For most businesses, the website is often the first place where your prospective customers will find and engage with your brand.
It’s where you can tell your story, share who you are, what you do, and why it matters to your audience.
First impressions matter, to be sure, but having a great website is more than just how it looks.
It’s about how well the site can be found online, how easy it is for users to navigate and find information within the site, having clear calls to action, having readable and easily digestible content, having well-organized and structured information… and so much more.
You only get one chance to make a first impression, so it’s important to get it right the first time. And selecting the right person for the job will greatly impact the success of your website.
But how do you know who that person is?
Whether you are venturing to replace an existing website, or create a brand new website from the ground up, there are some key questions you should think about and ask about when shopping for a website designer. A website is a serious investment and not having all the information you need to make an informed decision can be an expensive mistake.
While there are many, many questions you could and should be asking during your selection process, here are 5 key questions you should ask in your first conversation with a prospective web designer.
1. What does your quote include?
When it comes to website pricing, we’ve seen it all. Some companies will advertise a very low price for a ‘complete’ site, but leave critical components out unless you pay to add them on. It’s important to know what it is you’ll be getting for the price you are paying.
When you receive a price from your web designer, make sure that you are clear on what will be provided — it should be apparent in your contract whether or not the project includes:
- A custom design or uses a pre-made, canned template
- Number of website pages included
- What functions will the site be able to perform (such as e-commerce/payment processing, blogging, on-site search, events or calendars, contact forms, etc)
- Search engine optimization, and if so, what tasks are they including in that? For a solid foundation that can support future search optimization strategies, it should include at a minimum
- Schema (this gives search engines context around what your content is about)
- Structured, hierarchical markup
- Meta descriptions for each page (that are NOT duplicative)
- Unique titles for each page
- Alt tags for images on the site
- Submitting the sitemap to search engines like Google & Bing once launched
- Branding design; some designers may have multi-faceted skills and can assist you with things outside of the immediate scope of the website, such as branding/logo design, determining the color palette, etc. If you do not already have a brand or brand assets in place, it should be spelled out who will be providing the brand assets for the website.
- Revisions. How many rounds of revisions are included if you are presented with a design and want to make changes to it?
- Cost of stock Images/photography and licensing for typeface use
- Cost of writing and/or editing content for each page. This may or may not include keyword research and optimization, so be sure to clarify if that is a part of their content writing process.
- Quality assurance and testing; who tests the site before it launches? What additional costs, if any, are there if you would like changes to the design after you’ve seen the completed build?
- Cost of Domain name registration (the URL or address)
- Cost of website hosting (where the website is stored, or “lives”) and the SSL certificate that keeps your site secure
- Platform or subscription costs. Some platforms are open source and freely available, whereas others have monthly or annual subscription fees. If you need a CMS, or content management system, to easily make updates to your content, be sure that you are comfortable with the ongoing costs for using templates, plugins, or platforms.
- Training and support; will you be provided with documentation about your website? What if there is a problem with it once launched? Is there a warranty period included?
2. What do you need from me to create my website?
Avoid wasting time during the design and build process, and keep launch delays at bay by having your content and assets ready from the onset of the project. For many, this is the hardest part of getting started.
We see countless deadlines delayed by waiting for photography and images, text or content input, lead magnets, payment processing details, brand assets like logo files, color codes, and fonts, privacy policies, account access, and so on. As such, your website designer should be able to give you a list of what they need to get started and keep the project on track throughout the process.
Some designers may request to have everything from the get-go. In order to design, they need to know what they are working with visually. Others may be able to work using placeholder text and images that can be replaced later once you have finalized those components. Generally, the things related to the design of the website itself — the written and visual elements — should be provided as soon as you can; whereas things related to the build can be provided once the designs are complete and the project is ready to move into the development stage, such as hosting access, platform access, license keys, etc.
This leads me to the next question…
3. What is your process?
This sets the expectation for how you will work together. It’s one thing to see the finished product in a designer’s portfolio, but it’s equally important, if not more so, to understand the process the designer uses to arrive at those results.
If your designer does not have a specific process that they can describe to you, that might be a flag indicating less experience. Ideally, the person you are hiring is going to be more than just a designer or developer to you: They will (hopefully) manage the project, the tasks, and the communication from start to finish.
Be sure that you understand what happens during each stage of the project. For example, I have encountered designers who will collect content and input from the client and then design and build their website all at once, with the client only seeing the design for the first time after the site has been built already. Others will be more thoughtful and include some form of planning in their process.
For Pixelstrike, the first phase is really about planning and collecting assets. We want to know what is the goal of the website, what do you want it to do for you? We will create a site map, plan the information architecture, and map out the content for each page. Once we have collected the assets for the visual design, we can then create design mockups. We provide several initial design options for the client to select from and then use the selected designs to inform the rest of the site layout and style. Once the client has reviewed and approved how the site will look, only then do we start to build it. Design changes after a build can add to cost and delay the launch of the site, which is why we prefer to have that nailed down as much as possible before we start writing code.
After the design stage and the development stage, what is next? Does your designer have a phase for fully testing what’s been built? Is there a chance for you to review the build yourself before launching? What happens if there are bugs or even design changes wanted at this point of the project?
Having insight into your designer’s process like this will foster a more transparent relationship where the expectations for everyone are clear every step of the way.
4. How will the website scale for future growth?
A website is a significant investment, so you’ll want to ask about its potential lifespan. Is it built on a platform that can be easily modified and scaled up? As your traffic increases through promoting your business, will the website be able to handle the increase in volume without slowing down significantly?
As you add content to the site, are there structures in place to organize that content for both users on the front end and website administrators on the back end? Or will adding new pages or sections to the site require reconfiguring your site’s information architecture?
In essence, a scalable website is one that can grow—you can add content, increase traffic volume, and enhance functionality, all without hindering or compromising the site’s performance, optimization, and user experience.
5. What training and support do you offer post-launch?
Every website requires maintenance, so this is something you should absolutely factor in when planning and budgeting for a new website. Who is going to be responsible for keeping your site healthy, up to date, secure, and backed up? Is this something your designer can provide or something you will be comfortable handling on your own?
Governance of your site is crucial, so making sure you have a plan in place before you launch your website will greatly mitigate future issues. Will your designer provide you with training and/or documentation about how to update your site’s content? Or will the site require the assistance of a developer to make future changes?
Some designers offer a warranty period once their products are launched. Pixelstrike offers a 30-day warranty period on our websites, so if a product is less than perfect for any reason during the first month of its life, it can be addressed quickly and at no additional cost to the client.
You’ll want to be sure that the person you hire is the right fit for the job, so asking lots of questions and understanding what to expect will ensure that your journey to a successful website goes smoothly.
Your company website is core to your business’s success online. Ensuring compatibility with the person or team you hire to handle it will help you avoid big project pitfalls, leading to a smoother process and a more successful design.
Ready to transform your online presence? Contact Pixelstrike today, and let’s create a website that truly stands out.
