Here are the top 5 questions to ask your web designer.
When you have a project that requires the work of a web designer, you’re going to want to ask them a few questions before getting started. This will ensure your project will get completed flawlessly. Here are the top 5 questions to ask your web designer.
1. Do You Handle Domain Registration & Web Hosting?
This one is very important. I don’t think any web designer should be offering these services. I have seen it over and over through the 17+ years of being in business. If a web designer is offering these services it is because it is passive income, and they get a kickback from offering these services. The domain and hosting aren’t actually provided by the web designer. They are obtaining them through companies like GoDaddy or BlueHost as a reseller.
I will help business owners register their domain and purchase/set up their hosting if they don’t feel comfortable doing so themselves. However, I always put everything under their name, business, and billing info. I never put anything under my name. I then provide them all of the login details to their account.
Why do I do this? Well, what if I don’t continue my business forever? What happens to all of those domains and hosting accounts?
It is important that business owners own, control, and have access to their own domains and hosting accounts. Web designers providing these services usually put these accounts under their names not the actual name of the business it is for.
Over the years, I have seen web designers hold these items hostage when the client decides to switch designers, I have seen them completely close up their businesses and leave clients hanging with all of their domains, hosting, and email accounts associated with that business. I have even seen clients lose their domains due to the designer not renewing it.
2. Do you use pre-made templates? Or custom designs?
This is a great question and there are pros and cons to each. If your quote is $3,000 or less, and they are using a pre-made template, then that is perfectly fine and will work to your benefit. It saves time, which then saves you money. However, if you have a $5,000+ quote then you better hope that it’s a custom design.
But, this also depends on what your web designer is building your website in (Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, or WordPress). Do they have any coding skills and experience? This will all affect the price.
Most of the platforms mentioned above don’t allow you to customize anything. You have to work off of a template and the template only allows you to change certain things.
We build our websites in WordPress and depending on the project and the client’s needs, will determine whether we use a pre-made theme or if it is custom-built through a builder.
WordPress still allows us to customize the pre-made theme however we like. We use pre-made themes for the layout and functionality. How the pre-made template looks at the start of the project and how it looks in the end are two different things. We do not use the same pre-made theme more than once. Each and every one of our projects looks different.
Most of the WordPress websites that we create these days are custom designed WordPress websites. We barely use-premade themes for our projects.
Also, take a look at the potential web designer’s portfolio. Is there a consistent look their all the websites they build? If so, that is NOT a good thing.
3. How long will it take to complete my website?
Understandably, I get this question a lot. It is the million-dollar question. For a small business informational website, we estimate the turnaround time to be 6-8 weeks. We can make a website in a weekend, two weeks, a month, and some can take several months…some have even taken a year to complete.
What is the most common reason a project gets delayed? It’s due to not providing web designers with the items they need in order to proceed. This can include providing feedback or images and content, or replying to emails in a timely manner.
4. How involved do I need to be in the web design process?
This is really important. I used to have to warn people that they were going to be, and need to be, heavily involved in the project. My goal is that YOU love the final product in the end. I want to make sure that YOU are proud of it in the end. I have had people come to me saying they paid $10,000 for a new website and hate it. How does that happen?
This is why I tell my clients over and over that the goal is that they love it in the end. You are not going to promote it or send people to your website if you hate it. given this, what was the point?
You will be providing us with feedback along the way. You will be providing us with content, images, and videos. We will need your logo and branding colors. We cannot pull everything out of the sky. A lot of items will need to come from you. If you don’t like something about your website, you need to feel comfortable enough with your web designer to actually say it. Find someone you have be honest and blunt with. Don’t beat around the bush with your feedback and thoughts.
5. Can I edit the website myself once launched?
Most people won’t think of this until after the website is completed but it is still important to discuss at the start. Will you be provided training so you can edit your content, images, and products once the site is done? Does the web designer have packages available or would you rather them to update and maintain it? Will you be even given administrator access to your site afterwards?
To this day, I still meet business owners who don’t have administrator/ownership access to their websites and was never shown how they can make minor changes to them. The web designer makes them go through them for every little change…and charges for it.
We provide our clients with several options once a website is completed. We do provide training and all logins that were created or are associated with the project. This is included within our website package and is not extra.
We also have packages available for those who do not want to update and maintain their own website from a monthly reoccurring package to one time package. We will provide everything, so if they have a staff member who could take on the updates and changes of their new website, that is OK too!
Also, our clients will always receive a FREE month of website tech support from us as well.