5 Questions to Ask your Local Web Designer

When the service being provided is difficult to understand from a technical point of view, how do you know you are partnering with a professional who has your best interests at heart?

Asking a few simple questions of your local web designer can help you feel comfortable that your new partner in business has the skillset required, is willing to explain things in plain English, and also gives you an opportunity to gauge their willingness to go the extra mile for you and your business.

Here are 5 questions I encourage any business owner to ask before partnering with a web design professional

1. Who will manage the project and who will complete the technical work?

Working with a local web designer brings many advantages, from being able to meet & consult in-person over a coffee, to being able to visit and experience your business as a prospective customer might. Email and telephone communication has it’s place in an effective workflow when building an online presence or business, but nothing can quite match in-person connections to get a complete and nuanced perspective of your ultimate vision for your project.

In today’s hyper-connected world, it has become incredibly easy for agencies, studios and freelancers to contract out tasks associated with web development and design, sometimes for as little as $2 an hour. This allows the studio or agency to focus on the relationship with their client; taking on the role as project managers, but take a hands off approach in the actual building of the product they are selling, often without transparency to that arrangement. Without a direct connection to your actual developer, your site may not accurately reflect the vision you communicate to your local rep.

Before partnering with a web designer, make sure to ask who will be completing the actual work and where ultimate responsibility lays in regards to ensuring the site will be well built and follow best practises. Your partner should know the site intimately and this only comes from working on the code directly.

2. How much will the project cost?

This sounds like a simple question to answer, however without an effective consultation, no web developer who has your business interests at heart will be able to accurately quote a project sight-unseen.

A project quoted without an effective consultation meeting will likely skim or skip over important aspects of your site that need to be tailored to your business approach, your vision for the site, the goals for both short and long term, as well as the challenges and opportunties facing your industry. Project consultation that focuses on pre-set prices for a set number of pages will almost certainly result in a website that does not maximize it’s potential to support and grow your business. Resulting deficiencies to design or features can be costly and inefficient to address post-launch.

When working with a developer who may try to present a range of cost options and be happy to quote before getting to know your business, I would encourage you to ask yourself, “Who is this superficial approach benefiting most, and will I end up with a website that will maximize my project’s potential?”

3. How can I make changes to the site in the future?

Whether your new website is in supporting your business efforts, provides an outlet for your hobby or passion, or perhaps provides a community resource, your site will almost certainly require additions and updates to content once the site is live and drawing visitors. Having a clear line of sight into how those changes can be made and by who can help you quantify what continued investment may need to be made over time. Decisions regarding content updates should be made in the consultation phase.

For instance if you are running an online store or e-commerce business, it will absolutely benefit that business to be able to add and remove products without the need for serious technical know-how. Your local designer should consult with you on your anticipated needs, showcase the options for simple content updates, and give you an idea of what may be realistic to maintain yourself. They may or may not even offer training as part of their service. Where possible I build websites using the WordPress Content Management System, which allows clients with even very limited technical knowledge to exercise a large degree of control over their website’s content.

It is also very normal (and often a good idea) for you to want to focus on running your business and to leave even simple content updates to a professional. In that case, a good web designer should still spend time explaining the process and indicate the level of time and work likely required so that you know you are protecting your investment in a fair & sustainable way.

4. Will I own the site & do I own my domain name?

In my short time supporting small businesses and tradespeople with their online efforts, I have met with a surprising number of business owners who reach out to me looking to renew their web presence, only to find their current vendor actually owns their website site.

These sort of licensing agreements, where the business owner may forgo an upfront cost to build their site but instead pay a monthly fee to the developer, are almost never in the client’s best interest. While you may receive some of the benefits that are typically associated with a sensible monthly investment in support and care for your website such as backups and analytics, the sum charged is almost always larger than fair value for these items. As the months pass after launch, the true cost to build your site becomes more expensive over time, preventing investment in actually developing features or attracting more traffic.

The relationship between client and developer in a licensing agreement is also firmly tipped in favour of the developer charging a monthly fee. As the “owner” of the site, they can name their price for additional work requested and lockout access to their competitors in the marketplace who may offer fairer value. After all, they hold the digital keys to your site.

Having full ownership and control of such an important piece of your business and brand is worth an initial upfront cost in every circumstance. In addition to your site and content, your domain name is equally important for you to own completely. Having your .com or .ca address controlled and owned by another individual is a recipe for being held hostage or squeezed for cash come renewal time. Make sure your local web designer is transparent and advocates for your business interests & security long-term.

5. Will my site be mobile-friendly?

I’ve mentioned previously the importance of having a mobile-friendly site for a variety of reasons. Since 2015, Google’s Penguin Algorithm has prioritized ranking mobile-friendly websites first, and so without an adaptive, responsive or mobile-first website build, you are already at a disadvantage to your competition.

I am sure many of you reading this have searched on a mobile phone for a service, store or product while running your day to day business. Even if a non-mobile-friendly site was top of the search rankings (hint- since 2015 it won’t be), what are the chances that once it tries to load a site designed for desktop onto a cell phone screen that you will choose to spend your money with that business?

Developing mobile-friendly sites involves a significant amount of extra designing, coding, tweaking and testing to ensure a great user experience regardless of device, and low cost or unscrupulous vendors may skip these steps in order to minimise the time spent working on each project. Your developer should mention the imporance of mobile design during your consultation.

If you have any questions embarking on a new website for your business or project, I would love to hear from you! Send me an email to mike@mike-watson.com or give me a call at 519-865-1885.

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