Avoid – The Finger Pointers “It’s not me, it’s you..”
It’s worrying to be the person at fault for something gone terribly wrong. However, somebody who is confident in their role does not need to finger point and distance themselves away from the situation.
You are looking for a website designer who is easily able to acknowledge their mistakes because they know how to correct them or they are confident in finding a way to correct them. It’s easier to finger point and this strategy may work the first couple of times before the client begins to realise it’s all lies. The client loses trust, the agency has a damaged reputation and nobody wins at the end of it all.
A Guide To Choosing A Website Designer
To save yourself the time and heartache, ask the website designer what are some of the major problems they have encountered and how did they deal with the issue. I’d be very surprised if nobody came across a problem or made a mistake. It’s how they dealt with it that matters most.
Look For – The Ambitious
When meeting web designers, have questions ready to sift out the ambitious – those who understand that the more your website becomes successful the more it will benefit the web designer in the long run.
The benefits of building a successful website are numerous for the website builder. They will get more work to expand and grow the website or they will get quality feedback that helps build trust among new contacts they begin to talk to. The ideal web designer understands that the more the client grows and becomes successful, the more the web designer sees success also. They have a boss to impress and a better salary to aim for, as well as prospects of a promotion and more career opportunities.
A good sign from your initial meeting with your web developer is that they take in all of your goals and understand what you want to achieve from your website. If they have a Fact Find sheet then this is a great sign as they have taken time to make sure they ask probing questions about your company and goals.
The next thing to look out for is how much their questions make you think about your goals for your website. Good signs that they are asking the right questions is them speaking about the journey they want your users to take on the website, how you would like potential visitors to reach out to you and ask about your company/website future plans.
Two Outstanding Traits Of A Successful Website Developer
- Making sure the client gets exactly what they want, this should be a mixture of the goals of the company and the creativity of the web company.
- Will challenge your goals and help you in reaching them. A good developer understands design, function and marketing of a website.
What Sort Of Questions Should I Ask To Weed Out The Ambitious?
Catching them off guard and out of the blue will help show their true self to you.
Personal questions that ask about their ambitions in life. If they only talk about their work ambitions then this is a sign that they are trying too hard to impress and might not see the benefits of connecting with you on a personal level. If they want a big house, to live in a respectable area, have high quality holidays etc. then you can gauge their level of ambition which results in their willingness to work hard for those ambitions.
This will seem odd at first. Yet those who find it odd are the ones you may want to avoid as today’s website designers are more than just workers. Those few know that in order to get ahead of the competition, they need to exceed customer expectations by connecting with clients.
Google a question about something really obscure that only a web designer would know, memorise the answer and then ask them the question. Find out if they answer it truthfully or falsely.
Business questions that ask what the agency strives to achieve.
Every business wants more customers and more growth but it’s how they go about doing it that counts. If the agency’s main strategy to grow is through word of mouth and recommendations, then you have found the ideal agency.
The aim is to see if the person you want to work with is easy to connect with on a personal level. Those who know you well will take extra steps to make life easier and are able to help you more effectively as they understand you on a personal level rather than as a client.
They know who you are, what your challenges are and your pain points. A smart web designer knows that in order to get the best out of the project, they need to know who they’re dealing with.
Look For – The Deposit
Reputable agency’s require only a percentage of the job upfront as a deposit. Avoid those who require all of it upfront. There’s a set process in place whereby payment is scheduled. 50% is paid upfront and another 50% is paid upon completion.
Look For – Existing Clients
Speak with their existing clients. Smart website agencies should have no problem making it easy for leads to check existing clients through LinkedIn, Facebook or their own website. Anybody can have testimonials with the person’s name and company as the signature, but not anybody can have links that take you directly to the client.
Avoid – Too Good To Be True?
Be cautious of agencies who have a set price upfront. Every client has their own needs, desires, challenges and pain points. If you buy a website that has a set price then you will most likely be charged to add more features and fix existing problems.
Reputable agency’s won’t be able to set a price until they know exactly what you want. The custom website will then have all the features you asked for and problems that arise will be fixed during the build at no extra cost.
The final price is final to protect the client and the agency.
Look For – Built For Mobile
One of the major factors in determining whether or not your website will be on page 1 for your industry related search terms is if your website is 100% optimised for mobile. More and more businesses are optimising their website for mobile so to get ahead you need to make sure your website is built for mobile.
You are determined to do everything you can to get ahead of the competition and building your website for mobile is one of the best ways to do so.
Look For – A Background In Inbound Marketing and SEO
A World Class Website Designer will take into account heatmaps and eye tracking studies as well as psychological triggers to help build the most efficient website layout. They will understand inbound marketing and have a fantastic knowledge on SEO. Choosing a website designer who has a very good knowledge on inbound marketing will get your business website ahead of the competition where competitors hire website designers who are only programmers with SEO knowledge.
They work in close proximity with inbound marketers who have experience in increasing conversions rates and know that it all starts with the design. It’s one thing to build a beautiful, clean website but to build a successful website requires lots of data and statistics research and experience in boosting website conversion rates for a variety of industries.
The world class website designer also takes into account SEO to make the URL paths smooth and easy for Google to crawl. Another major factor that helps boost the business to page 1.
Look For – Authoritative Position
Look For – Authoritative Position
Your ideal designer will be in an authoritative position. People who are able to multi- task, oversee other colleagues and their jobs and consistently come up with creative ways to help the workforce have a higher tolerance to stress. They are creative individuals as they need to find the answers to a variety of problems their colleagues come across.
If they can handle their colleague’s issues with confidence, if one of their jobs is to motivate staff and encourage positive attitudes that boosts staff productivity, and if they welcome challenges and relish in tackling those challenges then you will have no problems working with this person. More importantly you will never find yourself looking for answers and doing all the stressing.
Look For – Uses A Content Management System (CMS)
Building on a CMS is very useful for the client as they won’t need to learn coding to edit their website’s content. WordPress and Magento are two of the best and most popular platforms to use. Hubspot, in our opinion, is the best of the best.
Without a CMS you are tied down to your web designer for content management. To have complete control of your content use any one of those 3 platforms. Your website must come with a custom, easy to use interface so you don’t need programming skills.
For further insights and guidance, we invite you to explore our blog at 07hm.co.uk/blog. Here, you’ll find a wealth of information tailored to the needs and challenges of SMEs navigating the digital landscape. Additionally, if you have specific questions or need personalised advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email at info@07hm.co.uk or telephone on 01702 410663.
