There are plenty of web designers available. One always want to go with the best website, you want to choose a designer that takes your business seriously.
What questions do you ask?
There are several important questions to ask when choosing a website designer.Choosing the best web design firm for your business website is a very important decision Creating your website can be a tricky process.
And if your company is like most small businesses, you probably do not have a website design experience. Building your website will take work and time and working with a web designer is no easy task. You have to choose the right web design company from the start and avoid do-over’s, which can be costly and time consuming.
For starters,you need to find out what kind of design experience your potential design firm has. Do they have experience with content management systems, do they have experience working with “raw” HTML, has the web design company created web sites similar to yours, do they have relevant industry experience. If you want to sell products through your website and accept credit card payments, does the web design company you are considering have experience with ecommerce hosting?
An experienced web design company will have a solid portfolio of websites that they have created for other clients, also ask for links to other site design company has created and review each one.
In reviewing websites, ask for customer references. Contact their clients and ask them about their experience with the website design company. Ask them if they were happy with the results,if they got what they paid for, how much they paid, would they recommend them, how long they took, what they liked about the company and how responsive the company was when they had questions.
The important step in pricing a website is to make sure the potential design company outline all of the prices associated with the work, never enter into a deal unless all of the costs are well understood up front, ensure the designer puts it all the pricing in writing, Ask the web designer a bit about how they manage payments. If they respond in a very business-like and professional manner, this is a good sign but if they throw out answers like – “Don’t worry, we’ll manage”, don’t be fooled. Get the price in writing before you begin the website project.
A good designer will know that design and search engine optimization go hand-in-hand. Most small business owners do not have it in their budget to hire a separate marketing firm to work on SEO, so it is important that your web designer have experience in SEO.Designing a website for the search engines with clean code that utilizes cascading style sheets is essential to getting your content indexed in the leading search engines, such as Google.
Many marketing firms know the first thing about social media marketing, they are stuck in the past and are not as effective as they are supposed to. Be sure that you work with a designer that knows how to design a customized Twitter profile and they know how to setup a Facebook page for your business. This is important because you will want your social media properties to network with the design of your website. The web site and social media pages should complement one-another.
Make sure you ask your potential web design company about the process that they use,do they build a website or do they design a website. An experienced Internet professional should understand the difference between designing and building a website. Designing a website is a highly creative process, while building a website is a highly technical process. Many advertising firms specialize in website design which does not necessarily require any web development. At the same time, many firms design websites, yet out-source the creative portion of the project. Find out from the beginning what the process they designer is going to use and that it’s the one you are considering.
Perfectionism can be a huge block in the world of the Internet. Some designers are unable to compromise between time to market needs and quality of the website.Test and see how long it takes until you receive a proposal.
If your design firm does not offer web site maintenance, you might want to continue looking for firms that offer this kind of service. Most known design firms will offer post-launch maintenance for companies that do not have an in-house webmaster.
If your design firm should know the first-names of the contact at their favorite web design firm. Most reputable web designers know not to choose a web host simply because they are the most popular or because they offer the cheapest web hosting. A reputable web design firm should know who to call and how to get results.Does the web designer work with a green hosting company. Environmentally-friendly web hosting is becoming more and more popular for business websites.
Finding a good web designer is getting harder and harder.Good designers are creative people that need to think out of the box. Big agencies and large projects are snatching the good designers. They are overloaded with work and often, you won’t know about them because they don’t have time (or need) to market themselves.Asking the right questions is important to decide if they are right for the job.