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How to Choose the Right Designer: A Checklist for Professional Web Design
The Internet has changed the way the world does business – and that’s just as true for the business next door as for the business on the other side of the world.
Consumers are increasingly using the Internet as their first stop for product research for all types of products, services, and businesses. Whether your business is a small mom & pop shop or a huge multi-national corporation, you can benefit from a professional Web site. From using your Web site to provide detailed information about your business to selling products or services online, you can use the Internet to constantly gather new consumers.
Why Hire A Professional?
For your Web site to be effective, it has to send a professional, clean, well-organized, responsive, lively, and up-to-date image.
You can do this yourself or you can ask a relative or friend to do it for you. The friends and family route, however, may be less than satisfying when simple design requests take weeks or months to accomplish, or more complex requests never get done. There is also the risk of offending your help when the final deliverable is not what you envisioned.
If you choose to do it yourself, remember that learning to use the tools of Web site design takes time and commitment. Factor in time spent to update your Web and you may soon find that running your business has taken a back seat to maintaining your Web site.
These are lessons learned the hard way, which is why many business owners turn to professional Web site designers to create and maintain their site. But choosing the right professional designer is the key to your site’s ultimate success.
Before you hire a professional designer to build or redesign your site, ask yourself, “What are my goals in building this Web site?” This paper answers that question and covers the most important topics to discuss with before choosing your Web designer:
1. Web Design Experience
2. Technical & Business Skills
3. Web Site and Domain Name Security
4. Photography, Graphics and Logo Design
5. Writing Skills
6. E-Commerce
7. Online Marketing
8. Ongoing Support and Maintenance
9.
Web Design Experience
Questions to ask:
a. Will the designer supply contact information/references for Web sites
they have designed?
b. Will the designer provide a schedule and meet the deadlines?
c. How easy will it be to make updates and changes? And how will these
changes be billed?
ClearVision Internet Solutions: How to Choose the Right Designer
As you begin your search for a Web site designer, start with their reputation. Take a look at some of the websites they have designed and follow up with references. Look for a well-established firm that has a proven track record for professionalism both in their designs and their business practices. A professional Web design firm will be able to provide multiple examples of great Web site designs and references of happy and ongoing client relationships. Ask your designer if they will provide a timeline for completing your Web site and ensure they are responsible for keeping the project on schedule and within budget. A professional designer will manage all the steps to create your Web site and provide communication and updates as you go along. For your reference, from one-on-one consultation to discuss your business needs, to getting the initial design of your Web site completed and deployed – it should take no more than
30-45 days. The procedure and expected turnaround for any necessary updates, changes, additions and re-designs should also be discussed and reputable companies will be able to give you an outline of fees and costs for any additional work so there are no surprises.
Technical Skills
Questions to ask:
a. How much experience does the designer have with the latest Internet tools
and techniques, including Flash, blogs, videos, animation, search capabilities etc?
b. Will the site be written in code that is optimized for search engine indexing?
c. Can the designer provide traffic monitoring and visitor reporting tools?
When you hire a professional designer, you are paying for effective design along with technical expertise. Keeping abreast of the latest Internet tools and trends is key in designing a Web site that stands out from the crowd. For example, community-building tools make your site more interactive and search tools enhance your site’s usability.
A professional designer will inform you of new Web tools that are most applicable to your
business. The range of new tools and techniques available to Web designers is generally referred to as “Web 2.0” and includes:
1. Video and audio and animation
2. Community-building
3. Blogging
4. Targeted advertising and marketing
5. Buzz or viral marketing (Internet commentary and feedback)
6. Sharing information with customers as well as marketing to them
7. Brighter colors, richer designs, bolder use of text, and illustration
elements
Each of these is important – and the reputable, expert professional Web designer you select will be able to walk you through every one of them, explaining what they do, what benefits they provide for your business, what they’ll cost, and how they’ll be implemented. On the other hand, a good designer won’t hesitate to tell you if the high-tech Web 2.0 wizardry isn’t appropriate for your site.
Most Web designers will also be able to implement various research tools that analyze your Web site’s performance. For example, analyzing the performance of each Web site page so you can see how many people are visiting your site, how long they are spending on each page, and how long it takes for the pages to upload.
Web Site and Domain Name Security
Questions to ask:
a. What Web security products will protect my Web site?
b. How will my customers know my Web site is secure?
c. Will my domain name be protected?
Strong attention needs to be given to protecting the data on your Web site from online threats and making sure your site maintains visibility 24 hours a day without interruption.
From protecting your email to securing your server and any transactions on your Web site, your designer should provide advice on protecting the exchange of data that is paramount to your site’s integrity. For example, a well-designed Web site will install and prominently display any SSL Certificates or Site Assure Seals on critical pages throughout the site where customers may be hesitant to submit personal information or financial data. Securing your Web site is vital to gain customer trust.
You must also make sure your domain name (online address: i.e., www.xyzmycomany.com) is protected and always registered to you as the owner.
Reputable designers will always register the domain name to the client, not to themselves. Why is this important? Because in most cases, only the domain name registrant or Web site account holder can:
•
1. Manage appropriate use of the domain name – which may include the name of your
business
2.Update or change content on the Web site
3. Shut down the Web site
4. Control the experience of visitors to the Web site
5. Ensure the security of the site – and the security of your customers visiting the site
Helping you keep your domain name registration from unknowingly expiring, or worse, being fraudulently transferred (domain hijacking), is an additional service that should be offered by a reputable, professional Web design company.
Photography, Graphics and Logo Design
Questions to ask:
a. Does the designer have access to professional stock photography?
b. Can they create a custom logo?
Images, graphics, photography and a custom logo will help to reinforce your brand identity online.
Design should be crisp and clean making sure every page is easy to read and follows a logical reading path for both the human eye and the search engine spider.
Professional designs should provide the ideal balance of proven effective design layout combined with customized image features. The images used on your website should always reflect your brand identity.
Images and logos should be used to enhance the look and feel of the Web page, but a designer should never use an image to replace the use of written content – as it is the text that will be read by a search engine and used to find and rank your Web site.
Writing Skills
Questions to ask:
a. Who will write the text content for the Web site?
b. Will the designer provide samples and references for previous writing
work?
Professional copywriters will showcase your business in clear and memorable language, with an emphasis on accuracy and marketing.
The first page of your Web site should quickly and easily define the purpose of your business and make it easy for people to find out exactly what you do. Your customers will quickly tire of a Web site that may look good but contains no meaningful content.
Text should be easy for your customers to read, but must also contain keywords for your
business that will make the text more easily read by a search engine, whose job it is to find and rank your Web site. Be sure to determine who will be responsible for writing the text that will make up your Web site.
E-Commerce
Questions to ask:
a. Does the designer have experience creating e-commerce and transaction
sites?
b. Which payment processing methods will they support?
c. How will the designer ensure security of online transactions?
If your goal is to sell your products or services online, make sure you pick a designer that can demonstrate successful e-commerce Web design and can provide the specific features that you need for your business, such as; integration with accounting software, ability to offer discounts and special promotions, product quantity limitations that match your inventory, technical support and security compliance.
Effective e-commerce Web site design should support multiple payment options for your
customer and make it quick and easy for them to search for, find and buy your products.
Every page should include a standard layout that clearly identifies the important features such as; shopping cart, my account, purchase buttons, price lists, etc.
A professional designer will be able to guide you through the technology that will secure your ecommerce Web site and protect your customer’s transactions including: the use of technology that meets or exceeds industry standards for the protection of credit card information; shopping cart security features that include the encryption of sensitive data transmissions; multiple firewalls; and access restrictions to the hardware which stores credit card data.
Online Marketing
Questions to ask:
a. What Web promotion services are available?
b. Do they provide search engine optimization (SEO) services?
c. Can they offer pay-per-click and other online advertising capabilities?
Additional expertise of a professional designer includes online marketing that will generate more visitors to your Web site and make sure potential customers know your site exists and can easily find it.
Online consumers use search engines to find new products and services and professional Web design firms should be able to demonstrate experience with the latest techniques to ensure those search engines list your Web site. Some of the tools that your designer should be able to demonstrate include; search engine marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), online advertising, press release optimization, e-mail marketing, link exchange, and more. Many online marketing tools should be discussed when your Web site is in the early design stages as they need to be incorporated into the coding of your Web site. A professional designer appreciates the need to have marketing functions built-in to the Web site design.
Having professional expertise at hand can be helpful if you are considering online advertising as a way to promote your website or specific products and services online.
Make sure your designer has experience with keyword selection, copywriting, search analysis and performance reporting.
Ongoing Support and Maintenance
Questions to ask:
a. How easy will it be to build more pages and sections to the Web site?
b. Does the designer provide Web hosting as an additional service?
Knowing exactly what you need from a Web site isn’t always clear until your Web site goes live and you can see how your customers are using it. So it can be helpful to find a professional designer that is able to provide you with a Web site designed to enable growth. Most designers can support ongoing maintenance packages that will enable you to modify or add to your Web site easily and as your needs change.
Your new Web site will need to be hosted before it can go “live” on the Internet. There can be many advantages to choosing a professional designer that also offers Web hosting. In addition to potential cost-saving benefits, having your Web site designed and hosted by the same company ensures a seamless transition from design concept to going live; keeps all Web-related contacts all in one place and easy to manage; makes accounting easier, and provides direct communication between the designer and technical support in the event of a problem.
Questions to ask:
a. How long have you been in business?
b. Can you provide references and business credentials?
What makes a Web site designer a reputable professional? The simplest answer to that question is the same things that make your business stay in business: honesty, thoroughness, attention to detail, expertise, timeliness, and integrity. As with the products or services your business offers, any compromise or misrepresentation of any of those elements can harm your business.
In the case of Web site design those misrepresentations can result in disaster. Take for example the experience of the Holmes Pest Control company, whose hired Web designer went missing a year after building their Web site. This left Holmes with two Web sites that cannot be updated or removed from the Internet because the domain names were registered to the designer, not to Holmes.1
The Holmes Pest Control experienced are hardly unique. In 2006, the Council of Better Business Bureaus2 reported that almost 2,000 small business owners filed complaints against Web Design firms in 2006 - a stunning 70% increase in the number of complaints against Web designers over the last four years.
Summary
In a crowded field of Web designers you need to learn how to sort the good from the bad. You cannot afford to leave the design of your Web site in the hands of novices. With your checklist in hand and a few key questions ready you can avoid becoming another unsatisfied statistic and instead begin an online relationship with your customers with a professionally designed and optimized Web site.
1 Business Week:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_26/b4040416.htm?link_position=link1
2 Council of Better Business Bureaus: http://www.bbb.org/
About ClearVision Internet Solutions
ClearVision, a leading provider of Web services, draws on a decade of experience to make it quick and affordable for customers to build and manage an online presence.
Our full range of Web-related services includes:
Web hosting
Web design
E-commerce software
Search engine marketing
SSL Certificates
E-mail services
Domain name registration
A quick e-mail or toll-free call for help will be answered promptly by a trained ClearVision Customer Support Representative —For more information, please visit www.clearvisionis.comor call 1-888-575-0278.
