7 Common Mistakes to Avoid when Hiring a Website Designer

Hiring a website designer is a crucial task for the future of your business. Online presence is now a sort of business card that represents your face to all potential partners and customers. So, it’s no wonder that business owners have high expectations from the website project.

As a crucial member of your business team, the designer is a key unit for the strategy and development progress of the project.

To make your collaboration long-lasting and mutually pleasant, there are certain things that must be addressed right from the start. Setting up objectives and seeing that they are met is one of them.

The web designer has responsibilities that must be fulfilled. While he is about to embark on a long-term relationship with you and to make it effective, you need to get the answers to certain problems that will help you avoid misunderstandings in the course of project development.

When interviewing your potential web designer avoid these frequent mistakes.

Mistake # 1. Falling for price alone

In a world where everything is dictated by money, it’s not hard to fall for the smallest price for a service or product. However, this does not necessarily mean that the cheaper service or product suits your needs or answers your questions.

This can happen with website designer as well. Before deciding to hire the person that offers the smallest price for his work, think whether his abilities and skills are good enough to meet your project’s objectives.

By selecting the lowest price option you put your website project at risk. Try not to look at the financial aspects, but rather think of the benefits the project can get by hiring this or another web designer.

Research a lot, ask for portfolio and look through the works that the designer has already completed. Ask for several quotes and decide on the designer that will convert your ideas into reality.

Read The Cost of a Website to understand how many resources you will need to have your site live.

Mistake # 2. Failing to have a written contract about the price

A contract is a written proof of the understanding you make with the web designer. It stands when the working process has taken a different turn and you’ve found yourself paying astronomical sums for features you haven’t foreseen initially for the website.

Having a written contract, stating exactly what it is expected from the website designer right from the start and the price for each feature to be developed is a good base for ensuring that you don’t go over your set budget.

A written contract is the tool that can be used both by project owner and project developer whenever a misunderstanding about the progress arises. Make sure to write and sign one before setting off on the adventure.

Mistake # 3. Choosing a website developer who doesn’t focus on SEO

Don’t underestimate the power the SEO has on the promotion of your future website. Ask the designer about the search engine optimization of your business website and see what solutions and practices he has to offer in this respect.

Hiring a web designer without knowledge of SEO tactics might end up in losing money. Low ranking in Google and other search engines is a complete no-no for a business striving to attract traffic and convert visitors into prospects.

Although the layout of the website presented by the designer looks great and attractive, your business page will perform poorly due to inability of the designer to integrate SEO techniques into the design.

Knowing what elements make a good web design will help you to determine what your site needs and how you want it to look like.

Mistake # 4. Not considering future updates and maintenance

Web design is a niche that is constantly changing and improving. Therefore, before hiring a web designer, ask who will be updating and maintaining the site once his work for website development and design is over.

There are web designers who provide maintenance services after the project is completed. This is a very important aspect and many make the mistake of overlooking this question.

Also, consider asking about the costs that maintenance services involve. Confirm with the designer whether these costs are included in the initial price, or additional costs are charged.
Remember, in order for your webpage to record traffic and perform well it must be updated regularly. Otherwise, it becomes obsolete and ineffective.

Mistake # 5. Not having time targets

Every project is accompanied by a defined time frame and deadline before the project must be ready for launch. Time targets keep control of the working process and make all project steps to follow a logical path.

Time targets have also the purpose to discipline the performer of the job, which means that the web designer commits to deliver the product within set deadlines. Failure to do so can mean penalties or contract cancellation.

Therefore, it is recommended to specify the time frames within your business project must be completed.

Ask the web designer about his availability to attend to your project’s requirements in a timely manner. This will lead to avoiding uncomfortable and unpleasant situations between the two of you.

Mistake # 6. Not checking portfolio & testimonials

To make sure that the decision you make is a well-grounded one, ask the web designer to show you his portfolio and testimonials from his previous customers. Contact them and ask for references. This it might take you several hours to check the website the designer says he created, to contact the person who will be able to give you reference about him.

However, all this time is not wasted in vain. At the end you will know for sure if the web designer is worth the money. After all, it is you who hires and you want to enroll a trustworthy person who will cater to your needs.

Mistake # 7. Not knowing what you’re looking for

If you don’t know yourself what you are looking for, how can you ask the web designer to deliver your project according to your liking. Therefore, make sure you have drafted a detailed technical specification and planned a strategy that will be the base for the business website project. Set the goal and purpose of the website.

What are you trying to achieve? If you want to sell products, you will definitely want setting up an ecommerce, integrate a payment gateway and implement features that allows for automated emails to be sent to customers on the status of their order.

Once the web designer is briefed about these facts he will discuss all the aspects, offer suggestions and solutions and you can all agree on the steps that must be taken to achieve the goal of the project.

Conclusion

These are by far the most common mistakes when hiring a web designer. Knowing what to pay attention to now will help you make the right decision and find the professional that will suit your requirements and fit perfectly into your team.

Keep in mind that although a website can be visually appealing, it can lack crucial functionalities that contribute to converting visitors into prospects. Make sure you have these functionalities discussed with the future web designer and see what solutions he can offer to help you achieve your business goals.