How to choose a web designer
So you’ve gone through your detailed plans and now your ready to choose someone to help make those plans a reality, but just how do you go about finding a web designer you can rely on?
Let us start by defining what we are looking for. Do we want to look for a web developer or simply a designer? In my view you need to look for someone who has a track record of designing quality and performing websites. The key there is performing, dont ever be seduced by a flashy looking portfolio a disappointing number of web designers simply create sites that look nice and then disappear. Those sites never perform.
So how do you find a designer in the first place?
Don’t ask your print company, I know that they say that they can design sites for you but they cant. I have never ever seen a traditional print company that knows anything useful about web development. Do take soundings from people you know and trust about who they have used, word of mouth is still a very important tool in your decision making process here. I would also suggest that if you have taken the decision to get advice from a web consultant or SEO firm then the people that they suggest should also be high on your list of people to look at.
How to trim down the list to a short-list of possibles.
Have a look at their sites, the sites of web design companies can tell you a great deal about the company. Not only will the site tell you about sites they have done (Usually) but also the site will often give you a good feel for what their way of working will be. Here’s an example of a good web design firm in my opinion.
Don’t always assume that the web designers will have former client sites listed on their site, for example here you wont see many client sites as its a well known tactic of other web development firms to come and market in a negative way to your clients, in an industry where its easy to spread untruths many people keep these things close to their chest.
If you do get to look at a list of sites its always worth taking a quick look at how the sites are performing, I know that’s really why your here and not something you know how to do that well so here’s a quick tip.
Disclaimer: I don’t subscribe to any view that pagerank is worth following but its still a quick and dirty method of a sites status.
Copy the sites URL and paste it into the tool here. This tool will show you the Google Pagerank of the sites they have made. Whilst there are many reasons why the page rank of a site can be misleading (Its a simple scale of 1-10, 10 being best) you can assume that if all the sites they show you are PR0 or PR1 those sites wont be performing.
Ask the opinion of a web consultant or SEO firm if you need help here too.
So once you have trimmed down the list you had to a manageable number (3-5 is good) get in contact and ask about what the process is for getting proposals from them. If they don’t do proposals then that should be a big warning sign for how the whole project would go.
Choosing a web designer or developer is very much like choosing any other supplier but with the added complication of not knowing the products you are buying as well. I think if you can a web consultant is ideally placed to help you navigate through the process.
Good luck! I am here to help if you still find the process confusing, remember that good advice at this point will protect any investment you make from here onwards.
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