Find the right web agency

You hear and read it again and again: web projects are financially and time-consuming and there is a lot at stake. Often clients are not satisfied with the result of their web project. This for various reasons such as

• loveless and imprecise implementation with many compromises
• lack of empathy and flexibility of the web agency
• Lack of skills and inexperienced developers
• wrong choice of technology
• tedious and complicated operation of the CMS
• bad performance
• weak ranking on search engines
• non-scalable and expandable system
• Implementation costs outside the budget or failure to meet the agreed deadline

The consequences of this can be devastating: financial loss, damage to the company's image, or possibly even the loss of one's own job. However, it doesn't have to come to that if you proceed correctly when evaluating a technical partner.

What is decisive is not only the successful completion of the project within the budget and timeframe, but also the path to the goal. Cooperation should be smooth, uncomplicated and based on partnership. All parties involved identify with the project and cooperate proactively. The web agency does not simply execute, but takes responsibility and provides the necessary orientation to find the best possible solution. The technical partner works in a solution-oriented manner and is able to make individual and sophisticated solutions possible.

The right technical partner must have several prerequisites, some of which are less obvious.

Technical competence and experience

Strong technical partners have a high level of expertise and experience. References are certainly a good indication of this. However, it is also important to check the necessary competencies in a personal meeting and, if necessary, to have an external consultant with technical know-how at your side. The following questions should be clarified:

• Can the concept and design be implemented as specified? An indicator of a lack of know-how could be that questions are only answered vaguely here or the sentence "That's not technically possible" is repeated several times.
• Will the website be implemented by experienced developers or will junior developers be used?
• Does the web agency use state-of-the-art technologies?
• Does the technology choice lead to limitations in technical implementation and search engine optimization?
• How performant are the projects implemented in the past? This can be easily checked using a Google Lighthouse test.
• Does the web agency show the necessary will and willingness to take responsibility and strive for an optimal solution? If it is mentioned here again and again that you need hair-trigger specifications, this is another alarm sign.

Customized, flexible and scalable websites

Ideally, the web agency's solutions are websites tailored to the customer, which can be easily expanded with additional features at any time. The choice of the right content management system also plays a decisive role. There are various CMS that meet these requirements. Good systems are characterized by the following points:

• slim interface with simple operation
• Modular content building blocks that can be reused
• Full control over markup for uncompromised implementation
• simple user and rights management
• High performance
• Scalability from simple microsites, MVPs to complex platforms

A CMS that meets all these requirements is, for example, the open source CMS Umbraco. It can be configured quickly, easily and exactly to the needs of the customer.

Ambitious and design-savvy developers for a detailed implementation

Is the technical partner able to implement the website according to design and concept? For more complex projects, this requires frontend and backend developers with the necessary experience to implement sophisticated designs as a website without compromise.

The developers should have a flair for UX and design and deliver a result that makes an outstanding user experience possible. It's the small details that make the difference. When used correctly, transitions and effects significantly enhance the experience. To get a feel for this, you can look at already implemented projects of the potential partner in detail and click through the different pages.

A good user experience naturally also includes short loading times. That's why developers must have the necessary awareness and know-how for performant websites.

Match on a personal level

This point is probably the most important of all. In the end, cooperation on a project usually lasts several months and ideally even years - just in case of a match on a professional and human level. If you don't understand each other on a human level, a project will never generate enthusiasm and the collaboration will be unsatisfactory for everyone involved. Since you only have a limited amount of time during the evaluation, first impressions and gut feelings certainly play a big role. Here, a personal get-to-know-you meeting with the shortlist partners as opposed to a classic, anonymous pitch can help in the first step. The following questions and clarifications can be helpful in getting to know each other:

• Is there a general interest in a long-term cooperation that goes beyond the project?
• Is it possible to communicate directly with the development team or does everything go through a project manager? Direct contact with the developers or a technical consultant massively reduces the internal and external coordination effort.
• Are all expenses up to project completion included in a binding offer at a fixed price? A transparent pricing policy minimizes the risk of unpleasant surprises. Ideally, consulting and support should not generate any additional costs until the end of the project.
• How accommodating is the technical partner in the event of minor changes during implementation? In every web project, adjustments and deviations from the concept and design occur during implementation. Price discussions for every small adjustment are nerve-wracking.
• Does the web agency guarantee all the features included in the quote, even if it ultimately has to spend more time than originally calculated?
• Are the people who will effectively implement the project present at the meeting? If not, the impression may be distorted.
• How is communication done during the project and beyond, and what collaboration tools are used?

Further development and growth

A web project is far from complete when it goes live. Rather, going live is only the first big step towards sustainable success. In principle, the implementation of a website is always aimed at growth and the achievement of corporate goals. Often, it is only after going live that it is measured how the website performs with regard to the defined goals. What is needed here is a strong technical partner who knows how to evaluate the collected data and draw the right conclusions from it. The web agency should be able to recognize optimization potential and derive the right measures from it.

Using agile methods, it is possible to start measuring the achievement of objectives and the associated KPIs even before the launch. In addition, the website can be implemented and continuously optimized in several steps using agile methods. However, this requires a corresponding mindset on the part of the agencies and the customer.

When it sparks

If the right technical partner is chosen, this results in a strong team and leads to optimal results that make everyone involved satisfied and proud. If at the end of the day everything works smoothly, this in turn leads to great relief for all the people involved on the client side and can extremely strengthen the position in one's own company. In the long run, this leads to cooperative partnerships between agencies and clients, which again and again lead to inspiring results.