Whether your company is setting up a website for the first time or it is undergoing some reworking, the decision to outsource to a web design company or use an in-house developer is an important one. In some situations your hand will be forced, particularly if your company deals primarily with real world interactions and seldom with Internet-based ones. There are still some major considerations for opting to employ one method or the other.
In-House Development
If you are constantly consulting with your web developer, in-house work will facilitate communication and communication will often be more effective as you can be sure of your developer’s schedule and availability. Also, because you control what assignments your employees are working on, you may be able to get your work done faster opposed to a third-party developer who may be balancing several clients’ work at once. For ongoing maintenance of the site, it will be handy to have developers on-site so you can easily coordinate with them. For heavy, drawn-out maintenance, it could also be more cost-effective to have someone on staff handling it.
Outsourced Development
For businesses that do not deal with Internet-based systems often, they usually will not have someone already on staff, and are at a disadvantage when hiring a developer for their team because they may not necessarily know what qualities to look for in job candidates. For major, one-time projects, it may well be more efficient to outsource, even if you still have a web developer on staff. This would allow the site to go up in a timely way while still being able to keep up with normal online operations. Website development company staff is generally highly specialized in this area because of the competition they naturally face in the market, so they are likely to create a more advanced and better functioning site than an in-house team. They also generally have a better understanding of what is happening in the industry of Internet marketing, so the focus on SEO will fall more in line with best practices and take into account the latest changes in search engine algorithms. This way a site will stand the best chance of ranking more highly on the result pages.
There are good reasons for going with either option. However, the decision should largely be shaped by your needs and current resources, so be sure to analyze both before committing to either method.