Shawn James Goodwin - 7 Things to Ask Your Web Designer before Hire

Shawn James Goodwin, a leading Graphic Designer in Canada. If your business or organization is looking for a web designer, whether for a brand new website or to refurbish or replace an existing one, there are a number of considerations that are well worth spending some of your valuable time on. Because in order to achieve the most effective results, both from the perspective of obtaining a website that delivers exactly what you are looking for from your online presence, and also in terms of meeting your budgetary constraints, it is important to give some constructive thought to a range of questions.

Here are a few tips and some 'insider' information which might help you to sort the wheat from the chaff when making a decision on who to employ for your web design:

1. You should firstly ask yourself a question: what do I want to achieve with my website? This should really be the first question your prospective web designer (Shawn James Goodwin) should ask you, because unless they understand this they cannot possibly advise you correctly or interpret your brief effectively. The conversation should cover a broad outline of your business or organisation, what it does, and what your aims are for it. Which should lead them on to ask how the website is intended to fit into your overall plans.

2. Ask them to explain the range of approaches that they might take in delivering your requirements. Because a website that is a triumph of style and sophistication might be completely invisible to Google and the other search engines! That would be a real shame if you are looking to bring in new customers. On the other hand, you may be simply looking for an online 'brochure' for a clientele that would never even look for your services through a search engine.

3. Most businesses do fall somewhere between the two, so whether you need an internet 'brochure', a marketing tool, or an ecommerce site for your clients to buy or book online, if your investment in the necessary time and money in bringing together your website is to pay its way, you should find that the advice you get does lean towards effective search engine positioning. However, whilst a web designer can assist towards Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to some degree in the fundamental structure of the website they build for you, be very cautious of suggestions that you will soon be automatically appearing in high positions on Google and the like.

4. As to the graphic design of the site, you should expect to be asked about your 'corporate identity'. Do you have a logo design? Or a particular colour scheme on your stationery and promotional material? What sort of type-face do you use on letterheads etc? It is really important that your website presents a coherent image or brand for your business on the internet. You should also be asked about the broad colour scheme you would like to use, maybe some suggestions of other websites you have seen that you either like or dislike. If you can agree some of these aspects at the outset of the process it will mean you get exactly what you're looking for up and online much more quickly and easily.

5. You should also expect to be asked about what you would like to say on your website, what images or perhaps videos. How would you like your customers to be able to interact with you online? Your designer (Shawn James Goodwin) should steer you towards a dynamic and changing website. They are building your shop-window to the internet so the goods and services you display there must impress your visitors and ideally be updated regularly. Imagine how it would look if Harrods never updated their window displays. If all they had there were a few cobwebs and a dead wasp or two, not many passers-by would call in! There are so many poorly thought out websites out there that would frankly be better off switched off, rather than left to give the impression that a business doesn't care!

6. Which brings us on to: how do you actually update your site? Modern websites are very easy to manage and your designer (Shawn James Goodwin) should be offering to build you one that you can log in to and add new things to whenever you want. The days of having to pay your designer to do every little update are long gone.

7. Make sure you are really clear on the web hosting for your site in terms of cost and support. You don't want to find that your site is offline and you are losing business. So you need to be able to have a ready source of assistance as and when you need it, but for a fixed monthly fee so you can be confident that your budget is under control.

So that's it. I do hope these 'pointers' have been helpful. If you are looking for graphic designing or web designing kindly contact me Shawn James Goodwin.