If you are on the prowl for someone or some organization to
design or redesign you or your organization's website, it may
be both comforting and daunting to know that your choice of
designers is at an all time high. From freelancers to marketing
firms and everything in between, there are thousands of people
ready to sell you their skills. The question is not where to
look, but how to choose the right web designer for you.
There are two major factors that you will want to take into
account when selecting the right web designer for the job;
namely your needs and their organizational structure and
skills. If you have not done so already, take a moment to write
down why it is, specifically, you want a website; what will you
want it to do? What is your niche? What is your market? Who are
your competitors, and how are they attempting to tap into that
niche? Do you have a particular brand or image you wish to
associate with your products or services? It is best to have
firm (though not closed) answers to these questions before
approaching a designer. If you know what you want, it is much
easier to determine if a particular web designer or web design
agency can and will give you what you seek.
With your wish-list in hand, it is time to find the right web
designer. The first decision you will need to make here is
whether to go with a freelancer, design team, or marketing
firm. It is difficult to generalize about any one of these, for
there are both very excellent and talented freelancers as well
as very bad ones. The same might be said for design teams and
even marketing firms. However, here are some things that you
will want to consider and investigate.
First, it is important to know if you are dealing with a web
design company or a marketing agency and graphic design
organization, for the latter often sub-contract web design
work. Generally this is not a problem, although it does put a
set of people between you and the designers, which may become
tiresome, especially on larger projects. A web designer worth
his or her digital weight should have a handle on e-marketing
design and tactics. If you take the time to find a reliable
individual or firm, it should be possible to bypass the
marketing agency and still obtain a quality, competitive
design. Freelancers are often less expensive, and have the
advantage of dealing with only one or a handful of people.
However, a freelancer is just one person, and this one person
may not be available all the time should problems arise.
Other factors to consider when considering web designers
include their portfolios, whether they use templates or
original designs, the extent to which they will be able to
promote the website once it is designed, the size and client
list of their organization, and their ability to both give you
what you want and to provide suggestions and ideas of their own
based on their own knowledge and experience. Last, and
definitely not least, is customer support and response time.
With the Internet being the delocalized entity that it is, it
is not unusual for a web designer to perform work for a company
either out of state or abroad. While a local designer makes
face-to-face meetings easier, the same things can be
accomplished with email, the web, and phone. However, if at any
point during the selection or design process you feel that the
designer or his or her company is anything less than consistent
and open in availability, it may be wise to consider
alternatives. One thing to look for is whether or not the
company is willing to provide you with access to immediate
customer support via telephone or chat. When and if something
does go wrong, e-mail technical support can move a bit slow.
These were just a few things to watch for and consider when
choosing the right web designer for you. Other things you might
include could be the designers' web site's Google page rankings,
or whether or not customer support over the telephone is toll
free and available all of the time. The most important thing to
do, however, is to seek as many estimates and proposals as
possible. The more candidates you field, the better your
chances of hiring the right web designer for you.
http://choosetoprosper.com/how-choose-web-designer.html
