Without a good web designer, it’s very hard to get an effective website live to grow your business so here are my top tips in picking a good designer for your business.

1. make sure you are comfortable with them – if you can’t communicate you’re fighting uphill before you start
2. look at the designer’s (not the design company’s) portfolio to be sure you like their work – and that they don’t all look like replicas of the same site
3. check their credentials – do they have relevant training? how much experience do they have?
4. ask others for feedback – check within your network for previous clients of the designer. And that includes asking your social media networks, too.
5. make sure you are very clear on what is (and isn’t) included in the price – remember to check details like copyright and licensing on tools
6. ensure you get full access to your site once it is done – you don’t want to be locked into the designer making every little change on your site moving forward (even if you want them to manage it most of the time, give yourself options)
7. customer service – if it is questionable during the query/quote phase, do you want to assume they will answer emails quickly when your deadline is approaching?
8. personal contact – bigger companies may give you an account manager rather than direct contact with a designer. Personally, I find it easier to talk with the designer than let my comments go through a third person and to be sure I get the same designer, but if you relate to the account manager you may be happy with that arrangement.
9. convenience – is the designer local enough to see them? Or are you comfortable enough to work via email/phone/etc?
10. price – look at what it includes before comparing it and remember that neither the cheapest nor the most expensive are automatically the best. Freelance sites, in my experience, under pay so I wouldn’t look there for realistic prices or the best designers

This post is part of Word Constructions’ Setting up a website series
1. having a website helps more than you
2. what’s involved in setting up a website?
3. Learn about web hosting
4. Preparing your initial website content
5. Managing website design 101

related content – how do you choose a good writer?