How to Hire a Professional Website Designer

If you are looking to take your business to the next step, a professionally designed website offers you that distinctive advantage over your competitors. A world-class website attracts potential customers and keeps them there. Although the rise of social media has completely transformed the marketing landscape, Facebook and Twitter cannot make up for the lack of a quality website. Your website is the face of your business: the first impression that potential customers get on your company. A poorly designed website conveys low-quality products or services, so you shouldn't cut a website design yourself if you don't have the skills. Hiring a professional website designer to boost your business image (and the bottom line) is a smart investment.

When choosing a professional website designer, consider the following:

Hire someone local

There are many new web design companies around the world to choose from, but hiring a local designer offers several advantages.

First, local web designers give you a quicker response. Don't underestimate the possibility of a communication breakdown between time zones. Good local designers offer fast and reliable answers to a customer's questions. Prompt communication is extremely key to creating a great website.

And because they're in the area, local designers can forge relationships with their clients beyond email and phone calls. This builds a level of trust between designer and client that a designer and client cannot easily replicate thousands of miles away. A local designer is more likely to care about a customer's business success and will offer better website support to promote customer progress.

Local designers must be accountable to customers to stay in business. It is easy to find out if a local designer is credible; less for a foreign designer.

Finally, designers have more control over their site because they know Boise. They know Idaho. They will be much more effective at designing a website with local demographics and their customer base in mind than an out-of-state or overseas designer.

Check the designer's portfolio

There is no need to randomly choose a website design when all good designers have their best work on display.

Make sure they have a web portfolio. Not having one is cause for alarm: a designer is inexperienced or doesn't want to brag about the work he's done.

Look through each of the designs and see the designer's range, preferences and versatility. In this way, you can imagine how your business would be represented on a web page.

Visit the Websites: Appearances are not everything when it comes to web design. Learn about the interface and how web pages flow from one to another. These are vital to the user experience: Customers who don't know how to navigate a web page will quickly give up before reaching the desired page.

Call the companies and ask how the companies have been doing since the website launched. They will let you know if they are satisfied with your return on investment based on website performance metrics.