Finding a good website design agency is a high-stakes business decision, and the choice is not always straightforward.
Selecting the ‘best website designer’ isn’t, therefore, solely a matter of choosing a company that has good reviews and can show you a portfolio of visually impressive websites – important as these factors are.
1) You will need a partner agency that is the best website agency for your business, with the skills and relevant experience to genuinely understand your industry, your business, and the requirements and pain points of your target buyers.
2) You’ll also want to work with a company with a similar communication style and way of working to your own, to facilitate an excellent rapport and synergy of vision when designing and building the new website.
3) Finally, budget is important. Building a new website can be expensive, so you’ll want a company that will listen to you and proactively suggest ways to incorporate all your core features and outcomes into your website within your budget – without sacrificing essential functions.
If you are are currently considering a new website design, then you are probably looking not just for a nicer website but for more leads, more sales & more revenue.
Designing a new website is not a strategy - and a better looking website alone won't attract lots of new customers to your business. It should be part of an overall marketing strategy, and part of your marketing system.
We haven't included ourselves in the list below, but if results (ie leads, sales & new customers) are important to you, and if you want your website to be part of an overall strategy, then check out our web design services page.
We build websites as part of a marketing strategy that factors in search engine optimisation, conversion rate optimisation and your CRM system. This includes E-commerce Websites, HubSpot CMS websites, and custom development including integrations.
You can learn more about our proven sales & marketing system and how it can help your business here.
In this article, we attempt to give a brief overview of the top website design companies in the UK. There are thousands so we’ve only been able to scratch the surface here. All companies listed are well-regarded professional agencies that are very good at creating websites – but some will be a better fit for your business than others.
We’ve divided the list into four broad categories based on the agency’s main market. The first category isn’t really a type of agency at all, but a self-serve website-building application available on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis.
Also, most of the companies listed primarily or exclusively provide web design and development services (unless mentioned otherwise).
These vendors offer an SaaS-style website building product and hosting service that includes all the tools you need to design and publish a business website. Each service is subscription-based and typically has a low-cost entry level.
This doesn’t, however, mean that building a website through an SaaS service is a more ‘basic’ option than using a website design company – the website architecture used by these vendors is often more secure and better optimised for search visibility than websites built using an open source platform (e.g. WordPress, Joomla, Magento). Furthermore, many marketing agencies recommend using an SaaS website design and hosting service as the best way of integrating your business website fully into your digital marketing and sales strategy.
These mostly London-based companies specialise in bespoke web design for high-end websites, with some also offering branding and creative services. Stylish, modern websites with a high price tag.
If you are looking for an e-commerce website, we recommend selecting an agency with direct experience building secure, accessible sites for your type of product and target customer. These agencies all specialise in high-level bespoke e-commerce websites for national retail and B2C consumer brands. A website from one of these companies will help your brand make a big impact in a competitive marketplace, but smaller and mid-sized independent retailers, and B2B e-commerce companies, may get better value by using Shopify, alongside a personalised digital marketing and sales strategy.
These agencies cater specifically to the UK SME market, providing cost-effective websites for companies working on a low to mid-budget.
We recommend looking at as many agency websites as you can, paying special attention to companies with direct experience in your sector, and then analysing business websites created by these agencies.
From this research, create a shortlist of agencies whose work you are impressed with, and make contact with them to find out more about prices, capacity, their web design process etc.
In our experience, the way to get the best value from your business website is to integrate lead generation and digital marketing into the structure and design of the site from the outset. This makes it easier to achieve a higher search positions and capture leads through your website while letting your website work in synergy with your social media platforms, email marketing, and other lead-generation channels.
To find out more about JDR Group's results-driven web design and marketing services, call JDR Group today on 01332 343281, or book a meeting with us to discuss your needs.
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