Ask for Examples
This post is part of the series “Ten Questions to Ask a Web Designer Before Signing”. You can read the complete list of questions here.
One of the first questions you should ask a potential designer is “Can I see examples of your work that are specific to my business or website goals?”
Web Designer’s Portfolio
Any serious web design should be able to provide you with access to his or her portfolio of work. This includes screenshots, links and a description of the project. The designer should be clear on explaining their role in project. Did they do the design and the development, or just the design? Most web designers have their portfolio online. Here is an example of our online portfolio.
Experience in Your Industry?
You should ask your web designer to show you examples of work that are specific to your industry. The needs of a website for a corporate law firm are very different then the needs of a website for a video game. If the designer has worked with clients in your industry, they will understand the design elements and functionality that are important to that industry. At Computer Courage, many of our clients work in the architecture/building industry. We know that having high quality image galleries of their work is important for attracting new clients.
Business Goals
It’s important that a potential designer also have experience helping other clients whose business goals are similar to yours. If your goal is get to new customers to sign up for an account or free trial, your potential designer should be able to show you other examples of sites they have designed with this same goal. It’s even better if they can show you the data that supports the achievement of the goal. This could be website traffic, Google Analytics goal conversions, eCommerce sales reports, or mailing list growth data.
Computer Courage works with a number of professional service providers who rely on their website for new leads. One way of attracting new leads is to offer a free service or consultation. We are experts at designing pages that encourage leads to click on the “call to action” link, button or form. We’re able to show success by measuring the percentage of qualified traffic that click on the call to action and submit contact details to the business.
Conclusion
It’s not essential that your web designer has experience in your industry or with your business goals, but if they don’t, projects may take longer, be less focused, and result in a poorer return on investment. Visit our series on “Questions to Ask a Web Designer” to learn more about finding the right designer for your web project.