Comments on: Choosing a Web Designer

By: liam

liam — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:25:32 +0000

Very interesting points raised in this article . I agree espeicailly with how important it is the designer has previous sites that are user friendley as obviously if a customer views your website they will quickly leave if there is tonnes of content and the site is in no real structure.

By: Web Design Southampton

Web Design Southampton — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:55:32 +0000

agree with @Steve – looking at a designers portfolio is a great way of finding whether a particular designer is well suited to your needs.

One thing I would recommend is giving a few of a designers clients a call to see what they thought of them too

By: Steve from Web Design Hampshire

Steve from Web Design Hampshire — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:00:59 +0000

I agree that if a web designer does not meet your needs then they are not the right ones for you. Many designers have strengths in different areas. Looking at websites they have worked on before is a good place to start to see they quality and whether they will be suited to your business.

By: Use HTML Coding for On-Page SEO

Use HTML Coding for On-Page SEO — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 04:13:33 +0000

[...] There are different things you can do for the on-page SEO (search engine optimization) of your web pages and blog posts. Today we are going to cover how you can improve your on-page SEO through proper use of the back ground coding (HTML coding) used to create your pages. Optimization of the HTML coding is one of many on-page search engine optimization tasks you can look at when deciding on a content management system, an ecommerce software package and/or when selecting a theme/template for your site. It is also something you can add to your checklist when hiring a web designer. [...]

By: Coat Rack

Coat Rack — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:14:33 +0000

When I did my first site I used a what you see is what you get editor and I must admit I did look pretty tacky. But the one piece of advice that I think anyone who has a website should know at least some rudimentary HTML so they can make minor adjustments and changes if only to test for better conversion rates

By: Allison Clark

Allison Clark — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:03:44 +0000

“If you plan to maintain the website yourself then it may need to be constructed differently than if you were going to hire the web designer to maintain the website as well. Your level of expertise on website coding would also influence how a self maintained website will be constructed.”

Yes, this point is true. Most of the issues occur during maintenance after site has already been constructed. Make sure you know the designer well enough to get in contact with them even after the project is completed to iron out any small problems.

By: Web Page Mistakes

Web Page Mistakes — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:41:05 +0000

Learning to create your own website can be gratifying but you need to weigh the cost of your time learning to do it well with the cost of not doing something else to build your business. e.g. Producing product, promoting the business. If you want to learn and enjoy doing it then eventually, you will get quicker at it. When it is a chore to work on the site it is time to consider hiring someone.

To be clear about ownership: This point was brought up so you, the website/blog owner, are an informed consumer and ask the question about ownership. Be prepared to pay more if you want the original files for things like artwork. The designer could be counting on keeping those so you have to come back to them for alterations.

By: Bob Hayes

Bob Hayes — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:19:56 +0000

Thanks for a nice, informative article.

Quoted from article:

“Paying a web developer to create your site doesn’t necessarily give you the rights to it. Generally, that work is still the intellectual property of the designer and derivative works might sometimes be the subject of legal issues in the future….”

When I first started out with web publishing I researched web designers and the costs involved. Almost every guru at the time said that if you really want to succeed bigtime on the internet, you need to learn to design websites yourself.

With so many awesome web publishing programs available, it would be foolish to not consider learning how to create a website yourself.

My tool of choice is XSitePro although I have also used Microsoft Frontpage, Sharepoint Designer and Dreamweaver.

If you are going to create several sites over time, you owe it to yourself to look into this option.

And it would be absolutely horrible to pay $1000 or more to have a site designed only to find out that you don’t even have the rights to it.

By: Jack Stephen

Jack Stephen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:42:28 +0000

Katie has picked up a really good point from the article and I agree with it. The most important thing is to layout at-least 80% plan for the website development and both the parties should come on a mutual ground. This is a good article as it has provided a detailed instructions to get a web site from web developers.

Jack Stephen

By: Katie Smith

Katie Smith — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:07:40 +0000

“If there’s too many things on your list that the web designer cannot do, then they are not the right one for your particular project.”

That’s true! You will only be wasting your money if the web designer that you are talking to can’t do what you wanted to have on your site. It will be best that you have all things prepared before looking for a designer so that you know who will suit with your needs.

By: Web Development Services

Web Development Services — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:18:31 +0000

While the quality of the portfolio is important, the similarity of samples should not be a primary concern– a prospective customer is not always privy to whom has been commissioning the projects, especially when many different domains are operated by the same client, under different project or company names. A prospective client should base their decision on the types of questions web developers ask and, whoever demonstrates they are most qualified to meet their needs– and has the foresight to build a site that can grow with the clients’ company.

By: GreenTent

GreenTent — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:43:15 +0000

Nice post, the information given are the most important part in choosing a web design. It would also be great if the client will not depend everything on the web designer, he/she should also cooperate or get involve with the project for a better result. 2 heads is better than one.

By: Vanessa - Best SEO Company

Vanessa - Best SEO Company — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:09:55 +0000

Love this article, and I think it is important to have both the client and the web development company involve in the process. Keeping them educated on exactly what is going on and how we are creating those results is very important. Find a company that keeps you in the loop on everything.

By: trademark attorney

trademark attorney — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:54:52 +0000

“For a brand new business, working closely with your web designer and the people creating your marketing materials is important to continue the company branding into the website.”

I completely agree. It is important to note, however, that before creating your brand new logo or if you are in fact, launching a new product, a patent search is a good defense to make sure nobody is using that logo or branding technique already.

By: New Method

New Method — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:19:00 +0000

Some great pointers there, you have failed to mention that there is more to a great website than just design though!

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:51:28 +0000

Very useful article. I fully agree with the guidelines put in by you in order to judge a professional web designer’s portfolio. A portfolio is amongst the best indicators of the skill set and the expertise level of any professional web designer.

Web 2.0 technologies have gained a lot of popularity in the last few years and professional web designers with Web 2.0 proficiency can deliver websites which provide an unmatched user experience. After all, for a customer, a website is all about the quality of user experience he/ she gets and nobody understands it better than a professional web designer.

Hiring a professional web designer with a showcased portfolio spanning web programming (PHP, CSS, xHTML), logo and graphic design is the first step to starting a successful online business. If you have a reasonable budget, you should be able to hire a good professional web designer who’ll help you build a great website for your business.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:13:38 +0000

An informative article and nicely done. It created a bit of controversy as far as who owns the website. I have to agree with theweeguy, so many designers take advantage of their clients, persistant in keeping them coming back to them for any little thing so they can charge them. There needs to be some honesty here and everyone would be better for it.

By: Web Designer

Web Designer — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:43:25 +0000

Its important as well to get some information from past clients if possible. Any web design company can give you fake testimonials – but you might find some websites they did and contact them.

By: Web Page Mistakes

Web Page Mistakes — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:19:36 +0000

theweeguy,
A savvy client will read the contract/terms of sale they are presented by the web design firm.

Unfortunately, people just don’t read these documents properly before signing up.

It is a serious problem that consumers are going for all in one packages where they have no control over their website. The firm registers the domain name in their name, they don’t provide login information for the domain registration, they provide the web hosting and can shut down the site on a whim and, include in their contract/term of sale that the design firm retains all copyright to the design and technology. These firms are getting away with it because consumers are not reading everything before signing up.

This is why we have the Starting an Online Business series of articles, so consumers can be aware of what should happen when they commission a website design.

By: theweeguy

theweeguy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:08:04 +0000

I absolutely disagree with you, the client owns the website as well as owning the domain and the intellectual properties of the design.

Far too many designers take advantage of uneducated clients. But these clients are much more web savvy than they used to be.

I would recommend that any client ensures the web designer provides a content management system for the client; just so the client isn’t left in the lurk and can update their own site when the designer is unreachable.

Remember, A web designer is a skilful, yet hired hand.