Top Questions To Ask Before You Hire A Web Designer

Creating a website requires a lot of things. You’ll need a bunch of effort, coupled with a decent budget, time, and most of all, the person who can make it all happen. We call them web designers and developers. They are highly qualified digital professionals who understands customer experience in developing websites that your viewers will find worth visiting.

Searching for one is easy, but hiring the most qualified one for your website can become a bit complicated that it normally would be.

The reason for that is simple – not every web designing method applies to every website out there. In fact, web designing is becoming more of a personalized service that requires constant interaction between the website owner and the web developer. To know which web designer to hire or will best suit your preferences, you need to ask them these questions.

Top Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Web Designer

Here are some questions to ask before you hire a web designer.

1. Do you have a list/record of your previous clients?

A good web designer should have a couple of projects done already. It’s the only thing that separates a newbie from a veteran – and of course, you’ll have to go for the latter. Try visiting their websites and look for the testimonial page or look for case studies if there are any.

If you’re not convinced, you can give their previous clients a call and ask them about the changes that happened when their sites have been modified by them – like increase in traffic and such.

2. How much will the whole project cost?

The cost of the project is an important factor when hiring a professional web designer. Aside from making sure you can afford their services, it will also give you an idea what kind of website will result with that kind of pay. If they said they would develop your whole website for a price that’s downright cheap, it’s possible that the resulting website won’t be as good as you want it to be.

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Most web designers would give a price quote right after you tell them what you need for your website. After giving the said price estimate, ask them what kind of services will be included in it. Familiarize yourself with the various web design processes so that you can determine if the services offered would be enough for the complete development of your website.

Ask them how you’re going to pay them as well. Will it be on an hourly rate or a flat rate? It’s important as you might want some future alterations on your site in the coming future.

3. Who can I talk to if I need something?

Try to determine if the person on the other side of the phone is the designer himself or his project manager. Also try to keep contact with the key people if you’re negotiating with a web design company. Remember that constant communication is important so that you’ll always be kept updated when things happen.

4. Will I be able to talk to the designer directly?

This question won’t be a problem if your designer’s a one man team. However, if it’s a company you’re teaming up with, make sure to ask them if you can talk with the guy doing the designs directly. Changes that would normally just take hours (or even minutes) to complete may take weeks if it doesn’t go directly to the guy who makes the changes himself.

5. How will you plan out the structure of my website?

Before they even get to work, creating a website requires careful planning and researching. Once that’s done, your designer should also be able to give you a layout of the whole webpage to you.

Make sure you know what goes to this place and what doesn’t go to the other. By having a website wireframe, or a blueprint of your site, you can already have an idea as to what it will look like when it’s done.

6. Will my website be SEO ready?

The visual designs of a site can only do so much. Very few would be able to appreciate it if it doesn’t show on Google’s search pages. Your web designer should be knowledgeable with various SEO practices as it also coincides with how they will build the site.

A common SEO fact is that Google’s webcrawlers love content more than code, so it should be apparent that they lessen the codes on the webpage and put in content as much as possible.

Promoting your site and exposing it to everyone in the webspace should also be one of the main objectives of your designers as they build it.

And put into account that you’re building the site for your clients and viewers – make sure that it’s built to be user friendly and easy to navigate. A site that’s way too technical can intimidate your potential customers and you’ll end up losing them.

7. Will it be accessible and compatible with various mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets? Do you know how to do Responsive web design?

With people using their mobile phones and other gadgets to connect to the internet, making sure your website is easily accessible through these devices has gotten more important than ever.

Ask your web designer if they can do responsive web design on your site or if they can do something of the like. Making your site available on both desktop and mobile devices can be costly but, depending on your target audience, it can be a potentially productive move.

8. How long will the project last?

When everything’s been laid out in the front, ask your designer how long will it take to build the site and launch it. During the creation process, make sure that you aren’t kept in the dark and that you are constantly reminded by the changes that are made.

9. Who will own the website and the designs in it when it’s done?

This is a question that you’ll need to clarify with your designer. Legally speaking, they own the rights in their own designs. However, you need to tell them in advance that your site and everything in it (domain name, hosting account, designs, etc.) should all be under your name. Problems could arise in the future, like being sued by copyright infringes or being unable to switch ownership of the site because the web design company closed down.

10. Can I call you in case something happens and I want something changed?

Websites are in constant evolution. An applicable feature right now may not be optimal in the future. With that in regard, it’s important to know if changes and additional functions can be done on your site when the time calls for it.

Ask your designer if you can do this task yourself or if you’ll need their help in doing so. They can give you ideas or even a list of tools that you can add on your site.

Finally Hiring a Web Designer ?

Creating a website is an enormous task. It’s not something that can be easily done by one person. So, if you have enough budget, you should pick a web design company to develop your website instead of picking a single person to do it. They can easily break down that task and distribute it to their workers to make the whole job easier.

A professional web design company can finish the job faster and produce even better results compared to someone doing it all on his/her own.