How to choose a web designer

Man, the web design market is saturated.

So if you’re looking to hire a web designer, it can be really difficult to figure out the genuine professionals from the amateurs. But the last thing you want to do is invest a lot of time and money and end up with something unfinished, or that you’re not happy with. Equally, you don’t want to pay over the odds, but you understand that if you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys.

 

Here are a few (hopefully impartial) tips on how to choose a web designer.

Get a recommendation

By far the best way to choose any service is to go with someone that someone you know and trust the judgement of recommends. If you have friends or colleagues who have had a website designed, then pick their brains. Were they happy with the service they got, and would they recommend who they used? Or did they choose based on price and live to regret it? Use their experiences to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Get a few quotes

If you can’t get someone through a recommendation, then it’s worth getting a few quotes. This is not necessarily to find out the cheapest price (going with the cheapest option will almost always end in headaches and unexpected expenses down the line), but to get a sense of the service and quality of product they provide. Do they really listen to your needs and come up with a solution that fits? Or do they just send out a standard template email? How they deal with your enquiry is a good reflection of how they will work down the line.

Go with your gut

At the end of the day it’s about finding someone you can trust and work with long term. A website isn’t a one-off deal, it needs to keep working for years to come. So you need to choose someone who you think you’ll be happy building an ongoing relationship with. Good relationships develop into friendships and maintain high levels of trust and a feeling of security. This is well worth paying a little extra for.

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