Want a WordPress website quote? The 8 Key Questions to ask
Here are 8 key questions you want to ask yourself before looking for a WordPress website quote (plus our tips with how to answer them!).
Q. What functionality does your website require?
90% of the websites we produce for clients are on the WordPress platform. Such websites may have (but not always) fairly limited functionality – they exist to be highly polished touchpoints encouraging online visitors to make contact with your business – turning anonymous website visitors into lucrative leads.
If your project needs more advanced functionality such as an events calendar, e-commerce so people can buy online, a private members area, or even something more bespoke (which may not suit WordPress) etc, then please describe how you would ideally like that functionality to work.
Q. Are you able to compromise on functionality?
WordPress is a fantastic website platform. You can download additional, pre-packaged functionality in the form of “plugins”. Such plugins can help with extra functionality such as we’ve already mentioned (event calendars, e-commerce etc).
However, this off-the-shelf functionality comes at a price – you have to be able to adapt your requirements to fit how such plugins can be configured out of the box.
If you are not prepared to adapt, then using pre-packaged functionality is not for you, and what you actually need is to invest significantly in a bespoke development project.
Q. Are you able to compromise on design?
Pre-packaged website designs are also available (called ‘themes‘). This is very helpful as it can reduce the overall cost of the project – especially if you are on a budget.
However, if you chose this pre-packaged route, then (like with plugins) you have to be prepared to comprise with how such a pre-packaged design works and what it is able to do. For example, many such pre-packaged designs have certain rules for layout out web content; as long as you follow those rules, then you are fine.
If you are not prepared to compromise, then you need a bespoke design (95% of our projects are bespoke designs).
Q. What sort of hosting or support will you need?
If you need ongoing support after your website is live, please consider the type of support you will need e.g.
- if you raise a support issue, how quickly do you expect the team to respond?
- How quickly do you expect the team to work on your issue?
- Do you expect your issues to be addressed on evenings / weekends / bank holiday (think emergency issues!).
Think carefully about what you need to support your website and how important your website is to your business.
Don’t economize with basic support if you suddenly need extra emergency support which is not covered – the time to get house insurance is before your home catches fire!
Q. Who is creating the website content?
Who is writing your website content? Who is taking the photos? And the videos?
The actual content is the heart and soul of your website, and it needs to be treated with the respect it deserves. Perhaps you are a fantastic copywriter, photographer, videographer etc and, in which case, producing world-class content will not be an issue for you.
However, if these are not your skills, then you need to consider who will be providing such services – don’t assume it will be the web design company.
Q. Who will populate your website content?
Some clients come to us who are already highly skilled in WordPress so much that, when provided with a basic design system, such clients are happy to enter all the content for all the pages.
However, if you require us to enter all the content for all the pages, then we will need to know that, as that will need to be costed.
Q. How quickly do you need this?
Is there a deadline for your project? What is the reason for that deadline?
Be careful about giving arbitrary deadlines – most projects need a little wriggle room in case new ideas come out during the early phases; by being overly constrained by a deadline, this can actually harm the project.
Being clear on any fixed deadline (e.g. “we’re relaunching our new brand on the 1st of Sept, the website needs to be in place on that day!”) from the outset, is very helpful to focus everyone’s minds.
Q. Do you have a budget?
Agencies like mine need to know you have a budget. The process of responding to a proposal is very time-consuming. Yes, we want to help you, but we need to make sure we are at least in the same ballpark when it comes to budget.
Our website projects are typically in the £15-50K budget range; so we need you to be aware of that if we are going to have serious conversations about working together. Yes, this is just the average price band; things can be cheaper if we use shrink-wrapped components (remember we mentioned ‘themes‘ earlier?) and they can certainly become a lot more expensive than the average if you start to consider bespoke functionality and apps etc.
Final Thoughts
Whilst it’s important to go to a website design company with a fully thought out brief, you are not expected to know all the answers – after all, this is a specialist service – you are looking to the experts for advice and guidance as to what is possible.
However, knowing broad answers to the above will at least give companies like Glass Mountains a much clearer starting point to explore the options that are available & affordable to you.
If you need help with writing a brief or with a half-day discovery session workshop, please get in touch.