Not Taking Advantage of Easy Research

An extremely effective and convenient way to see if a website designer can help you accomplish your website goals is by looking at their past websites. You can easily discern the quality, ability, and overall attractiveness of their work.

Ask your web developer for a list of their past clients, and then take a few minutes to review their websites. What do you notice about them? Are the designs and layouts catered to each specific company? Are there features that you desire for your own site? A quick internet search can show you your web designer’s capabilities, and thus help you decide if they are a good fit for your web needs.

Picking a Developer that Doesn’t Learn New Things

The web and technology industry is changing constantly, but many developers don’t attempt to change with it. A developer that uses outdated approaches or refuses to add new methods to their repertoire may limit your site’s potential.

When meeting a new developer, ask them about any new programming languages that they recently learned, or inquire about new technologies, techniques, or software that they’ve incorporated into their business. This is a surefire way to tell if they prioritize adapting to constantly changing web environments.

Not Knowing Who is Doing Your Work

You should know if your web developer sub-contracts the majority of their work out to freelance writers, designers, or artists. Sure, freelance is fast and convenient, but it may result in a lack of communication between you and your developer. Instead of a committed designer, you’ll be doing business with a middleman.

To ensure that your site is being made by the people who you hired to make it, ask your developer about each of their employees. What will they do for you? What are their skills? Who should you go to if you want artwork? Which one of them should you contact if you’re having a content problem? If possible, try and meet each person so that you can put faces to the names and become familiar with the people who will help build your site.

Sometimes, using freelancers is necessary to get a job done right. If this is the case, ask your developer which freelancers they usually hire from, or ask to see the freelancer’s previous work. Strong trust and frequent communication between you and your web developer will result in fewer problems throughout the web-making process.

Lacking a Clear Vision for your Site

Many people know that they want a website to help their business, but they don’t take the time to think about what that will look like. You should be able to articulate exactly what you expect from your web developer so that they may create a plan to help you achieve those goals.

Take a step back and look at what you want for your business, and then think about how your website should accomplish it. Do you sell a physical product? Then you should inquire about e-commerce features.

Are you an independent business looking to build your local reputation? Then you should ask about making social media connections a focal point of your site.

Is your company a large, multi-branch operation that relies heavily on centralized information? Then you should discuss ways to make your website the most accessible and easily navigable as possible.

Having a clear intention of what your new website should offer you and your clients will help your developer better understand how they can make that happen. How can you expect your web developer to know what you want if you don’t know what you want?

ImageWorks, LLC | CT Web Design

If you steer clear of these mistakes when searching for a web designer, you will be able to create a fresh, user-friendly experience for your visitors.

If you partner with a company like ImageWorks LLC that specializes in both responsive web design and inbound marketing, you can merge your design and marketing goals together to create an appealing website that effectively draws in website traffic, converts leads into customers, and makes it easy for users to find what they are looking for and communicate with your company.