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A well-designed and user-friendly website is essential in today’s digitally driven world. Your website is often the first point of contact for potential customers, and it plays a crucial role in shaping their perception of your brand.
As such, choosing a web designer to create or revamp your website is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a business owner. Not all website designers are created equal – and with thousands upon thousands vying for your attention, it can be challenging to discern the truly exceptional ones from the rest.
Wondering how to choose a web designer for your business? This guide will walk you through the process. Let’s get started.
Each web designer possesses their own unique style, which must harmonize with your vision for your website. As such, it’s essential to evaluate their past projects (portfolio) when considering who to hire.
Ideally, you want to look for projects they’ve done within your industry. Apart from their design style, there are several key questions you should consider while browsing through their portfolio:
Try to examine each project from the perspective of a customer. Would you feel confident enough to engage with this company and entrust them with your hard-earned money?
Be honest in your evaluation. It’s perfectly fine to be picky at this stage.
The Bottom Line: Your website will serve as the initial impression for potential clients. Take the time to select a web designer who aligns with your values and beliefs.
Nothing good comes cheap. This rings particularly true when choosing a web designer.
The entire process of how to choose a web designer will boil down to pricing – and it’s best to address it early. When considering the cost of a web designer, we suggest looking for several specific factors.
The foremost factor to prioritize is transparency. A reputable web designer makes their pricing easy to understand – and has no hidden fees or shady upcharges. Additionally, they should explain everything related to pricing in detail before the project kicks off.
The designer or agency might request a deposit once the project begins or require full payment upfront. It’s important to discuss the pricing options with your designer and find a solution that works for everyone.
The Bottom Line: Discuss pricing with your web designer upfront. Make sure they are transparent about their fees and that you’re comfortable with all payment terms before giving the go-ahead.
When choosing a web designer, you’ll need to understand their timeframe for completing your project.
Designing a website takes time – usually requiring around 10 to 12 weeks, depending on the project’s scope. While everyone wants a swift completion of their website, it’s important to understand that an experienced website designer has a lot of demand.
Regardless of the web designer’s workload, there are a few signs that indicate you’ve found a good one.
The Bottom Line: Talented web designers might have busy schedules and longer project timelines, but this doesn’t mean they can be flaky. The last thing you want is to experience a sense of uncertainty or that your project doesn’t matter.
The true value of a web designer or creative agency lies in their process.
A seasoned web designer will have a battle-tested discovery process to understand your values, vision, and expectations to accurately represent your company. Basic or rudimentary discovery processes raise a giant red flag that indicates a designer doesn’t have a strong formula and may not be a good fit.
At its core, the web design process should start with a discovery phase that encompasses the following aspects:
A web designer with a strong process is likely to ask you plenty of questions to help guide their design decisions. In addition, they may consult with you periodically to ensure they stay in line with your expectations.
The Bottom Line: A reliable web designer should have a process for understanding what makes your business unique and how it can be best represented online.
Professional website designers do not rely on guesswork or employ haphazard approaches. Instead, they take a systematic approach to designing your website.
When choosing a web designer or creative agency, requesting a brief demonstration of their process is important. A reputable agency will gladly showcase its approach to creating new websites and explain how it will manage your specific project.
It makes a huge difference to have a clear picture of this before the project kicks off – rather than waiting until work is underway. This will help ensure that you and the designer are on the same page from the beginning and that the final product will meet your expectations.
The Bottom Line: Requesting a brief walkthrough of the web design process will help you understand the workflow and ensure that you and your designer are on the same page. This will prevent costly mistakes, delays, or misunderstandings during the project.
In the realm of website design, the significance of copy (text) cannot be overstated. Without it, your website becomes no more than a mishmash of images and colors. Whether you are embarking on a new website or revamping an existing one, the value of high-quality copy should never be overlooked.
Finding a web designer who can create compelling web copy is a rarity. That’s why it’s recommended to hire a full-service creative agency with a dedicated copywriter who can work directly with the web designer. This way, you can be sure that the copy and design are created simultaneously to create a harmonious and cohesive website.
The Bottom Line: When selecting a web design agency, inquire about their copywriting services and make sure you are comfortable with the quality of their work. This will ensure that your website not only looks great but is also effective in communicating with visitors.
People don’t go to the yellow pages to find businesses anymore – they turn to Google.
That’s where the power of SEO (search engine optimization) comes into play. SEO is the process of getting your website placed on relevant Google searches. For example, if you’re a clothing store in Reno, you need your website to show up on Google when people search for “clothing store Reno” or “clothing store near me.”
New websites need to be built following SEO best practices.
SEO works in tandem with website copywriting, design, and development. If you want to get your site placed on Google searches, there’s no getting around this when choosing a web designer or agency.
A reliable agency should integrate a variety of SEO tactics into the design of your website, including:
Integrating these tactics into your website’s design can enhance its visibility and attract a larger pool of potential clients.
The Bottom Line: No matter how attractive and functional your website is, it won’t mean much if no one can find it. Inquire about an agency’s SEO services and evaluate their ability to implement these tactics.
As you can see, choosing a web designer or creative agency to construct your website is a multi-layered process.
Keep in mind, this specialist (or team of professionals) will shape how you present yourself to potential clients – and the online business world as a whole. Being selective and exercising discretion in your decision-making process is perfectly fine.
We hope our post helped steer you in the right direction to find the best web designer for your needs.
Here at Wildish Agency, we provide a full suite of web services to bring your online vision to life. This includes web design, web development, copywriting, SEO, and more.
Get in touch with us today to learn more!