11 Questions to Ask a Web Designer Before You Hire Them

An interactive and beautiful website is crucial to your business’ success. Websites help businesses connect with their customers in a meaningful way. They can help showcase your company’s personality and corporate culture.

They are also a great way to increase your sales. Online shopping is a 22.68 billion dollar industry. Your business needs to be online to claim some of that capital.

Hiring a professional web designer is the first step to having the website of your dreams. But how do you hire a web designer? How do you know the right questions to ask?

Keep reading for the top 11 questions to ask a web designer before you hire them.

How Much Experience Do You Have?

Of course, your ideal hire is an established web-designer who boasts years of experience. Someone who’s been in the field a long time has solved cleared innumerable design roadblocks. They also produce high-quality work on a tighter timeline than newer designers.

If a web designer has a light portfolio that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t hire them. Critically examine their past work and see if they have experience designing your type of site.

No matter how much experience your designer has, make sure to take a critical look at their portfolio.

And be sure to read their testimonials. If a designer doesn’t have any reviews or is withholding about testimonials that’s a huge red flag.

What’s Your SEO Plan for My Website?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is paramount to your site’s success. SEO affects your sites reach and influence by impacting your search engine rankings.

Your web designer should have a comprehensive SEO plan for your site. If the designer seems stumped or uncertain, go with another firm. You need quality SEO from the beginning to improve your site’s chances of success.

Quality web designers incorporate SEO into their design from the very beginning. It should never be an afterthought added to the completed design.

Do You Outsource Any of Your Work?

It’s important to know who you are going to be working with. Make sure to meet the design team before making your decision. And ask if they will be outsourcing any of your work.

Outsourcing can be a good or bad thing depending on how the firm utilizes it. Sometimes outsourcing can create issues in communication and delay results.

However, more often designers outsource work to create custom features for your site. For instance, a designer may outsource the creation of a custom font or logo for your site.

If your firm plans to outsource web design work make sure you ask about how they will address revisions and communication.

Do You Use Web-Page Templates?

A custom coded website will deliver the best results for your investment. Your designer should be well-versed in coding and design programs like the Adobe suite.

If you decided to go with a designer who uses templates make sure to ask about licensing. Are the templates free to use? Will you have to pay a licensing fee or will the design firm cover that?

Also, make sure other businesses in the area don’t have the same template as you. It’s important to stand out from the crowd — your site needs to be unique against the competition.

Does Your Firm Include Site Maintenance?

Sites crash or features stop working. Eventually, your site will need maintenance or an update. Make sure to ask your firm about ongoing design support.

Some firms or designers offer short-term maintenance packages as part of their design costs. And all firms should offer long-term maintenance packages to clients for an extra fee.

What is Your Approach to User Experience (UX/UI)?

Asking about a firm’s approach to usability quickly separates professional designers from novices. The user experience should be your designer’s number one priority.

User-centered design is crucial to your site’s success. If a site is easy to use and navigate it get better responses from users. Difficult to navigate sites turn potential customers away from your site.

How Can Your Design Help Me Reach My Goals?

Clearly, define your goals for your web designer. They should have a detailed plan on how they intend to help you reach those goals.

Ask to see samples of sites they have designed that have similar goals to your site. Ask them about how their design helped this site to find success. And read testimonials about their results.

How Will You Measure Results and Success?

It is important that you find out exactly how the design firm plans to measure the success of your site.

They should have a clear plan that measures quantifiable success. Keep an ear open for technical terms like page views, time on site, inbound links, unique visitors, and bounce rates.

It’s okay if the answer sounds pretty technical at first. Make a sure task for clarification in plain English so you can fully understand their plan to chart your success.

How Does Your Firm Approach Revisions?

The firm should be willing to make as many revisions as you need to reach your goals.

Reputable designers will not limit the number of revisions you can make or charge extra fees for revisions. You are the customer and they should do their best to make sure you’re completely satisfied with the final design.

Make sure you cover plans for communication. And the approximate turnaround time for revisions.

How Long Will It Take You to Design my Website?

There is no right or wrong answer to this question. It all depends on your needs. But, it is important to discuss a timeline with your designer up-front.

If a firm can’t complete your design for several months and you’re short on time, you may want to find a web designer with quicker turnaround times.

Your designer should have an outline of how long the project will take to complete. And the approximate amount of time it will take to compete for each step.

Keep in constant communication with your designer to make sure you aware of any hiccups in their design timeline.

What Are Your Fees?

There are many factors that can impact the cost of a web designer. The size and scope of the project obviously dictate the cost.

And the type of design will also impact your bottom line costs. If you want a more complex and responsive site it will cost you more than a simple, minimal page.

The degree of functionality you need will also impact your pricing. And the firm’s experience and size will also dictate their costs.

The Best Questions to Ask A Web Designer

Getting the best design for your dollar is all about communication. Even the best web-designers can’t read your mind, so you need to be explicit about your expectations.

Make sure to keep these 11 questions to ask a web designer in mind before hiring them.

Get started on your web design today — contact us for more information.