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While doing research for a client, I
came across a real estate agents' web site with the following advice for other agents:
"Hire the site designer who charges you the most money." Poor
advice, in my opinion.
Hiring a business web site designer or consultant is a
good news - bad news proposition. The good news is, most web designers have only
been doing so for less than five years, which should make for a fairly level playing field. The bad news is,
web site design quality and pricing is all over the map. Finding a reasonably
priced web site designer who understands how to
design a business web site that will appeal to your customer base, sell your products and place well in the search
engines can be difficult. One thing I know for sure: paying a lot of money to a
designer does not mean you will
get an effective or profitable website.
So, what can a small business person do to
find a good site designer? On one hand, you do not want to waste hundreds of dollars on an
ineffective web
site. On the other hand, you don't want to hire the 15 year old who just left Best Buy with his/her first copy of XYZ Web design
software or worse yet, a "designer" who "creates" sites by
stealing the work of others.
If you want to hire an experienced,
competent designer for your business or organization web site, use the following guidelines:
- Determine in advance how much of your total advertising budget you
want to spend for the design, hosting and maintenance of your site.
- Be clear about your reasons for wanting a
business website and your
expectations of what it can do for your business. Decide how many pages
you will need and what you want your site to do (sell, inform, service
customers etc.). Get our Ten Tips for
Planning a Web Site.
- Do a search at Yahoo or Google for
designers who offer the services and benefits most important to you. For
example, if you
need a database search "database developers". Or, check at The Firm
List for web designers in your area.
- Examine sites created for businesses similar to yours. This will help
you develop the look and feel of the site you want. (Plus, find out what
your competitors are doing!) Follow the link to their webmaster and
- Visit the designers' own sites. Is it well designed,
does it look professional? Is it easy to navigate? Does it place well (top
30) in the top search engines and directories?
- Look for a site designer who will offers 24
hour toll-free customer support. It's not required, but it is a convenience
for you.
- Look for credentials. Does the
designer belong to the HTML Writers Guild, International
Webmasters Association (now merged) or other
organization that establishes ethical and design standards for Web
professionals?
- Visit the business web sites they have designed. Look at
their craftsmanship. Observe the quality of workmanship. Do you find a lot
of misspelled words, grammatical
errors; busy backgrounds or different color backgrounds on each page; over-long pages; music, links,
JavaScript or animated graphics that do not work; many different fonts,
sizes,
colors and blinking "things" on the same page; pages that mix
unrelated topics;
unfocused, rambling
text; no business contact information; attempts to process orders on line
without using a secure server; and inconsistent design elements? Any or
all of these indicate a lack of design experience or
professionalism.
- Contact a few of their clients. Ask
whether they are satisfied with the designer and if they would hire
him/her again. Ask if the original work and maintenance is done in a timely manner.
Send the web designer an e-mail or use the contact form on their site to
see how long it normally takes to get an answer to e-mail.
- If client names are not posted on their site, do a name search at Network Solutions
in the "Whois" database.
Type in the name of the designer and all sites they own or have
registered will appear. Visit the sites and e-mail their owners.
- If design prices are not
posted on the site, write and ask for a design estimate. Ask what specific design services their
fee includes.
- Compare the offerings of
each firm to get the most for your money. Select three designers based
upon the services they offer and your budget.
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How to make a final selection?
Choose a business web site designer
who (based upon their work) is competent, responds promptly to e-mail
or phone calls, understands
how to optimize a web site, cares how your site looks,
how your customers will navigate it, understands how site design affects
profitability and understands the needs of your business.
- Choose a site designer whose sites include everything you
need to run a successful Internet business: hosting, e-mail accounts,
maintenance, search engine optimizing, search engine submission, marketing
support.
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Get someone who will be in your corner,
support you with marketing of your site, work
with you over the long haul to help your business become profitable, allow you to maintain the site yourself if
you choose to and, stay within your budget.
Design
Contracts
You and your business web site designer should have a contract
for the work you want done:
a) At the bare minimum,
the contract should
spell out
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the number of pages, product/service
photos, graphics
etc.,
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the scope of
the work
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custom design elements
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a completion
date
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copyright ownership
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total fee and payment arrangements
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who will handle search engine registration or
promotion
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a site maintenance agreement
b) Free registration of your site with a minimum of the top five
free Internet search engines/ directories should also be included. Paid
registrations will cost extra. Placement in the top 30 search engine listings
will probably cost extra elsewhere.
c) Be sure you are listed as the Administrative and/or Billing Contact on the Domain
name registration records.
Remember, high-priced does not always
mean competent! Designing a profitable web site involves more
than creating pages. Some designers charge you a percentage
of your profit in addition to their design fees. This type of agreement is
often used to offset high design and/ or maintenance fees. Skip the designer who does not
answer e-mail, does not list your site with the search engines free,
will not
give you the specific details of their services, charges for every little
thing they do for you, and does not care about the profitability of your
internet business.
Your web site is just one of the
many marketing tools available for selling your products. You should use it to increase public awareness of
your products/services, supplement your existing marketing methods and/or
sell to new customers. Re-examine the usefulness or profitability of your
business website in six-nine months. Some changes may be in order.
Be willing to market
your site aggressively but, DO NOT USE SPAM! Be willing to wait for results. A Web site
may not make you
wealthy overnight. It takes an average of three years of consistent
marketing for a business website to become profitable. A well designed web site will enhance your professional image, increase public
awareness of your product or service and sell your products 24 hours a
day/seven days a week. It is a relatively inexpensive, sensible and worthwhile business investment.
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Click here
for answers to the questions most business web site owners ask.
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Click here
to see what services are included in our business web sites.
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Get help with a site
redesign or site review.
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What is in our Marketing
Guide?
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Click here to order your
business website today.
Contact
us today for a free estimate.
1.877.892.6338
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