6 Things You Should Know Prior to Hiring a Web Designer
1. Target Audience
One of the most important items to consider before designing your website is, who will be your target customer? If you’ve been in business for more than a few months you probably already know who this is. Determining things like age, income, gender, and education will play an important role in the web design process and help determine your audience’s online behaviors.
2. Goals
As with anything in life, it’s important to set goals for your website. Coming up with a goal for your website isn’t difficult; the problem is refining it. Avoid vague goals like “conduct online surveys,” or “make more money by taking my store online.” The best goal statements are those that have measurable results like, “Create an online children’s play clothing store for boys and girls ages infant through 5 years old. The projected revenues are double our current store sales.” Creating detailed goals that are realistic will help you evaluate the success or failure of your business. These goals will help your web designer build a site that’s tailored towards helping you reach your goals.
We designed the following website: Empress Arts, an online children’s clothing and accessory online store.
3. Budget
Whether you’re a start-up or large corporation you should have a budget set aside for your website. This will include funds not only for the initial setup and ongoing fees such as annual domain registration, hosting and site maintenance. So how much does a website cost? The most costly part is the initial design and set up. A website is much like a car. You could pay for the lower end car and it will serve its purpose of getting you where you need to go. On the other hand, you might want a Porsche that’s fully loaded. Or you might need to start with a basic site that can be expanded as your business grows. The overall cost of a website depends on a long list of factors such as design, timetable, and size just to name a few. We invite you to set up an appointment and our professional team will sit down with you to help you marry your goals for your site with you budget.
4. Timeline
A thoughtful, well-planned and well-executed website takes time. Most websites average three months to complete. But a website can take anywhere from one to six months to complete, with some larger sites taking almost a full year. It’s important to plan ahead and allow plenty of time for revisions, development and testing. This website for Jimmy Lewis Off-Road is a solid three month website. The client had a clear vision for his site, worked closely and responsively with us, and provided great input and awesome materials to work with. We’re proud of how well this website showcases the company. They have a great BLOG too.
5. Content Strategy
What types of content will you be display on your website? Are you going to maintain a blog? Do you have photos of your company and/or products? These are all questions you should ask yourself prior to hiring a web designer. One thing that tends to get overlooked is content and photography. Photography can vastly improve the overall design of your website and help you stand out above the competition. If you don’t feel comfortable writing content or taking photos we can refer you to a professional who can make this easy for you.
6. Research
Last but definitely not least, take a moment to research your competitors to see what their websites look like. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and run a search for your product and/or service. What would your typical customer type into the search engine to find your website? Whomever shows up on that first page is your direct competition on the web. Having some examples of websites in your competitive space will provide a great starting point for your designer.
A good website is a must in today’s business climate. SDA Creative’s professional design team can take your dreams for your online image and make them a manageable, affordable reality. Take a look at some of the websites we’ve produced, and contact us to set up an appointment.