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Written by Finn Ruijter, 09 October 2020

WordPress agency selection process: here’s what to look out for

For institutions and large companies, WordPress has become a logical choice. This CMS makes it easy, as a team, to keep the site up to date. WordPress sites also score well in the search engines. In addition, a variety of extensions and links are possible.

We previously wrote about the expectations you should have of a new WordPress site. With the blog post you’re reading now, we want to help you choose the right WordPress agency. By paying attention to the following six points, you will build a solid foundation for online success.

The WordPress agency has been around for a long time

The Internet in constantly changing. That presents opportunities for new WordPress agencies, but prefer to trust an agency that has been around for a while. Because the longer such an agency exists, the more changes and techniques the professionals have experienced. Thanks to their creativity and adaptability, they still exist. That also increases the chance that they will still be there in say two years, when you need support for that new WordPress site. 

Communication is smooth

Online success requires teamwork. The lubricant of good collaboration is communication. Transparency and directness help you stay to-the-point and not waste each other’s time. The speed of communication is critical.

Therefore, a WordPress agency that takes many days to respond to your initial rapprochement is a bad omen. In contrast, an agency that answers the same day, even if it is only to schedule a telephone appointment, comes across as much more serious.

The agency listens to your ideas

So you’re going to choose an experienced WordPress agency. But be careful that that experience doesn’t get in the way of a listening ear. Because all too many agencies think they have the wisdom. Even though you know your organization much better. You know what your needs are, know the market trends and have developed an intuition for what works and what doesn’t. 

The ideal WordPress agency listens to your ideas and puts ideas of their own on the table. Together you will come up with a strategy and a matching design. And when things are uncertain, the agency is going to test to see if an assumption is correct. 

Web designers are sometimes quite stubborn

So listening is important, but you don’t want a yes-man who just likes everything. That does not show passion. No, a good WordPress agency got this far by reading a lot, taking courses, doing plenty of programming, designing, testing and tweaking. A successful website is the result of a powerful collaboration, in which both parties 

The WordPress agency is easily accessible

Granted: not every organization has the luxury of a top-notch WordPress agency in the region (unless you’re near Tilburg ). But in these challenging times, remote collaboration should not be a problem. A Skype call or Google Meet call can answer most questions without the need to get in the car or on public transportation.

Either way, in a long-term collaboration, it is nice to see each other face-to-face a few times. It helps then if the agency and your organization are within a short travel distance of each other. Also when it comes to any travel expenses such an agency may charge.

Customers praise

Client reviews can tell you a lot about how such an agency works. The more reviews you find, the more reliable they will be. Read through them at your leisure to discover what aspects of the process impressed customers. Laudatory reviews are a good sign, but you can always ask the WordPress agency to speak to one or more of their clients themselves.