In this article we are going to discuss things to look out for when hiring a web designer for you personal projects or your businesses – particularly if you are living in Wollongong and the Illawarra area. Digiweb Media is a company of web designer Wollongong businesses can rely on, however do not just take our words for it. Let’s take a look at a number of factors which are critical in hiring a web designer. Do your due diligence, and then decide yourself if your chosen web designer is the right one. If you follow all the directions you should be able to find the best local web design Wollongong company for your needs.
So what are the important factors to look for when you are hiring a web designer in Wollongong?
Before we discuss about this, it is important to first look at the different types of “web designer”. Because the “web designer” term is so commonly used, it is sometimes used incorrectly to describe similar professions with (sometimes very) different job descriptions.
Generally speaking the widely known types of “web designers” are:
Web Designer
These are the real web designers who design the entire website. This may include the logo design, the graphic design, the page layouts, the menu structure, the main content of the website, the header and the footer, the sidebar layouts, and so on. Basically every component that you see on a website could potentially be designed by the web designer. Although it is not uncommon to outsource some of the tasks to other people, such as logo design, content articles, etc.
The most common tools used by web designers are web design tool such as Adobe Dreamweaver , or popular website CMS such as WordPress or Joomla. Web designers must also be very knowledgable on HTML and CSS.
Graphic Designer
The graphic designers normally have very high artistic sense and they make the eye catching graphics with the right colour balance and contrast. Graphic designers normally design everything graphics and not just the website graphics. They can design graphics for the logo, flyers, brochures, letterhead, etc. It is important to also point out that printed graphic design is somewhat different to online graphic design (designing graphics for newspaper would be different to designing graphics for a website although they carry some similarities).
The most commonly used tool for graphics processing worldwide is Adobe Photoshop as graphic designers deal a lot with photos / images and sometimes also videos. Graphic designers need to study and understand many graphics related psychology such as the psychology of colours and whitespace.
Logo Designer
Logo designers are actually graphic designers. Because almost every website has a logo, it is very common for a web designer to be able to design a logo as well.
Web Developer
The web developers write the program/code for a website. This can range from a simple input form to a very complex and sophisticated e-commerce online store such Amazon. Digiweb Media is not just a Wollongong web design company, but we also build e-commerce stores for our clients, mostly built in Magento and Shopify platforms.
Web developers are not always required in designing a website. This is especially true if the website is designed in the popular click-and-drag CMS such as WordPress. Although static websites do have code built inside them, the popular CMS makes it possible for the web designer or even the end users to design a website without needing to understand even single line of code.
The most popular programming languages used by web developers worldwide are Java, PHP and ASP.net.
Web Marketing Consultant / Internet Marketing Consultant
Web marketing consultants are those who make the websites visible to the world, especially by the search engines. It is pretty much useless to have even the best designed website in the world, if no one ever knows about it or visit it. It is the job of the Internet marketing consultant / web marketing consultant to solve this problem.
There are two basic strategies to market a website, the first is to promoting it naturally/organically in the search engine results page using SEO / Search Engine Optimisation processes. The second is to promote the website using paid / online advertising media, such as PPC / Pay-per-click. The largest PPC program on the planet currently is Google AdWords. In the last few years SMM (Social Media Marketing) has becoming more and more popular and provides a new way to promote a website / web page using viral marketing.
After we understand the different types of web related professions commonly known just as “web designer”, now let’s look at different factors that you need to be aware of in hiring a web designer for your projects or business.
Social Proof / Testimonial / Genuine Reviews
This is genuine proof given by other customers of the web design company. The best social proof is the word-of-mouth, although some online review sites also provide some insights about the company performance.
Cost / Price
Definitely important one especially for small business. Nowadays designing a simple 5-6 pages website shouldn’t cost you a fortune and you could very likely get one of these for under $500 only. Contact us today to get one the most competitive web design quotes on the market without compromising on quality.
Portfolios
This is very important yet often overlooked by potential clients when looking for a web designer. The portfolios of a web design company will show you the designs that they have done for their previous clients. You can get a taste of what their designs look like, do they all look the same and whether they suit what you need.
Knowledge and Skills
The only way to find out about the real knowledge and skills of the web designer company or consultant is to meet them face-to-face and ask them questions. Ask them if they do their own work, or do they outsource to some freelancers in Asia for example. It is important to work with someone who does their own web design, as you would want to be involved along the way and communicate directly to the person who does the design of your website. Also ask them the technologies that they use in their web design. You don’t need to understand the technicalities, but you would be able to get some sense from their answers whether they really know what they are talking about, whether they sound excited or passionate about their jobs, or whether they sound like they are hiding something.
At Digiweb Media we do all our jobs and projects ourselves to provide the best possible design, services and communications to all our clients.
Business Sense
It is not that easy to find a web design agency who also understands businesses and not just designs, but it pays off to find one. This is because the performance of the website must be aligned with the business goal and not just merely fancy design.
Digiweb Media has extensive business experience and we based our designs on the business goals. Our aim is to make sure that the website that we design will bring results that the business needs.
Project Management Skills
This is important to make sure the projects and/or websites are finished on time. This is crucial especially for online shopping kind of website. A day late could mean losing thousands of dollars depending on the nature of businesses.
“Freshness”
Does the web designers keep up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies in the web design industry? You wold not want someone to design your website these days just by using a mere HTML in a Notepad editor. The solutions offered need to be lightning fast, provides many features such as to attract new customers / retain existing customers using email campaigns, integration with social media such as Facebook or Twitter, and many more other things.
If you live in Australia, particularly in Wollongong and the Illawarra area, we invite you to give us a call for a one hour free consultation about your website requirements. We will come and help you to achieve your business goals by providing few options that suit your situation best. We also serve clients in Sydney and NSW areas.