5 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Web Designer

Hiring a web designer is something you will most likely be doing in the future and it can be a huge headache!I’m sure you have friends and colleagues who have shared horror stories about having hired someone to do their website. Stories are like they can’t access their site,the designer owns their domain and holds them hostage over it, designer used cheap graphics which you can download from any site and copyright issues

This begins our series on Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Web Designer.These are all mistakes that I, myself, have either seen people make or have helped people unravel after they’ve already worked with a designer whom they weren’t satisfied with.Please read through these before hiring a web designer or developer. Don’t just hire your nephew who made the website for his school project nor simply trust the referral of a friend. However, when you hire a developer and/or designer, please do your due diligence. Research them and ask the tough questions to set yourself up for success.

Web Designer not knowing your core requirements

If you don’t know what your core requirements are when hiring a web designer,your web designer or developer would not know your needs.I am referring to what functionality would you like your website to have and what will be the purpose and outcome of your website.

Some examples of specific outcomes are:

• Increase subscriber count by 23%

• Rank in the top 3 search results for specific keywords

• Drive 74% of online sales

• Provide 67% of our content to potential customers in the early stages of their customer journey

Meet with your team and spend some time quietly to focus on getting clear outcomes you need to see from the website.Refer to your strategic and operational plans as guides to your decisions and expectations.You can even break your outcomes by the expected timeframe: Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3.Revisit your Phase 2 and Phase 3 requirements before beginning to build them as it is not uncommon for those needs to change as your business grows and changes. The true key here is to make sure you are very clear on what you want to see out of your website. Any lack of clarity or incongruence among your team will show in the delivered work from your web designer. Remember, they can only deliver what you ask for them.

Not able to edit and update your site as needed

I can tell you how many business owners whom I have worked with didn't have conversations with their web designers prior to signing any contracts.I have seen business owners who cannot update websites.The web designers closes their doors right after delivery of the website and business owners are stuck! There is no one around to tell them how to make changes and update their website so they had to pay other experts to go in and track down what needed to be done.Troubleshooting or searching for answers is always more expensive and taking more time than learning directly from the developer.

Prior to signing any contracts, you must have a maintenance conversation if they can provide video training of what they’ve built or train you and/or your team on how to make changes so you can effectively manage your website moving forward.Find out how you will maintain your website on an ongoing basis. It could be that they expect you to keep them for a long period of time under a retainer agreement, or maybe, they haven’t considered you need to know how to maintain your website.They may not have thought about these and it is your job to make sure you are covered in the long term.It’s easy to make sure you’re covered by just asking your designer/developer how you will be able to maintain your website as you move forward.If they give you any pushback, remind them that you are paying to own this website, so you need to know how to care of it.

Web Designers not having a defined project plan with milestones

Not all freelance web designers and developers are also project managers. While they know what they need to do, many of them will just start doing with the end date in mind.They just know what needs to be done and getting it done.Designers and developers are often hesitant to tell you when things get off track because they are afraid it will make you lose faith in them, shake your trust and perhaps make you think about backing out.Just like you, they count on each contract to pay their bills and they are afraid of losing the job.

By asking for a project plan, along with milestones, at the beginning of the project, you are setting yourself up to have all the information you need to successfully manage your team to complete the goal. If your designer doesn’t provide a project plan, ask them to let you know what milestones you can look for and when to expect to meet them.

Be prepared, they may not be ready for that question but be gracious to let them know you don’t need to know right then. However, you do need to know the milestones by the time you sign the contract.

Web Designers not reading the contract fully before executing any signatures or payments

You may think that a web design contract is pretty straight forward, but you would be surprised at the variations from company to company.

Some of the key things to check out for :

• When are payments due? It is not uncommon for developers to set up milestones, either production or dates, and expect payments at these points. Note when there are and put them on the calendar to avoid a default payment being made without the requirements being met on their end.

• What is their guarantee clause? If they offer a guarantee, and not all companies do, make sure you are clear on the terms. If there is a specific time frame in which you have to request a refund, calendar that. If there are certain terms or cases where refunds are considered or requirements that must be met, be sure that you are clear on what those are.

• What is the scope of the project? Knowing exactly what they will include and what you are expected to provide will be key to getting the project done on time and in working order.

One other note while we are talking about contracts is that a lot of designers and developers do not work with contracts..Many are one-man show and don’t have the time or means to create their own contract.I encourage you to provide a contract if they don’t to make sure you are both clear on what’s expected. Suggest this and if they push back, you can let them know it is also to protect them from things like scope creep and to make sure they get paid.I also encourage you to use a contract even if you are working through a third party.Again, to be clear on scope and expectations.

Not letting Web Designers know what other systems need to be connected to the website

Your website may be your storefront but your web designer must know you will also need a registration book (CRM or email system), window displays (landing pages), and other systems.. In your initial meeting, your designer and/or developer should ask (and if they don’t let that be a warning signal) what other systems you intend to connect to your website.Knowing this at the beginning of the project will provide information on some of the initial decisions being made and will likely also influence any quotes you get from them.It’s easy to overlook all of the systems you may want to integrate, so I encourage to review your list of outcomes. If you want to collect subscribes, you will need to connect your email system. If you want to sell things, you will need to connect your shopping cart. If you want to offer lead magnets to get email addresses, you will need landing pages.It is important to think the things you need before any initial meetings so you can be clear with your designer/developer and have things set up correctly from the start.This will not only save headaches, it will save time and money,too.

That’s it for now! Those are today’s 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Web Designer. They are important to avoid and easy to make. If you’ve made any of these in the past, don’t worry about it! We wouldn’t know they were mistakes if no one had done it before.Just keep these in mind moving forward and you’ll be ok. :) In another couple of days I’ll share some more mistakes to avoid and I’ll share one that I’ve made early in my career that cost me more than I like to think about!

Till next time...