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What To Look For When Choosing A Web Designer

Effective website design requires experience and understanding of diverse areas of expertise. It is important that your designer understand you and your business and know how to most effectively communicate you and your uniqueness to your Internet audience. To answer our question, we’ll look at some important pieces of information that you’ll need to find out before you choose your website designer.

Green Industry Terminology
Does the designer understand the basics of the green industry and its terminology? Do they know what "caliper" or "variegated" or "1gal" or "b&b" means? Do they truly understand what you are selling, or will you have to invest time educating them on the basics of what you do?

Are they familiar with search engine best practices?

Hourly Rates
Does a low-cost designer really save you money? Qualified professionals will charge $75.00 or more per hour, but they have so much experience that they can make changes and additions in an efficient and cost-effective manner, though their hourly rate seems to indicate the contrary. A designer charging an hourly rate below the industry average may mean that the designer is below average...and that can really cost you in the long run.

Their Location
Is physical distance an issue? A successful designer with many far-flung clients effectively disproves the notion that face-to-face meetings are critical to the success of your web site. We suggest that technical and design skills combined with industry experience is far more important than proximity.

Your Needs
What do you want in a website? What are your needs and intentions for having a website? Does the prospective designer listen to and understand your needs and intentions? Have you checked other similar businesses to see what they are doing on the Internet? Can a prospective designer offer any suggestions for improving upon what others have already accomplished? The more clarity you have about your intended results for having a website, the more accurately you can communicate your needs to your designer and the more likely it is that you will achieve these results.

Experience
Is the designer experienced in website design? How long has the designer been creating websites? What is their background? How long have they been using the Internet? Three years is a long time in Internet terms. More than four or five years is a seasoned veteran. Ideally, your site designer has a variety of experience.

Strengths and Skills
What are the designer's strengths and weaknesses? The range of skills required for creating any type of website is more diverse than you can imagine. If a designer tells you they have done or can do any project, I’d suggest you take that statement with a grain of salt.

Personality
Is the designer easy to work with and talk to? Is she/he able to communicate technical information so that you can understand it? The process of creating a website can often be an overwhelming process for some people. Consider hiring a designer with whom you have a good rapport and find communicating with easy.

Portfolio
Look at some of their previous clients' sites. Do they all look the same? Do they load quickly? Are they easy to navigate through? Do you like their previous work? Do they accurately reflect their clients’ business? Does the designer custom create each site or would they have you select from a list of prepackaged sites?

Budget
What is your budget and what is the typical cost for the designer’s projects? As a generalization, the larger the company, the more they charge for their services (and often the more elaborate the sites they create.) Companies which create sites from a prepackaged template often cost less but don’t provide you with custom solutions which may more closely meet your needs. Site designers who are getting started will often create your site for a lower fee, essentially using your project to develop their skills.

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