Top Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Website Designer

When you need a website for your company, it is always essential to hire the best designer and developer to get the best results. A top class website designer can help you earn lots of revenue from your website in almost no time. However, employers do not know whom to hire, and how to hire, what factors they should consider before hiring. So they end up getting poorly designed websites or websites that fail to succeed.

What Are the Factors Should You Consider Before Hiring a Web Designer?

The Purpose of Your Website: Why do you need a website? Is it for a specific purpose or several purposes? Do you need it for a short-term project or a long-term project? These are some crucial questions that you must think of before hiring someone. If your project is short and does not plan on using your website after it is over, you may not need a web designer. It will be an unnecessary expense for you. But if it is a long-term project or you want to have a site to market your products and get more traffic, having a website designer will be immensely beneficial.

Your Budget for the Site: Budget is another crucial factor that you must decide before the hiring process. And this budget is different from your overall budget for the business. If you want professional designers with many years of work experience, you must also have the budget to pay for the same. You should be able to afford such a designer. But if your budget is low and you do not want to spend a lot on your site, you should find someone who will work for you at a low cost. The best thing to do is to spend some money on your site and ensure that it is top quality rather than saving it. Such a website has the potential to get you many new customers, and you will earn twice as much as your initial investment.

How Much Time You Have: Even though you want a website, you may not have enough time to get it done. In that case, you can either get a CMS website that can be set up in a few minutes, or you can hire someone willing to work in a limited time. If you have more time in your hands, your website is likely to be better. But you must also know that designers may charge you more either way. Many designers are willing to design a site in a short time only if they are paid well. At the same time, designers who work for an extended length of time also need to be paid for the same. The difference in the cost is often negligible.

After considering all these factors, you are ready to go through the hiring process. Always keep in mind that it can be tedious and time-consuming. So you need to make it worthwhile for your business.

Here Are the Top Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid When Hiring a Web Designer

Not Going Through Their Work or Portfolio: A designer is best known for his work. S/he must indeed have all the necessary qualifications to design a website, but that is not enough. It is the experience that s/he has in creating sites that are of utmost importance. If a designer does not know how to use all the skills s/he has acquired or is not able to make the best use of them when designing a site, s/he is not considered a good designer. The mistake many employers make is, they go through the CV and hire a designer based on what is on it.

To avoid this mistake, the first thing you should do is go through the CV and see if the designer has all the skills required for the job. Then, ask him for a portfolio of his works that will show you how many projects he has done in the past and the variety he can bring in his work. Finally, look him up on the internet and check out his profile on various platforms like Upwork and LinkedIn. If he has done online projects, you should also check out what his ratings are and how many recommendations he has got.

Related:- Top five common mistakes web designers make.

Checking Out Only Local Designers: More often than not, the first thing you do when hiring a designer is looking for designers near you. Most employers do that, and so they have limited choice. You may be living in a locality where there are only a few designers, and none of them have done any big project in the past. It means your options will be limited to designers who may not do your project well.

To avoid this mistake, be open to hiring designers from around the world. Today, it is possible to outsource designers as well as design agencies from various countries at low prices. You can do so too. You do not always have to go for high priced design agencies. What is essential for you is the quality of the work, and the high price need not always mean the best quality.

Hiring a Designer to Develop A Website: Another common mistake that employers make is that they hire a designer and expect them to build a site. While most designers these days know how to code with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a few other programming languages, it is not their job to build a site. They are primarily responsible for the aesthetics of the site, that is, how good the site looks and how impressive it is to the audience. Hiring a designer as a developer may be the biggest mistake you make for your website.

To avoid it, learn the difference between a developer and a designer and what work they do. Know that a designer is not the right person to develop a site even though s/he has coding knowledge. She/he can assist the web developer in building your website but not work on it entirely. At the same time, you must also know that many developers today have some knowledge of web design and how it works. But if you hire a web developer and ask him to do the work of both a developer and a designer may not be ideal unless you have a meager budget.

Paying Too Much or Too Little: Many companies end up spending more than they should on a website, and sometimes too little. When hiring a web designer, especially in the case of a design agency, you are told that their agency is unique and so you need to pay the extra money. On the other hand, you may also find online agencies offering to design you a site at a low price. The result may not be as good.

To avoid this mistake, learn about the various costs involved in designing a website. Also, know that all web designs are usually written in HTML and CSS, and even though there are differences in the codes that designers write, they are not enough for you to pay more money than you ideally should. Similarly, do not fall for agencies that work at low prices, especially if you are serious about your site. A good strategy is to find out what your competitors are offering and offer something higher, so the best designers choose your firm over the others. It is essential to know that saving on the initial design may not be right for your site if you want to attract more long-term customers.

Not Getting a CMS: A CMS or a content management system is something that helps you manage your website and cater to the individual requirements of all your customers. It is popularly used by business enterprises today. But there are firms where you will not find a CMS because they think that getting a developer and a designer is enough. If you have them , you do not need anything else to manage the content of your site because they will do it for you. What they fail to realize is that the idea is not feasible and also expensive in the long run. Getting a designer to manage your site from time to time will cost you much money, just as having one at your firm 24/7, even though you may not need him all the time.

To avoid this mistake, get a good quality CMS like Salesforce. Check out all the features of your new CMS and learn how to make optimal use of these features. It is the most customer-friendly approach to doing business and will help it grow more efficiently and effectively.

Not Discussing Business Strategies: Your business strategies are essential for your website. Many companies do not feel the need to discuss them with their designers. Instead, they get along with what the designer says and give them the freedom to work accordingly. Sharing your business strategies provide some context to all your site requirements and help the designer understand why you want it a certain way.

To avoid this mistake, discuss your business strategies before your designer starts working on your website. Know that your ideas and decisions are also important and that they should be able to work on those ideas as best as possible.

Not Discussing the Maintenance Cost: Many employers think that the initial cost is also the ultimate cost required for the business. It is, however, not true. Every website needs to be updated from time to time due to the frequent changes in the trends in design. A web designer is required to update and maintain the site. Not discussing how much s/he will charge you for additional work will be problematic because you will have to pay outside of your budget to get it done.

To avoid this mistake, discuss maintenance costs before hiring the designer or design agency. Also, know that some agencies offer to do the first update for free and you have to pay for other successive updates.

Frequently Asked Questions About Hiring Web Designers

Why should I hire web designers when I can use website builders like Wix or WordPress?

WordPress and Wix are made for people who want a website without learning to code. As a result, the website you will get will not be unique or innovative. Further, when you hire a web designer, you do not hire them only to design your site for you. They create something unique for you that gives good competition to all your competitors. At the same time, they also guide you and give you important strategies to make the most out of your site. Website builders cannot do that.

Why do I need custom designs when I can buy a template at a cheaper cost?

A cheap template can be a quick and easy solution while designing a site. But it essentially means that you are trying to cut down on your initial expenses. Doing so will be harmful to your website because you are less likely to get traffic or new leads. Custom design has a higher chance of impressing a new audience worldwide, and your chance at success is also high.

How do I choose a good web designer for my project?

Some of the things you usually look for in a good web designer are his skills, qualifications, work experience, and so on. But there are also some secondary qualifications that you must not ignore. A good web designer will have a strong sense of aesthetics. S/he will be able to understand and analyse well all the current trends in web design. S/he will also have excellent communication skills, the ability for teamwork, a sense of time, and other essential soft skills.

Is there any website for hiring web designers online?

There are many websites online for hiring website designers. But we recommend you hire from Global Employees. Global Employees, offer some of the best talents you will ever find. You do not have to sign any long-term contracts. You can scale up or down any time you want with a short notice period. The process is completely risk-free. You do not have to pay any upfront cost. Further, you also do not pay any support cost or infra cost, such as the cost of setup, liability, management, and so on. These are completely free for you. And if you are not satisfied with the services of the web designers you get 100% of your money back without any questions from their part.