The questions you should ask a web designer!

Here are the minimum set of questions that you should ask the web design company that you intend doing business with. These questions are important, as they will define the basis of your working relationship, and will help you decide if you will be receiving the best service, and value for money expected.

What to ask a web design company?



Who is the contact?Who is the primary contact?

How will people find us?How will people find our site?

What promotional package?What promotional package is included in the price?

How many search engines?How many search engines will the site be submitted to within the cost?How many search engines will the site be submitted to within the cost?

How do you submit?How, and how often are the submissions done?

Prove that submissions have been done?How will I know that submissions have been done and accepted?

What are your maintenance fees?What are your monthly maintenance fees?

What does this include?What does this maintenance include?

How is cost effective?How will I know that this is cost effective?

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Where is the site hosted?What are the hosting arrangements?

Who owns the domain name?To whom is the domain name registered?

Who owns copyrights?Who owns copyright to the site text/images/animations?

Who owns specialist software?Who owns the shopping cart/e-commerce software? (If used)

How will you test the site?How will the site be tested?

How long and how much?What are the time scales and initial costs involved?

What will cause delays?What items are likely to cause delays?

What will changes to design cost?What costs would be involved in major and minor changes?

What will be handed over on completion?What materials will be handed over on site completion?

Can we change it ourselves, and how easy would it be?If we want to make changes ourselves, how easy would it be?

What training can you give?What training can you provide?

For more details of what to expect in reply, you can see OUR answers to these questions for comparison!

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Ask and ask again

A web site can be an important and very effective means of advertising your business. If a designer is vague with their answers, push for clarification. If you don't get a clear explanation, look elsewhere for a designer. Lack of detail in the early stages could be costly later.

Be realistic!

No one designer is a whizz at everything, therefore, if they can do the things YOUR site specifically needs, and the price is right, give them the job. Likewise, if your site doesn't need Flash animations, why pay for a designer who specialises in this? The costs will probably be higher.

Value for money.

Be realistic in your budgets. The tighter the quote, the less flexible to change the designer will be. Pay a realistic rate for the job, and if you can, hold a small amount in reserve for contingencies.

Who's designing this?

Let the designers do their jobs. If they've spent years learning the required skills, why do you think you can do better? If the first paragraph, on a page you supplied, has been re-written by the designer, there's a very good reason why.. (It will be to get visitors to your site via better search engine rankings).

Let the designers design, then sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labour..