Web Site Design Tips

Interviewing a Website Designer to Create a Website for Your Business

As we've pointed out in other articles, plenty of Web site design tools are available to help you make your own website – many small business owners have, in fact, found that creating a website gave them additional insight into the components of an effective business website.

And many of those who have created a Web site for themselves, moved on to hiring a website designer as their business web site and their business needs to be expanded.

If you decide to hire a Web designer, here are five key issues to raise when interviewing a prospective web designers:

• Charges and Costs: How much will the Web design services charge for preliminary/basic web page and web site design? Are the web designer's services provided on a flat fee/retainer or per hour/item basis? Additionally:
  • How are edits/changes billed?
  • What additional/unanticipated costs and contingency charges should you prepare for?
• Time and Schedule: How long will it take the web designer to prepare initial designs for your custom website? How long to prepare the finished versions of a web page? How long for the complete business Website and future Web design services?
  • Is the web designer prepared to set a firm schedule for regular updates of your own website?
  • Can the web designer promptly accommodate "emergency" or quick-turnaround adjustments and changes to your business website?
• References and Experience: Have the website designers produced custom website development packages for companies similar to yours? Can the web designer provide you with references that you can contact to discuss their custom website development experience with the web designer you’re interviewing?
• Growth and Expansion: Does the web designer possess experience – and references – with E-commerce and retail transaction business websites, should you decide that your own website needs to add these features? What other advanced business website features does the web designer have experience with – and can show samples of?
• Web Site Marketing and Site Promotion: In addition to knowing how to build a website, does the website designer have experience with more sophisticated aspects of web marketing and web site promotion? What are the web designers’ charges for web site promotional services such as:
  • Designing and linking web marketing campaigns to specific pages on your business web site?
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services that will increase your web marketing presence on the leasing search engines?
  • Search engine submission that insures that search engine companies know about your website?
    • What sort of time/turnaround does the web designer guarantee for Search Engine Optimization services to take effect?
  • What other web marketing and web site promotion services does the website designer offer?

Knowing what to ask when first interviewing a web designer can often help prevent costly Web site design and maintenance issues down the road.

Learn about Do-It-For-Me Web Site Packages from Network Solutions.