These days, it seems anyone can advertise that they are a website designer. How do you know who's really got what it takes to design your perfect, professional space on the web? How can you weed out the amateurs from the pros?
There are several important things to look for in a website designer. Spend time to research these points with each of your candidates. It will save you time and money down the road.
An important factor in choosing a website designer is the level of comfort you feel with her/him. When communicating, you should feel more at ease, not more tense or confused. Your ideal designer will make time for all your questions, answering them promptly, thoroughly and patiently. They will listen to your needs and offer solutions as part of your team.
They should be willing to take direction from your ideas, and offer their expertise to encourage the best way to make your ideas into reality. If a designer gets defensive, demanding or insistent about their work, they may not be open to working with your ideas for your special website.
Your ideal website designer should have excellent knowledge of HTML/CSS and coding websites by hand. If the designer relies solely on a WYSIWYG program to click-and-paste your website together, they are clearly unaware of the extensive problems this can cause. There's nothing wrong with using supportive programs to create your website, but if a designer doesn't know how to correct flaws in auto-generated code, or doesn't even know what that means, then they won't be able to create the professional website you want and deserve.
Technical know-how is absolutely essential, but alone doesn't make a good website designer. Creative talent and a good sense of color use, balance and layout is what will invite customers in and encourage them to stay. Does the designer have artistic and creative flair? Check their portfolio for unique websites that appeal to your sense of style.
The designer should know at least the basics of how internet, email, servers, operating systems, scripts, databases, and other "back end" stuff works.
Search engine optimization is probably the most important factor in planning a website, yet for some reason many designers overlook it, and some don't even know how to properly implement it. Your designer should have knowledge of how to build a fully optimized website from the ground up. Think about it:
If a designer tells you that adding keywords to your meta tags after your website is done is all you need to do to get listed higher in search engines, you will know right away that they aren't knowledgable on how to optimize a website for search engines.
Your designer should have business knowledge in order to create your business website. You wouldn't leave your company's accounting to someone who had never done math before, would you? It's common sense that someone who is familiar with running a business will have valuable contributions in business perspectives to add to the development of your website.
Your designer should have at least a basic sense of marketing so your website can be promoted effectively once it's created. A common error is having a great website, then just sitting there waiting for it to start bringing in visitors. It doesn't work that way. Your designer should know how it does work, and should be able to make suggestions so that your website works with your existing marketing campaign.
The best measure of whether a designer is perfect for your project is to check their own website!
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Finding the perfect website designer for you is like shopping for a car. It's not a good idea to jump in until you've "test driven" a few models and found the one you're taken with. Take your time and do the research. Your efforts will pay off.
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