How to choose a good web designer / developer

How to choose a good web designer / developer

A good web design is very subjective and even a great design as perceived by one person will not be seen as such by others.

Before you begin your search the first thing to Set a budget is what you have. This Determine whether you should look at a design agency or a freelance web designer.

So what should you look for? Are you looking for someone with exceptional creative talent, an excellent historical sites, or just rely on the advice of others. Without doubt a very important web designer portfolio, you would not call someone if you are not interested in their creations before. When They Do not Check the site to see them all look the same, check out the pages load fast and above all the checks They are easy to navigate through and that 'you never feel lost in the site.

When you approach a designer we suggest you ask the following questions:

1) If a logo is necessary to ask them how they approach the process of branding and how they can build your brand at this time

2) Ask them how they created the design concept

3) When coding the site to check them validate all the pages in the W3C validator? This ensures error-free pages and any coder will be automatically respected unsure automatically post to all sites. A good test is to see a list of new clients and check their site using the W3C validator http://validator.w3.org/ ~ ~ V ~ ~ V).

4) Decide what you need to target your audience and because it's what you want a supported browser. If you want a site that works on any browser version 4 and above on PC and Mac then it will cost more than a site that was developed for Internet Explorer 5 and up on the PC. If you have decide what browsers and operating systems are supported as it will check the developers have access to all relevant browsers and platforms as you need (ie they have a Macintosh if you need this)

5) If your site requires an e-commerce designers ask if they have experience in this field and ask them to show an example.

6) Do you need a content management system (CMS)? Content Management System helps you manage the text on your pages without knowing any HTML. Many developers are able to offer this service so if you need to ask them for advice, as they have worked before CMS will be much more cost effective than using what they have.

7) If you want your designer to market your site on search engines so experience in this area is very important. Many companies offer tools that promise to submit to 1000's of search engines, but most people agree this does not work as well as links submitted by hand. Find out what projects they have been marketed in the search engines, go to Google and if you have the Google toolbar installed know the Page Rank of the site (Page Rank 4 and above generallt considered acceptable, anything less than 3 can be done with further optimization and submission of the site). Remember it takes time to get listed on search engines, and even longer to update the Page Rank Google. (This process may take more than three months)

8) Work out whether you need an affiliate marketing such as banner ads or other forms of online advertising. If you want to go down this route, you need to make sure they have experience in this field or use a separate company for this work.