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Choosing the Right Web Designer
Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing the best web design company for your site is extremely important. Unless you run a web-based business, you probably do not have web design experience within your company. Building your web site will take time and a little homework! To create a web site for your business, follow these 4 simple steps: Establish Your Goals Before you begin looking for company to help you design and build your web site, take the time to understand the goals of your web site. This will be extremely important to help set expectations with the web design company you choose. In order to set your web site goals, ask yourself the following questions:
Take the time to answer each of the above questions and if you have time, write the answers down on a sheet of paper. These are the same questions most web design companies will ask you before they begin to create your site. If you have these questions answered up front, you will have some criteria for choosing the right web design company. For example, if you are a real estate agent, and want to publish listings on your web site, you should seek a web design company that knows about the real estate business and has created web pages for other real estate agents. Determine Your Budget How much do you want to spend on your web site. Web sites can cost you anywhere from $100 to $100,000 depending upon what you want it to do. Know your spending constraints before you begin negotiating with design companies. Whatever you do, do not tell a web design company what your budget is!! Always get pricing based on your needs, not you budget. Pick a Web Design Company Your choice of a web design company is a very important step. Take your time to investigate all of your options. Here are some important items to consider. Design vs. Build Depending upon the scope of your web site, you may need to choose two different companies. Building a web site is a highly technical process. Designing a web site is a highly creative process. Many advertising firms specialize in web site design which does not necessarily require any web development skills whatsoever. The process of creating a web site is similar to the process of building a new home. Before you ask a construction company to start building, you first seek out an architect who creates a blueprint of your house taking into account what you want (number of stories, square footage, etc.). Creating a detailed blueprint before construction begins can help you accurately estimate the final price. Without the blueprint, you may end up paying a lot of money for a house that does not fit your needs. Creating a web site is exactly the same except most web site "builders" also claim to be "designers". The good news is that you can look at other sites a web design company has created (like looking at other homes that a home builder has made). Make sure you ask the web design company what their process is for designing a web site vs. building a web site. They should understand the difference between these two concepts. If they don't, they're probably builder that think they can also architect. Evaluate Experience Has the web design company created web sites similar to yours? Do they have relevant industry experience? As with any services company, choosing someone that has relevant experience. If you want to sell products through your web site and accept credit card payments, does the web design company you are considering have experience doing just that? Review the Portfolio A well established web design company will have a solid portfolio of web sites that they have created for other clients. Ask for links to other site the design company has created and review each one. Do you like what you see? Do the sites have a style that appeals to you? In addition to reviewing web sites, ask for customer references. Contact their clients and ask them about their experience with the web design company. Were they happy with the results? Did they get what they paid for? How much did they pay? Would they recommend them? How long did it take? What didn't they like about the company? How responsive was the company when they had questions? Compare Prices Pricing for creating a web site can vary. Typically, web design companies will charge one of three ways:
The most important step in pricing is to make sure the potential design company outline all of the prices associated with the work and puts it all in writing. Never enter into a deal unless all of the costs are well understood up front. Also make sure that you understand what "done" means. Try and structure the payments such that a significant portion of the fees (20%) are not due until you "accept" the final web site. Include the agreed-upon dates in your contract and provisions for what will happen if these dates are not met. Solicit bids from multiple web design companies and compare both the pricing models and the prices themselves. There are thousands of web designers across the country and they should all fight feverously for your business! Be picky! If a web design company dismisses any of your questions regarding their design process, pricing, or client references, take your business elsewhere! About The Author Andy Quick is co-founder of Findmyhosting.com (http://www.findmyhosting.com), a free web hosting directory offering businesses and consumers a hassle free way to find the right hosting plan for their needs. Feel free to contact Andy at andy@findmyhosting.com in case you have any questions or comments regarding this article.
MORE RESOURCES: Website Design: What's the Best HTML Editor? | Florida Realtors Lecturer, Digital Media (Web Design) (Level A) job with ... Times Higher Education Web Design North Offers Inbound Link Building Services in Canada Digital Journal Auto Body Shop Marketing Company Shares How To Leverage SEO ... Digital Journal Fuerza Studio Wins Prestigious Netty Award & Takes Home ... Fort Worth Star-Telegram Wix vs. Squarespace | Website Builders | U.S. News U.S. News & World Report Top 10 web design companies: 2023 reviews and comparisons The Jerusalem Post Best Website Builders for Small Businesses (2023) | U.S. News U.S. News & World Report AI tools are killing web design jobs in South Africa Rest of World Director, Digital Strategy - Emory Communications and Marketing ... The Chronicle of Higher Education U.S. announces official web design system Boing Boing 19 Free Web Design Tools from Summer 2023 Practical Ecommerce Web Design Intern at Advisors Excel mediabistro.com The Pros and Cons of Creating a Website With Canva's Website ... MUO - MakeUseOf Motor Carrier Operations: Improvements Needed to Federal System ... Government Accountability Office Full Stack Developer Job Description: Templates for Hiring for Your ... Small Business Trends Regulator: “Harmful” Web Design Could Break Data Protection Laws Infosecurity Magazine Joint journey: The Ferraz Rodrigues brothers' path to collaborating ... Illinois State University News Área de web design tem alta demanda por profissionais Portal Comunique-se About Web Design and Development | Web Design & Development ... Utah Valley University When and Where to Use REM and EM Units in Web Design? hackernoon.com Wix's new web design platform looks seriously cool Creative Bloq Mizzou alumna uses web design expertise to give back to ... University of Missouri College of Engineering 16 Best AI Tools for Web Designers Designmodo The Mysterious Case of the Fake Gay Marriage Website, the Real ... The New Republic Website Development: In-Depth Guide For Beginners Search Engine Journal Top 10 Web Design Mistakes: What Businesses are Doing Wrong Times of India Capturing codes: New England 7th graders learn web design Dickinson Press Game Design and Interactive Media BA Major West Virginia University Web design, development firm named among Inc. Best Workplaces SiouxFalls.Business WAcademy's Web Design Interns Have Successfully Developed Over 30,000 Free Websites for Global SMEs Yahoo Finance 22 Free Web Design Tools from Spring 2023 Practical Ecommerce Opinion | Reasons for ambivalence about the 303 Creative Supreme ... The Washington Post This Colorado web designer doesn't want to make wedding sites for ... Colorado Public Radio Portfolio Requirements for Web and App Emphasis | Web Design ... Utah Valley University Beit Lehi Project | Web Design & Development | Digital Media Utah Valley University |
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