Finding a good website designer is hard work. Not all website designers are created equally, and price does not necessarily equate to quality.  Here’s what you need to think about when sending out a brief for quotes in the search for a website designer:

1. Ask your connections for referrals.  Word of mouth referrals can save you heartbreak.  Not always, but it does lower the risk.
2. Google both the company and the key staff.  By doing this you will see if they have any bad feedback … or if past clients are happy ones.
3. Where does their website appear in search rankings?  If they don’t rank well, will you?
4. Go over their website with a fine tooth comb.  What you don’t want to see are broken links, typos, images without descriptions or functions that don’t work.
5. Ask for 10 recent sites they’ve built.  Phone these clients and ask how they dealt with changes, whether the site went over budget, what their support is like and if they met deadlines.
6. Look at these sites and treat them to the same critique as you did in point 3 above.
7. Spend time writing out your brief so it covers all contingencies for the launch of your new site.
8. Important: ask the designer why you should chose them?

Once you’ve selected your website designer…

Set your parameters before the designer starts on your site and before any payment changes hands.

1. Decide what the milestones will be and set deadlines around these.  
2. Agree on payment terms.  Paying on completed milestones is a good idea.  Do not pay more than 25% up front (and many designers won’t ask for payment until the site is live).
3. Talk to your designer about how the website will change with future growth, business change and new technology.  You do not want a complete rebuild every few years.
4. I would ask the designer to sign their agreement of the brief you have supplied.
5. Establish up front how much access you will have to the site once it is built.  Will you be able to make changes or have another designer work on the site or will access be limited.  I have seen many cases where clients are held hostage by companies charging a small fortune to make changes to sites in the future.

There are some fabulous website designers out there who deliver amazing work.  A great designer is a magician, turning your ideas into an online reality and a live website built on time, on budget is an exciting point in your business.

Want to learn how you can get the best out of your web designer and grow your business? To maximise their value, download your free guide here.