What to ask a website designer
What to ask a website designer when looking for a new website
Is it time for a new website? Perhaps, it’s the first time you have chosen to work with a website designer. However, do you know what you need? Do you feel confident about what they can offer you? And, importantly to me, do you know what is going to happen about the content for your website?
I have worked with many amazing website designers. I have also heard some horror stories from acquaintances and clients – all fellow small business owners. So, I wanted to share some of my expertise and recommend some questions for you to ask. You can then evaluate the answers when comparing their services and deciding upon who to work with and what to invest.
Working with a website designer
I think working with a website designer is an excellent idea when the time is right for you and your business. Many small business owners start with a DIY website, which can be fine when you are a start up, have a small budget or need something quickly or as a ‘holding page’. However, as your business grows investing in your website is a good idea. For many small businesses, it is our main digital marketing asset after all.
Unlike other digital marketing tools, such as social media and even email marketing systems, we truly ‘own’ our websites. We have copyright over the original content and you pay for a domain, which is our own private address and space.
In addition, everything about our website can be about us and our business (there’s no sharing!)… get unique content, stand out images and a great design. All of which should reflect our brand and what we offer
However, a good website costs money and whilst it is a very worthy investment, it is important to shop around a little and find the website designer for you.
Your website shopping list
Whilst it is important to be armed with questions, it is also important to be clear with a website designer what you are looking for.
I highly recommend that you have a basic site map, at least. By this, I mean a list of the different pages you want and the potential order of them. You don’t have to be wedded to this or ignore any recommendations, but it’s useful to have a starting point.
In addition to pages, have a think about the different things you want your website to do for you – also known as the functionality. Do consider if you want people to be able to buy from your website, contact you, download things, etc.
Then, think about what you want your website designer to actually do for you. This can include the design of the website and the set up, but also future updates and changes. You may need help with technical elements, like domains and hosting, as well as transferring content from a current website…again, ask if they can help with this.
Confused by words like ‘domain’ and ‘hosting’ – sign up to my mailing list and receive a free Digital Marketing Terms Jargon Buster. It contains over 100 easy-to-understand definitions.
Questions to ask your website designer
Here are a list of questions to keep handy to ask a potential website designer. Ensure you know the answers when comparing website designer services and choosing who to work with:
- Do you offer a template or bespoke design?
- Can you help with domains, hosting, and other technical stuff?
- How will my website remain update and secure?
- Can you help transfer old website content?
- Will I be able to easily make changes and small additions?
- Will you offer training?
- Will you do any optimisation?
- Will you help with my imagery?
- Will you help with my written content?
Support with the written content of your website
Most website designers are exceptional. They are creative. They are technical wizards. However, from my experience not many of them are also copywriters.
This means that the written content for your website needs to be provided my you. You can either write it yourself or you can outsource this to an expert website content writer.
Whilst the design of a website is important, alongside it being easy to use and navigate, the written content is still one of the most important elements. It is the absolute main factor for search engine optimisation (SEO). Afterall, Google ‘bots’ are ‘reading’ your website (or ‘crawling it’, as it is known) to find out what each section and page is all about.
There are so many elements of the written content to consider. Your headings need to be clear and transparent. Your paragraphs need to be suitable for reading digitally on screen sizes of different size, as does the overall length of texts or ‘chunks’ that you include. You need to think about rhetorical devices, hooks, calls to action too. Plus, not only do you want to think about the words on the pages themselves, you also want to think carefully about the meta data needed.
This is not meant to baffle you with science, but it is why agreeing with your website designer who will write the content, as well as when it will be needed is essential.
Also, if you are going to outsource this part of your website creation, you will want to budget for it when comparing design quotes.
Do keep all of this in mind.
Website designer red flags
When choosing to work with someone, no matter the task, I think you often get a gut feeling. Whilst, the above questions will help you to feel you have covered most bases and you can then make a truly informed decision, one final point I wanted to share was about a couple of ‘red flags’.
In a recent Content Club Guest Expert Session with experienced website designer, Eloise Adams, from This is Eloise, she highlighted two red flags to watch out for…and hence important things to consider when choosing your website designer.
The first is no revisions. If the website designer does not offer revisions on their design concept then this is a red flag for inflexibility and being quite ‘precious’ about their work. It means you could end up with something you really don’t like and yet have no way of asking for substantial changes – which could be a complete waste of money. Do ensure they offer a reasonable amount of choice and/or input on your design, as well as revisions. It can be hard to visualise what you want before you see some initial ideas, so this is really essential.
The second red flag is no training. Once your website is live there should be an element of ‘handover’ and an explanation of the ‘back end’ of your site and how to manage and maintain it. If not, it could suggest the website designer is hiding something or leaving you open to be wholly reliant on them for all future changes and edits.
Eloise told us, “I have so many clients who come to me and say that they had never thought to ask about training, because it should be a given, right?….Then, when training isn’t given they are stuck with a website that they can’t edit.”
Even, if you are not technically minded, do ask what access you will be given to your website, as well as the training offered, to make you feel confident and competent to manage, update and make edits to your website once it is live.
For more helpful information – explore Eloise’s freebies here: https://thisiseloise.co.uk/guides/
Great Written Content + Great Website Design = Best Small Business Outcomes
Working as part of a team to create a great website is on of the favourite parts of my job. I have seen the difference a good website can make to a small business, growing everything from leads, to visibility to completely new audiences and market opportunities.
A good website is an investment and therefore it is important to me that you make the most of every penny spent. And importantly, work with people who will help you to achieve great outcomes for your business.
Learn more about my website content writing services.
Get in touch for a chat about your website and your options today.