Website clinic: Get the website you want

A well-designed site will reap rewards, so it’s important to choose an agency that will work with you to design and build a site which works for your business.

By asking a few simple questions you can quickly create a shortlist of potential suppliers.

Identifying the Content Management System (CMS) is extremely important. Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal are open source and have a wealth of support and development behind them. Be mindful if you go with an agency’s bespoke CMS as you may find it difficult to take your website with you if you decide to change agencies.

If you need additional functionality such as login facility, e-commerce or in-built calculators, ask the agency if they can provide off-the-shelf plugins before going down the route of paying for development. This is where using a CMS such as Wordpress is beneficial as there are thousands of plugins available.