisions.

I hope reading this will help you find your "Best website developer" for your project!

For any help, please contact : www.techonindia.com

Start ups – A Talk of every town now!

“Start up” has indeed become a very fancy term now a days. Youth, today, are more infatuated by Startups in contrast to the previous notion of opposite-sex charming girls or boys. Every second startup has a dream to be the next “Flipkart” or “Ola”. But the question Is, does this new era of business economy allows too many flipkart”s” or Ola”s”?

This startup generation is Good because this breeds a culture of entrepreneurship in the country. This helps in solving many real problems prevailing in the society. It is Bad because the biggest question remains – Is it Sustainable?

While this Startup discussion is never-ending, let us have an overview of the difference between the conventional “Uncle businesses” and the new born  ”Startup gen”

Profit Definition: While Uncle Businesses define Profit as P= SP – CP ; CP = cost price & SP = Selling Price. The more profitable a biz is the better it is considered. However, Start ups , don’t believe in Making Profits rather they focus on making high revenue.  They simply focus on increasing their users even if they sell on a loss.

Business Expansion: Conventional Businesses reinvests their profits again in their business to expand and thereby make even more profits, On the contrary, Start ups raise funding to acquire more users by bearing more losses and thereby plan to expand and increase their Valuation.

Business Vision: While traditional businesses believed in “directors may come , directors may go” but the companies exist forever (long term- consistent growth). The start up philosophy is absolutely crazy. They have a short term vision. They usually look for a span of 5-8 years in which they simply keep on increasing their valuation by increasing the user base and then eventually get acquired by another company. They don’t want to exist forever(short term- aggressive growth).

Revenue Definition: While Uncle businesses defines revenue as : Price per unit times no. of units sold. They focus on price as well as the no. of units sold while start ups majorly concentrate on no. of units sold even if they sell it at a price lower than the cost price (in loss). But since their prices are too low, their no. of units sold increases (by the simple law of Demand & Price). Hence, they end up making more revenue even if they made loss.

Asset: Uncle Businesses used to focus on building their own assets like machinery, brick and mortar shops, regional offices, etc . while today`s technical start ups are asset light. They don’t believe in wasting resources in building something that they can get from outside. Eg: Ola hires taxis but owns not a single car. Similarly, youtube has millions of videos but not created by it. These start ups are also known as aggregators.

Sustainability: While the uncle business are a very sustainable and logical way of doing business. Start ups, are more on aggressive side and their sustainability is still a question.

Logo is simply a piece of art - MYTH

When it comes to logo designing, many of us feel that it is merely a beautiful piece of art which looks attractive and gives an iconic identity to any business. This is not actually true. A logo represents much more than that.

When we talk of logo, each minute thing matters; The color chosen, the shape, the brightness, the font, the size and more. Had this not been true, companies like Airtel, Toyota, Google, etc. would not have spent millions to change their logos.

Logo represents the ideology of the company. Companies these days are more inclined towards choosing a younger and dynamic logo which is in complement to today`s time.

To quote a few incidents of logo change:

Airtel changed its logo to a more global, younger and aspirational one.  

The new logo of airtel is an open a kind of a figure with one side open and round in shape. This gives a more global image. The new logo retained its red color to maintain their ethnicity that has brought them to the current levels of success.

Talking about Google, the new logo seems to have Sans terif typeface as its font now changed from its previous logo font – Serif Wordmark font. The new logo seems to have more legibility, and is read well not just in a small-screen android phone but also in a large TV screen. The new logo of Google is Dynamic. With this changed logo, Google now wants to position itself not just as a Search Engine but also as a producer of a self-driving car, beaming internet through balloons, etc. This new logo of google is considered to be more dynamic, peppy and modern.

The three eclipses of the Toyota logo represents 3 hearts: one of the customer, other of the product and the third is the heart of progress in the field of technology.

Now answer this: Ever thought why we prefer expensive T- shirts with a Nike logo over an inexpensive local T- shirt? Logo of a brand, many-a-times, becomes its strongest marketing tool.

There are companies which are providing online aid of developing any logo of your choice . They provide wide range of designs – which are merely piece of art and have no relevance of the logo and the company vision. This is misguiding and brings a wrong beginning to a new start.

So, next time you are looking to get a logo designed for your company, be very careful, that you do not see it just as a piece of art ; try to look beyond!