Hiring a Web Designer - Some points to remember
If you are a business owner looking to expand your company
onto the internet, you will probably require the services
of a web designer.
But, as a layman, how can you tell apart the good, the bad and the downright
ugly?
Below you will find a list of points which are worth asking when interviewing
prospective designers.
- Does the web designer create custom web sites?
Custom design holds a number of major advantages compared
to template based design, not least from an aesthetic
point of view.
Furthermore, by and large designers who work solely
from preset templates do not have as deep a knowledge
of the internet as those working from scratch.
- How flexible will the design be?
After all, if your company grows, your web
site should be able to grow alongside it.
Additionally, the site’s design should reflect
your industry or market sector.
The designer should present you with a draft copy for
final approval and be willing to change this before
the final site is constructed.
- Does the designer adhere to World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) standards?
W3C compliance is an essential part of successful
online business.
Also, if the web designer does not adhere to W3C standards,
be sure to ask why this is, since non-compliant sites
will not perform as well as their compliant counterparts
on the whole.
- Can you get a service guarantee?
Service guarantees must be in place in case
the final result does not conform to your original specifications
or the site turns out to be a complete monster.
The vast majority of experienced and ethical operators
will have no problem with providing service guarantees.
- Does the web designer also handle web promotion?
Although not strictly speaking an essential,
it is nevertheless a big plus if the designer is familiar
with the promotional aspect of online business.
In case web promotion is not part of the designer’s
services, they should still carry out basic promotional
tasks such as Meta Tag structuring and keyword distribution.
- Will you be charged by the hour?
This point is often ignored by clients hiring a
web designer; usually to their own detriment.
Most reputable web designers will charge a flat fee
for the design aspect of your web site.
In many cases the service guarantee will make provisions
for excessive specification changes or redesign requests
by the client.
- Does the designer arrange domain name registration
and hosting?
If this is not the case you will have to go through
the process of domain name registration and obtaining
a hosting account for your site.
If you are not familiar with the concepts of domain
names and web hosting you should inform yourself before
contacting a web designer.
There is also one last question you should ask yourself.
Do I have enough information about my product or service
to create a web site?
Without sufficient content, there is very little point
in starting an online business.
When hiring a web designer it pays to ask the right
questions
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