Finding The Perfect Site Designer

By Author: Sibyl McLendon
Total Articles: 7
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When you make the decision to hire a professional to build a website for you, you are going to find yourself in the unenviable position of finding just the right company to do it. There are literally thousands of people/companies who will build you a site. How are you going to find the right one? Remember, anyone can claim to be a site designer. This does not mean that they are going to do a good job for you.
You really need to take your time with this. I encourage you to be wary when your co-worker, your friend or your cousin tells you that their nephew, sister, child, best friend's boyfriend's uncle can build you a site. There is a lot more to having a successful website than just having pages that you can see up on the Internet!
So, how DO you pick a site designer?
First, the number one most important thing to do is to decide exactly how much you want to spend on getting a site built. You do not want to go broke getting the site built. You are going to need some money left over for hosting and advertising, at the very least. If you spend too much money on getting your site built, you are starting out your ...
... business in a hole. It is very difficult to recoup your losses and to start making money if you have over-spent on the design. You would never do this when finding a brick-and-mortar store, why would you do it for a website? More is not better here. There are a lot of reputable, excellent designers that will build your site for a reasonable amount of money, and just because a company charges more, doesn't make them better.
You can ask for recommendations from people that you trust. If you know someone with a successful site, who is really getting quality traffic and making money selling their products, talk to them about their web master. Were they totally satisfied with the job? Is their designer within your budget? Also, make sure that possible perks from the designer do not motivate the recommendation. If the designer is offering money for new customers, you might not get a fair and accurate appraisal of the designer's work.
Then you can surf the ‘net, looking for sites that offer web design. This is tricky. Obviously, every site is going to tell you that they are the best. Don't get sucked in by flashy presentations. Do your homework. Ask to contact their clients. If they don't want to tell you who their clients are, take that as a red flag. Any honest website designer will not only have testimonials from clients on their site, they will have a way for you to contact them.
Don't believe any site designer who tells you that you are going to get thousands of hits and make a ton of money immediately. Unless you have a large advertising budget, this is NOT going to happen. It takes time to build a profitable business on the Internet. If it sounds just too good to be true, then it is! No website designer can promise you that your business is going to make a lot of money right away.
Make darn sure that you have a good contract. You should know exactly how much your site is going to cost you, and the reputable designer will not come back to you and say that they need more money to finish it. It may certainly come to pass that you need more pages on your site than was originally agreed upon. This is common. But, you should know in advance exactly how much each extra page is going to cost. It should be clearly spelled out in the contract. You do not want to agree to spend $500 and then end up paying $1,500 for a finished product. You would be surprised how often this happens to people!
If you need a domain name, get it yourself. If a domain name is part of the design package, then do not leave this totally in the hands of the designer. It is a common practice among disreputable designers to register a client's domain name in their name instead. This gives the designer total control over your domain name! You can never fire them and go with someone else, and you can never move your site to a new hosting site unless you control your domain name.
Make darn sure that your designer knows all about Meta tags. You are going to need good Meta tags if you ever want anyone but your friends and family to see your site. You can check to see your own Meta tags by going to your site, right-clicking in an empty space and then clicking on view source in the menu that pops up.
Do not be sucked in by disreputable website designers. Do your homework. Don't pay more than you are comfortable with. Don't be dazzled by double-talk. The design of your site is the foundation that your Internet business is built on.