What Should I Look For in a Web Designer?

In this big World Wide Web making a statement and standing out from your competition is essential for the survival of your business, and finding a web designer to partner with you in developing an effective website is critical. What should you look for in a Web Designer?

1) A Good Web Designer is a good listener.
A good web designer is someone who asks you important marketing questions about your product or service and about your target audience. She then listens to your answers–she listens to what you say, and what you don’t. She is intuitive and can read between the lines. She gets you.

2) A Good Web Designer is interested in your business success.
You really want a designer who wants to see your business be successful. That web designer will offer suggestions that will improve your website beyond your expectations, bringing ideas and suggestions to you that you hadn’t thought about.

3) A Good Web Designer should have a varied portfolio.
A portfolio that shows a wide variety of designs and solutions reveals that the designer is experienced in solving client problems and is interested in providing unique designs for her clients. In competing on the web, you want a custom design that visitors will remember because of its distinctive and effective design.

4) A Good Web Designer creates websites with functionality.

A Good Web Designer should show you websites that offer solutions for the specific needs of various industries. Is your designer familiar with creating online stores, online payment solutions, online classes, email captures, social media connectivity, and integration? Does her portfolio of website projects exhibit these solutions? Do her websites have the best in functionality? Do they include recent tweets, posts, and forms?

5) A Good Web Designer designs on budget and on time.
Be willing to discuss your budget and time-frame expectations. Effective websites do cost money and require experience and time to develop. If your budget is smaller, ask your designer what she can offer you within your budget. If all you can afford is one page of your website, ask your designer to design a strong page on a strong, flexible platform that can grow with your business and can support expanded design and page content. Start with what you can afford and build a site with the end in mind.

6) A Good Web Designer will give you a timely response.
You need to be able to reach your designer and expect good communication. You want a designer who understands that every minute your site is not up is $$ you are losing. Pretty much 24/7 response for web maintenance is critical, which leads me to the next point.

7) A Good Web Designer has a maintenance program.
One big question to ask is what type of service does your designer provide in maintaining the website, keeping it updated, hosting it, and making necessary edits to the website. You will need to update and manage your website to keep it current, and you need to be able to contact your web designer and hear back from her quickly.

8) A Good Web Designer will have satisfied clients.
Look at what others say about a web designer you are considering. Look for testimonials on the designer’s website. If you need more evidence, ask for a few referrals.

Creating or redesigning an effective website that brings in customers is a challenging project. The right designer will guide you, hold your hand, and upload a beautiful website that reaches your target audience.