Choosing a New Website Designer? 5 Mistakes to Avoid!

choosing a new website designerSo you’ve decided your website needs updating with a fresh new look or some funky new features and content. So you head on over to Google and do a web search for web designers. Now just how many results are you going to get? Well I will tell you, 19.8 million. So how are you going to choose between them? To help you out we’ve created this guide to help you. Here are 5 mistakes to avoid when choosing a new website designer.

1. Choosing the right person for the job. You need to decide exactly what you want doing to your website, before you begin looking for a designer. Websites are basically made up from two parts. The front end, the bit you see, graphic design and flash etc, and the backend, the ugly bit, databases and style sheets etc. Now the front end is best done by someone with create and design skills and the back end is done by a web developer.

A common mistake to make is choosing a company that specializes in web development to do the graphic design. This results in an ugly cumbersome looking website, with poor colour choices and navigation. Always make sure you hire the right skill set for the job. Make sure your chosen web company can do both elements for you.

2. Not enough skills to do the job. That brings us neatly on to point number two. If you have a large project which involves both web development and design. Make sure the company you choose is equally skilled in both areas. If they say they have someone that can do both, be very wary. Graphic design and web development are two completely different fish. It’s rare to find one person equally good at both.

3. Runs off with your money before completing the job. Yes I know it happens with builders all the time. So what makes you think your web designer is any different. Always check any company you deal with out before doing business with them. If it’s a small project you should only pay for it when it’s complete to your satisfaction. If it’s a larger project you will probably have to pay a deposit, usually around 50% with the rest due on completion. Again only pay for it when you’re satisfied.

4. Disappears as soon as the project is complete. Ever taken your car to the garage to fix a problem, only to find its still there the next day? Well your website is no less complicated, so always make sure that ongoing support is available once your new site has gone live. There’s nothing worse than having your brand new shiny site crash after two days, just because of a coding error.

5. Make sure your new site is designed with SEO in mind. Having a beautiful new site is all well and good, but if it can’t be optimised for the search engines, you may as well be smiling in the dark, you’re there but no one can see you. A good website is a complicated thing; you need to bring together many different skills to pull it off. A good web design company will employ a graphics design expert, a web developer and a SEO expert. They should all work together to bring you a professional looking website, that works efficiently, whilst performing well in the search engines. If you get these key five elements in place you’ll see a decent return on your investment.