If you’re a small business, you are probably not an expert in web design. You know that you need a website, but what kind? How much should you spend? Are cheap template sites worth the money? How about cheap WordPress sites? Here are some things you should ask a potential web designer to see if he can build a successful website for you.
1. How many small business sites have you built? If you look at a relatively new web design company, their portfolio will likely include sites that wouldn’t be considered business websites, because they are building a body of work, and haven’t gotten much work in the business field. But experience is important, because a small business site has completely different requirements than a website for a band or a small charity. Find a designer who has been doing this for awhile, and knows small business.
2. Have you built websites for my particular industry? A restaurant site is relatively easy to get decent traffic for, while an HVAC website is a lot tougher. Restaurant sites (for example) are routinely used for people to find their location, menu, specials, etc., but an HVAC website (again, just an example) will usually have much lower traffic. It’s just the way the industry works. Some industries can use Google AdWords (basically an advertisement on certain Google results pages) and some industries would lose a lot of money by doing that. Knowing the difference, and how to build a site accordingly can save you a lot of money.
3. What do you know about search engine optimization (SEO)? This is a tricky question, because it’s an ever changing field. A few years ago, the title (on the top of the browser window) was so long that it routinely ran off of the page. But now, Google only “sees” approximately the first 160 characters. Meta keywords used to be important, but Google hasn’t used them in years. The best thing to do is to ask the designer to show you the Google Analytics numbers for some of his sites. If he doesn‘t have them, leave immediately!
4. Is your web design up to date? Like SEO, this changes with time. An older site will look narrow on a widescreen monitor, because it was built back when everybody was using the clunky old CRT monitors. Look for Flash on his websites. Flash doesn’t show up on smart phones, so ask him what happens when a smart phone sees the site? If he tries to give you a lame excuse, or says that smart phones don’t matter, leave immediately.
5. Do all of your websites look the same? This is easy to find out. Some designers are one trick ponies, and all of their sites are very similar. Watch out for a designer who always uses a gigantic slider or slideshow on every site, because this is definitely an industry related option. Make sure that all of the sites don’t have the same basic color scheme. Also, stay away from a designer that works in black a lot. While black is great for some industries, it is often a crutch, because it’s much easier to make a black website look good. Make sure that your designer is talented AND creates a variety of different designs.
6. Do you do content management? This is a bit of a trick question, because not all businesses NEED content management. A content management system (known as a “dynamic” site as opposed to the older “static” sites) is edited online, so the client can keep the site’s content up to date, add new pages, and interact more easily with his clients. The important thing is that a web designer needs to KNOW about these things. And a good web designer can do both “dynamic” and “static” websites.
There are a lot more relevant questions you should ask, but this is a pretty good start. The important thing is to make sure that the designer you choose is experienced, knows about your specific industry, and is up to date on modern SEO techniques. Well, all that, plus being a great designer…
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