In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Icepick is featured as one of the Top Web Design Agencies in the United States. Check out their profile!
How Do I Hire a Web Designer?
If you’re looking to create a high-quality website design for your company but don’t want to spend the time learning the tools to do it yourself, you should consider hiring a web designer.
But how does one go about hiring a web designer? How do you narrow down who to hire? What steps should you take before pulling the trigger on candidates? What results can you expect from a professional web designer?
It’s a lot to think about but this guide will help you determine what you should be looking for when trying to hire a web designer!
Do I Need A Web Designer?
This is perhaps the most important question that you should ask yourself first. There are many platforms out there that are designed to assist you with the web design process, and maybe you’re happy to use those!
There are many DIY website builders like Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Adobe, etc. that allow you to create a website with a drag-and-drop-type editor. These come with their limitations but if you don’t have the budget to hire someone and you have the time to work on it yourself this may be a viable option for you.
If you’re looking to build something more unique and custom then you’ll need to hire a web designer that can create something from scratch for you.
It’s also important to note there’s a difference between web designers and web developers. Web designers are typically just designing your website in a tool like Figma or Sketch, while a web developer is the one actually writing the HTML, CSS, and Javascript code that makes your web pages functional.
Common Website Platforms
Before we get into the weeds of why you should hire a web designer, it’s important to understand that there are many ways that you can build a website.
Here are some of the most popular ways:
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Straight HTML / CSS
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WordPress
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Webflow
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Shopify (eCommerce)
There are so many options out there, so it’s important to understand each of them and what their implications are.
We personally build almost all of our marketing websites on WordPress because it allows you to edit everything on the website without us making the change. If built properly, it is a very powerful CMS platform.
What is a CMS platform you ask? It stands for Content Management System and it allows you to control the back end of your website without the need for a web designer.
What Can You Expect From a Web Designer?
If you’ve been doing your own design of your website for a while but really want to commit to hiring a web designer, here are a few things you can expect from any web designer.
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Knowledge of User Experience Design (UX Design): The most important thing about your website is how easy it is for your visitors to interact with it and its various functions. A web designer will have background knowledge of what makes the best user experience and be able to integrate this into the design of your website. If you can find someone with knowledge of user interface design (UI design) as well, that’s even better!
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Design Changes: Let’s say you’ve been using WordPress for a while and while it is satisfactory in producing a legible, neatly-designed website. Maybe it doesn’t quite load your photographs in the right way or isn’t capable of the functionality ‘x’ or ‘y’ that you’d like your website to have. Turn your website over to a web designer with that basic blueprint and they’ll find a way to redesign it to make that vision a reality.
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Making Your Small Business Unique: One of the most important things about any website is that it gives your business the edge over your competition. A competent web designer will know how to make your website unique from its competitors with unique graphic designs.
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Design For Both Web and Mobile: Any good web designer worth their salt will know how to integrate your website seamlessly across desktop and mobile platforms. Having a web designer that knows how to make your website work across platforms is essential to your company’s success. In fact, it’s crucial that you ensure any new hire has the skill set required to develop for both desktop and mobile before you make a hiring decision.
All of this is great and everything, but how do you even go about hiring one of these tech-savvy, art-savvy, user-experience-savvy folks to help you with your website?
Understanding Your Needs
Before you start looking for a website designer, you need to understand exactly what you’re looking for as a business owner and what your goals are.
Are you looking for a website refresh? What is the goal of that refresh? Are you trying to grow your SEO as well? Are you going to need landing pages for PPC or social media ads?
Here are a few things to think about:
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What platform do you want to use? (WordPress, Shopify, etc.)
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Are you needing eCommerce functionality?
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What time frame are you looking to have it done in?
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What’s your budget?
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Are you wanting to focus on SEO?
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Do you want to use a third party like Upwork or Fiver or do you want to try to find someone through traditional methods like LinkedIn?
It’s important to understand what exactly you’re looking for and your goals so that expectations are clear for all parties.
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How to Find a Good Web Designer
Now that you have some questions in mind to ask and an idea of what you’re goals are you’re reading to start searching for a web designer.
There are lots of different options available when looking for a web designer and it’s important to understand how to narrow them down.
Here’s how you can find the best web designers:
Decide Freelancer or Agency
If you’re thinking about hiring a web designer it’s important to understand the difference between a freelance web designer and an agency that provides web design services.
A freelance web designer is typically just one person who works alone so you’ll be working directly with them throughout the build process. This can be a good and a bad thing. If they’re working on too many projects, their bandwidth might be limited, and your deadline could suffer. You also run the risk that they’ll have limited knowledge of everything you need since it’s just one person.
A web design agency is typically a team of designers and developers who tackle projects together. This allows them to take on more projects since they can all work alongside each other to get things done. You also usually have a team with more experience since you have multiple heads coming together to solve problems.
Freelancers typically are cheaper than agencies so if you’re working with a smaller budget this may be the better option for you. Freelancers tend to prefer being paid an hourly rate, while agencies generally opt for contract-based retainer engagements, so that is another consideration to keep in mind before starting your next web design project.
Search Google
A good way to make your list of web designers is to Google them around your area. If they’re able to be on the top 3 pages of Google, then they’ve invested time into making their website SEO friendly and have proven they can potentially help you. You can try out other search engines like Bing or Yahoo as well, but Google is your main concern here. You can also search for web designers that have worked with industries like yours by searching “Web Design for Roofers” for example. You’ll find on the first page there are a lot of marketplaces as well (like UpCity), feel free to look through these but focus on the organic results.
Peruse Customer Reviews
The most important thing in any business is reputation. Customers will leave reviews as to the web designer’s quality of work, competency, communication, etc., so be sure to check this out first.
Google Reviews are the first thing to check but also see if there are any other reviews across other marketplace websites to support those. The best designers will have a solid online presence, so finding their reviews shouldn’t be too difficult.
Compare Portfolios
You can narrow down your search quite a bit just by looking through a web designer’s portfolio. Everyone has a unique style and approach so you can learn a lot from looking through previous projects they worked on to see if it’s up to your standards since you can expect something similar.
Go check out the websites they’ve referenced and make sure they are easy to navigate and fast. A quick test you can run to see if they know what they’re doing is the Google Page Speed test. This will help you evaluate past sites they’ve created and test the optimization of their work.
Set Up Meetings
Once you’ve created your list of companies that piqued your interest, it’s time to reach out and set up meetings. Take note of how fast these companies respond back to you to set up the meeting as it might be an indicator of future communications.
Once you’ve got meetings on the books, make sure you’re prepared with your questions and goals so you can help the web design company better understand what you’re trying to achieve.
Trial Mock-Up Design
Something you can do if you’re unsure about a certain company is to ask if they’ll design a home page for you. This will allow you to see the quality of work they put out without fully committing to a full build.
If they’re not willing to work with you on this, I’d be skeptical. The last thing you want is to be locked into a contract with a company that can’t provide what you’re looking for.
Contracts & Hiring Process
Once you’ve made your final decision about who you’re going to hire to help you design your website, it’s time to sign the contracts.
If your freelancer web designer or agency doesn’t send you a contract with the scope of work then you have a serious problem. Every legitimate web designer will have all of the items clearly laid out so everyone is on the same page.
If you have a business lawyer, it might be worth having them review any contracts before they’re signed, just to make sure that you’ve dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s.
Did You Know?
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59% of people prefer beautiful websites over basic ones.
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The average cost of website design in 2022 is $3,200.00.
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89% of people who experience poor website functionality will immediately shop with a competitor!
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Over 50% of the world’s e-commerce is going to be done via smartphone in 2023.
Designing a great website is a process for both the designer and the client and while it can take a while, consider it an investment in the future profits of your business.