Questions To Ask A Potential Web Designer
When you are ready to have a website built for your business it can be an equally stressful and exciting time. It’s exciting because getting your business online opens your world up to a whole new audience. A website gives you a stage on which you can showcase your products or services and show potential clients that you are worthy of investment.
However the stress comes in when you’re going out of your comfort zone, trying to get the right web designer for some people can feel a little like finding a good mechanic. If it’s not your zone of genius, how do you even know what makes them good or not?
In this post we want to help you by giving you a few key questions that you can ask potential web designers and tips to help you understand their answers. Having the confidence to know what you’re looking for will enable you to find someone who will turn your vision into a digital reality at the right price.
1. What Industries Have You Worked With Before?
By asking this question, you are ascertaining two things; firstly their level of experience and secondly if they have worked for businesses similar to yours before. Experience is important, all the training and qualifications in the world won’t provide the same value as the real experience of making real websites for real businesses.
Understanding the industries they have worked with gives you a more detailed picture of this experience. Every industry is unique, with unique target audiences and development needs so if the designer has experience with other similar companies and you see can their past work then you will have a good idea of their ability take on yours.
2. How Will Your Website Help Me Reach My Goals?
The web designer should come back at this question by asking you specifically what your goals are. Without knowing what you want to achieve they cannot possibly design a website that is bespoke for your needs. They must have a deep understanding you, your business and your goals. The reaction you are looking for here is a real genuine interest in you, you also want to feel that they are really listening to your answers.
3. How Long Will It Take?
The answer you want here is specific. A set timeline with expected dates of delivery shows that the designer is organised and methodical in their work, not to mention reliable and experienced. Most web designers will tell you that job will take longer than expected when they are waiting on content to upload from the client, so keep in mind that when there are delays, they are not always the designers fault.
4. Will My Website Be SEO Integrated?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, if your site is optimised it means it will show up in search engines and your potential clients will be able to find you. As you can imagine this is essential for a website to be successful.
What’s important to remember though, is that your website alone will not be SEO friendly forever, it’s something that needs continuous work so that Google knows your site is active and consistently relevant to your audience.
SEO is a specialised service and your web designer might not offer this but if not they should sound clear and knowledgeable on the subject and have a plan for you to follow; either instructions for you to follow or someone that they can refer you to for this monthly service.
5. Will Revisions Be Included?
Revisions should be an accepted part of the process. For you to be happy with the final delivered website it’s important that you feel you have input throughout. If a web designer is too confident and thinks they can deliver perfection first time then they are probably less interested in customer satisfaction and more in their own ego.
On the other hand, if they say they accept unlimited revisions this suggests inexperience. Having a limit means that everyone involved is clear about what is expected. This clarity prevents costly misunderstandings.
6. Who Controls My Website After Its Complete?
When you want to update the information, add another product or service, add blog posts or update the tech, who will do these things? Perhaps you want control so you can update it as you need to. On the other hand, perhaps you don’t want to deal with anything technical at all and would prefer a web designer that provides this on-going service? There is no right or wrong answer here it is simply a question of finding a web designer that offers you what you want and everyone is clear about what will happen in these situations.
If you do decide to work with someone who will take these responsibilities on for you, make sure you know what the costs will be and how quickly they will make changes once you have put in a request.
7. How Much Will It Cost in Total?
The money you pay for a website will be an important part of your decision making process but try to avoid just going for the cheapest. There are many factors that will determined the cost you are quoted.
- Experience of designer
- How many pages you require
- What you want your website to do
- The type of website it is
- How many people will the process involve
They say you get what you pay for so if this is the case you need to consider what you are prepared to invest. If money is an issue you can always ask for payment plan options, it won’t always be available but if you don’t ask you will never know.
When you ask about price make sure you get total clarity, ask about additional or hidden costs that might be involved, to help you make the right decision you need to know exactly what the total costs will be, both for the website itself and then any on-going monthly/annual costs such as SEO, updates and hosting.
For a free transparent quote from a web designer who will listen to your goals and focuses on conversions contact Aspire Shire today.