You’ve been planning forever to get a website designer to work on your site. Your plans are clear and you have prepared your content. Whats Next? How do you choose the best web designer or web design company?
Step 1. Ask around. Ask friends or similar companies that have hired a web designer in the past. In addition to getting the web designers’ contact numbers, ask what it’s like to work with that person. Find out what happened during the design process and what they think of the submitted designs.
Step 2. Research the contact information. Use the Internet or your phone book to get the names and contact information of web design companies in your area. If you use the Internet, take a look at your previous work. Then contact each one and request a quote.
Step 3. Look through the portfolio of the web design company you are choosing. See if the layouts look professional, clean, and easy to use.
Step 4. Look at the experience of the web designer or web design company. How long has the person or company been in business? For how many companies have they designed?
Step 5. See if the designer or web design company is up to date with the latest trends in web marketing. Useful and profitable websites attract the right traffic with search engine optimization and usability and by employing web 2.0 strategies such as social media marketing. Effective websites take SEO and user-friendliness seriously. See if your web designer has at least a basic understanding of both. In order for his website to be successful, he must be able to implement a successful internet marketing campaign.
Step 6. Look at the response time proposed by the web designer or web design company. Does it match the schedule of your company’s plans?
Step 7. Examine the web designer’s or web design company’s terms of service and ownership of the website’s files. See if you agree to the conditions set by the designer to work with you. Also check out the rights to who owns the final output and what sizes. If this isn’t clear from the start, you may be surprised to find that the work you commissioned isn’t yours and you may have to pay more to get it.
Step 8. See what the web designer offers for post-design services. Will the designer help maintain your site or is the designer only expected to do the initial design?
Step 9. Talk to the designer. Is it easy to communicate with him/her? You should be able to easily communicate with your web designer. You should feel comfortable presenting problems that you want to solve. Your web designer should be respectful and fast. You both need to be able to compromise on what will work best for your viewers, not necessarily your personal taste.
Step 10. Look for previous satisfied customers. You can check the designer’s website or blog and see if there are any customer testimonials. Take into account what they have to say about the designer. You can also try calling them (you can ask for the web designer’s contact number) and ask for feedback on the design process and end result.