Agencies & the Business of Web
How websites get bought and sold: scopes, retainers, briefs, handoffs and awards.
Awwwards
Awwwards is an international web design award platform where juries score sites on design, usability, creativity and content, awarding Site of the Day, Month and Year.
Brand identity
Brand identity is the visible expression of a brand, including logo, colours, type, imagery and voice, applied consistently across the website and everything else.
Case study
A case study tells the story of one project, covering the problem, the approach and the outcome, as evidence that the work gets results.
Discovery phase
The discovery phase is the opening stage of a web project where goals, audience, content, competitors and requirements are researched and agreed before design starts.
Fixed-price project
A fixed-price project charges one agreed amount for a defined scope, so the client knows the total cost up front.
Freelance web designer
A freelance web designer or developer is an independent professional hired per project or per hour to design or build a website.
Handoff
Handoff is transferring a finished design or website to the people who will build or run it, with files, specs, logins and documentation.
Hourly rate
An hourly rate bills web work by the time spent; it suits open-ended work but makes the total cost uncertain.
MVP
An MVP is the smallest version of a product that delivers real value and lets you learn from real users before investing in more.
Pixel perfect
Pixel perfect describes a build that matches its approved design exactly, down to spacing, alignment and type.
Portfolio
A portfolio is a collection of past work that shows what a designer, developer or agency can do; for websites, live links beat screenshots.
Productised service
A productised service sells a defined outcome, like a specific kind of website, at a fixed price with a fixed process, instead of custom quotes and hourly billing.
Project brief
A project brief is a short document describing what a website must achieve, who it is for, what it must include and what success looks like.
Retainer
A retainer is a recurring monthly fee that reserves a set amount of an agency's or freelancer's time for ongoing updates, improvements and support.
Revisions
Revisions are rounds of changes a client can request on designs or builds, usually a fixed number included in the price.
RFP
An RFP is a formal document a business sends to several agencies describing a project and asking each to propose an approach, timeline and price.
Scope creep
Scope creep is the gradual growth of a project beyond what was agreed, through one more page or one more feature, without adjusting budget or timeline.
Scope of work
A scope of work defines exactly what a web project includes (pages, features, rounds of revisions, deliverables), and by implication what it does not.
Web design agency
A web design agency is a company with designers, developers and strategists who plan, design and build websites for clients, usually on a quote-based project fee.
Website launch
A website launch is the moment a new site replaces the old one or goes public, checked against a list: redirects, analytics, forms, speed, sitemap and search console.
Website maintenance plan
A website maintenance plan is an ongoing service covering updates, backups, security monitoring, uptime checks and small changes for a monthly fee.
White label
White label means one company builds a product or website that another company sells under its own brand, with the builder invisible to the end client.