It is important to have an open and frank conversation with your web designer about a wide range of issues pertaining to your website. Below are 5 discussion points you should include in your meeting with your designer before making a hiring decision.

What are your web development needs?

The needs of a retail store verses that of a tradesman would be completely different. Business owners need to think about what their goals are online and develop a plan to achieve these goals. The website should be the center piece of achieving these objectives. The retail store will focus on images and ecommerce to sell their products through the website. This site should focus on who the audience is and what their buying patterns are.

The tradesman is a local person and needs to appeal to the local communities in their target market. The website should reflect the local communities they target and the services they provide.

The web development needs are completely different for each of these clients.

Experience

Request to see the portfolio of the designer you will be working with to build your website. Look to see if they have other clients with similar design needs you are looking for in your website. Google these clients to see if you can find them on page one of the search. It is important to hire someone with experience and has a portfolio to back it up.

Support staff

No one person can stay current on all the changes in the web design and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) worlds and that is why it is important to work with a design firm that has the staff to stay current on all the changes that go on in web development. You don’t want your web designer doing your social media and you don’t want your blogger to do your graphic design. It is important to work with a firm large enough to have specialists in each field.

Mobile web design and SEO

Having a mobile website is a must in today’s business climate. Mobile searches are growing by the minute and Google will penalize you, in the mobile searches, if your site is not mobile compatible. The world is moving very quickly towards mobile searches and it is critical that your web designer has experience in this market place.

Process and time frames

It is a good idea to discuss the process and time frames of the project before getting started. Both the client and the web designer should agree on what the deadlines are for receiving information and building the web site. When deadlines are agreed to in advance the project will run much smoother and there will be less confusion on when the work will be completed.

These five discussion points are just a few of the items you should be discussing with your web developer. This list should be expanded based on your needs and goals. To schedule an appointment with GIT to review your site contact us here .