Choosing the Right WordPress Agency

If you wish to have a new website created or you want your current site to benefit from a makeover you’re likely thinking “How do I go about choosing the right WordPress agency?”

This is a good question to ask because the agency you choose is going to be responsible for the design and development of your site, and your site is what provides the initial impression of your company to a customer.

So how do you go about selecting which WordPress agency is right for your needs? Below, we share 4 tips to help you in choosing the right WordPress agency.

4 Tips for Choosing the Right WordPress Agency

1. List the goals and needs of your website

Prior to searching for a WordPress agency, you must understand what it is your website needs to do as well as the features your site should have so that it will achieve your goals.

Here are some examples of what your website might do:

• Sync with your current customer relationship management (CRM), such as HubSpot, Salesforce, or any other CRM software.
• Generate business leads.
• Link seamlessly with your email marketing platform.
• Integrate seamlessly with the tool you use for marketing automation.
• Permit users to fill out any forms you wish to include on your site.
• Collect payments, including recurring payments.

Features that may be required by your website so you can achieve the above:

• Ecommerce functionality.
• Easy navigation, content that is search-engine optimised, and pages that are conversion optimised.
• Secure online forms.

Besides this, you may wish to think about the timeline for the work and your budget.

2. Review local and nationwide WordPress agencies

Your list is at the ready so it’s now time to begin the search for a WordPress agency.

Even if the final choice comes down to an agency that’s geographically close to where you are it’s still worth getting a feel for what’s available farther afield. This way you can better compare portfolios, experience, agency culture, and what kind of services are offered.

3. Review agency culture, experience, and portfolios

Arguably, there are three particularly important things you should look for in a really good WordPress agency: agency culture, experience, and portfolio.

Alone, these three can provide you with enough insight into how the work will be managed, if the finished product will be up to your expectations, and if the agency will be a good fit for you.

Agency Culture

The culture of the agency will let you know about the agency’s personality and style of work. The ideal agency will be one that matches the personality of your company so that collaboration is easy and you can successfully work together throughout the project.

You can assess an agency’s culture by:

• Having a look at their social pages.
• Checking out their team pages. Is their team’s expertise and talent showcased?
• Finding out about their community involvement or if they have any community involvement.

If you meet up with any potential WordPress design agencies you’ll soon get a sense of their culture, too. Are you made to feel welcome? Are they interested in listening to your ideas? Do they seem to be excited with regard to your project?

Because you’ll be spending a lot of time working with your chosen agency, do not underestimate the importance of the agency’s culture.

Experience

There are two things here:

Is the WordPress agency a startup or are they experienced? How long have they been in business?

How about experience in developing websites in your industry? Are there any websites that they have designed that you particularly like? What about sites they’ve made that have the same type of features that your own site will need?

Your WordPress agency of choice should offer support once your site is up and running. They should provide ongoing marketing services so that you can continually grow your business with your website’s input. And, of course, their team should be knowledgeable and consist of experts so that your site is sure to meet your requirements and goals.

Portfolio

The portfolio of a WordPress agency is one of the best ways to asses the agency team’s capabilities and skills. But it’s not only about being pretty. A website that looks pretty but isn’t user-friendly is never going to perform well against a website that is perhaps not quite as pretty but is very easy to navigate around.

The portfolio will provide insight into the level of agency creativity, their industry experience, the ability at complex coding tasks, and much more.

And if the agency does not have any or much experience in your industry, ultimately, it’s more about really liking the work they do rather than industry-specific experience.

4. Check out online reviews and testimonials

Be sure to read through online reviews and testimonials of any WordPress agency you feel would be a good fit. These afford insight into how happy prior clients have been with the work etc.

Have a look for reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. If you can only find reviews on the agency’s website, try to do a bit more digging since these reviews will likely be hand-picked.