How to Hire a Web Designer

If you’ve considered hiring a Web designer for your small business, finding the right candidate can be daunting. Like most things, the more informed you are, the more satisfied you will be later on with your selection.

Hiring a Web Designer

The type of site you envision requires different skill sets for potential Web designers. Whether you want a brochure-marketing site (such as sites that advertise products, events, or other services) or a more information heavy site that deals with text, knowing what function you want your Web site to serve will help your designer know what language they’ll write a majority of the code in.

HTML and Flash are completely different technologies for completely different situations. HTML (and CSS) is best suited to content-based sites whereas Flash is best used for multi-media or Rich Internet applications. Knowing what you want from your site will help you choose a designer with the right background and knowledge. Sites focused on advertising, typically, use Flash. More text heavy sites, like MainStreet.com, are primarily written in HTML. Of course, both languages are often used together, depending on what the Web site needs.

Finding a Web Designer

Ask Around
Do you have friends who have moved or begun their business online? Do you know friends who hire Web developers for their employer? If so, ask them who they’ve hired and who they recommend.

Snoop
Once you’ve gotten names of a few designers, try and track down work they’ve done on other sites. If what you see matches closely in concept with what you envision your site to be, then try to set up a meeting.

Six questions you should ask:

1. Do you provide design work?
Depending on the Web designer you chose and what you need, you may want to consider hiring someone to create logos and other design elements for your site. In some cases, Web designers also do design work. If a potential designer has built wonderful sites, but didn’t provide the graphical flourishes, ask them to suggest someone who can.

2. Will the site work on multiple browsers? Will it work on multiple operating systems?
You want the content and layout of your site to look virtually the same on Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer. Similarly, you want to make sure that your site will be tested on other operating systems. It should work on Vista (STOCK QUOTE: MSFT) as well as it does on OS X and Linux.

3. Can I update my site?
Your Web site, like your business, should have a chance to grow. Depending on feedback, you will want to edit or modify your Web site to make those experiences easier on visitors.

4. What do you need to get started?
Over time, you and your Web designer will get to know each other. Until then, you should walk away from your meeting feeling as if you’ve given every detail you can imagine about your vision for the site.

5. Maintenance
Chances are, you’re not an expert when it comes to HTML or Flash. Make sure to ask your designer what software they use. Many designers simply write the code out by hand in a text editor, but there’s also software available to make maintaining the site easier on you.

6. Do you charge by the hour or by the project?
Danny Morrow, a New York City based Web designer says, “I typically charge per project, not per hour. I estimate how long I think it will take and set a rate.” For Morrow, the price of a project changes depending on the complexity of the project. Morrow’s projects are broken down into design, development, production, and deployment. “Costs are typically phased as well.” So, expect to pay your designer in installments.
Getting Noticed

Search Engine Optimization
Your designer my suggest ways to optimize your site for search engines. If not, ask how.
For a long time, Flash posed a problem for designers who wanted to make the pages they created visible to search engines. In July of this year, Adobe announced that it’s “providing optimized Adobe® Flash® Player technology to Google and Yahoo to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format.” This is good news for brochure Web sites, but if being found on the Web is important, make sure you bring this up with your designer. To date, sites like Google (STOCK QUOTE: GOOG) and Yahoo (STOCK QUOTE: YHOO) have a much easier time finding your site if it’s written in HTML.