Thinking about hiring a web designer but feeling overwhelmed? You’re not alone. Before you take the plunge, there are a few key things you should know—things that will save you time, money, and a lot of stress. As a web designer, I’ve seen too many business owners dive in without a clear plan, only to feel frustrated later. This episode will walk you through exactly what to consider before hiring someone, so you can move forward with confidence, knowing you’re making the right choice for your business.
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Transcript:
Hey, this is Lou! I wanted to share some questions that you should ask yourself before approaching a web designer. I have been working in the web and digital marketing space since 2011, and I hear your concerns. Often I encounter business owners who are maybe building a website for the first time and don’t really know what to expect. And not knowing what to ask can be tricky… So I thought it would be helpful to share some things that are good for you to know before you go out into the marketplace. In other words, before you start shopping around, asking for budgets, and approaching web designers for your website.
I hope this also helps if you already have one and are looking for a rebuild. I believe this information will be useful to you as well. So, in this episode, I’m going to cover: platform, budget, goals, target audience, visual look and feel, content management and updates, and your marketing strategy.
Platform, hosting, and domain—consider these before hiring a web designer
So, let’s first talk about your platform. What I mean by “platform” is that when you have a website, you need a place for the pages and files to live. Your platform is separate from what we call a domain name. Your domain name is the address, and the platform is where we put the stuff.
I like to use the analogy of a car and a license plate. Both the car and the license registration plate should belong to you. Your web hosting platform is like your car, and the license plate is your domain [yourname.com.au].
Think of your website like a car. The vehicle (website hosting account) is one thing, and the registration plate (domain name) is another. Both domain and website hosting account should belong to you, not your web designer. The fuel, how you drive it, what you drive it for (racing? delivery? passengers?) all matter too.
And so, there are many different hosting platforms that you can put your website on. Some of these may require you to know a little bit of code—a little bit of computer language—to get the desired look and results you want. There are others that are a bit simpler and will let you use easy visual drag-and-drop tools—aka. tools that let you work with what-you-see-is-what-you-get.
There’s a whole array of different options and different types of platforms to build your website on. Your choice depends on what you need. So, for someone who requires leads or appointments, you’ll just need a content platform. Two common platforms that I like to use for this are WordPress and Squarespace. For online shops, typically, Shopify is the way to go.
WordPress?
Now, I personally specialise in WordPress because I’ve used that for most of my working career. You can build a whole variety of different types of websites with it, and I’m very comfortable and confident in setting up a website for a wide array of clients with that. There’s also Squarespace, which requires a little bit less technical knowledge. Squarespace may cost a little bit more month over month for you to have your website up and running, but yeah, those are a couple of ones to consider.
By all means, feel free to explore all the different options out there and pick one that you feel is right for you and your needs.
How much should your website budget be?
So, the next thing I want to talk about is budget. You should allocate some money to this project. I get a lot of new website owners telling me that they don’t know how much it should cost. Based on time tracked for projects that I’ve worked on, many website projects can take around 40 hours—40 hours of work altogether.
That includes adding your content to the site, as well as revisions. Sometimes, we might want to show you a preview, and then maybe you’d like some tweaks to the design before it goes public. So, there may be a little bit of back and forth there.
There’s more to it than putting a layout up…
It is often a good idea to include testing. So maybe you’re previewing your website on your computer, and so are we. But it’s a good idea to check and see how this might look to somebody using a mobile phone. For many businesses, a lot of their customers—maybe around 50% or more—will see the website on their phone. If you’re designing on a computer, looking at it on the phone might be a second thought. A good web designer will make sure that it functions and looks well across an array of devices—iPhones, phones, computers, tablets, the whole thing.
Something like that [entire website project] can take around 40 hours. If you come to a web designer expecting a budget of, like, $400 or $500, that’s like paying someone $10 an hour. If you wouldn’t expect $10 an hour for yourself, then I wouldn’t put that on a web designer.
For many non-e-commerce, non-shopping-cart websites, a good amount of money to set aside is about 3,000 to 10,000 Australian dollars. Do expect to pay a bit more for an online shop because we are going to need some time to upload your products and make sure that your payment processes work.
Terms and conditions? Refund policy? Yes, factor in these legal documents too
I would strongly advise also getting some proper legal documents that outline things like returns and refunds. Just make sure that that’s all present so that your customers understand what they can do and what you will actually fulfill for them if they have an issue with their order.
Now, I personally don’t work on e-commerce websites, but as someone who works in this industry—and someone who also, as a consumer, shops online—I find it very, very useful and important to have those documents. Even if I don’t read them word for word, it does help me trust your business more and makes me more inclined to buy from you.
On the flip side, if those trust indicators are not there, I’m going to be less inclined to buy from you.
Goals, why do you need your website? What will it do for your business?
All right, so the next thing that I’d like to talk about is goals. What are your main reasons for needing a website? This is something that is a good idea to have fleshed out before you approach a web designer. The more specific and defined your goals are, the better! And the easier and more frictionless our web design process will be!
One model that I like to use—and that my mentors like to use—is SMART goals. These are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The last thing that we want to do is have some kind of website or marketing goal that, maybe, sounds really great on paper but isn’t really something that you can facilitate or manage through your business.
So, you might need a certain number of leads per month in order to make enough money to keep your business going. But you might also want to increase the number of leads and sales that you get so that you can employ more people. Or maybe you’ve got some other goals in mind that you’d like to achieve with your business. Having all that stuff sorted out before you approach someone to build a website is very handy.
One of the things that one of my instructors has told me is that building a website just to generate leads is one thing. But building and/or possibly redesigning a website because you want to sell your business in the future is an entirely different thing.
We’re going to have to think about some different things if you’re building a business so you can sell it—so that it looks more enticing to a potential buyer.
Target audience—who are we doing this for?
Okay, so next, let’s talk about your target audience. Who are they? What do they need to get from your website? Can we guide them on a path to getting what they need from you? Are they coming to you for information? Are they coming to you to book an appointment? What does your website need to do for them? And then, what would you like them to do when they get to your website?
Now, if you’re DIYing your website, by all means, experiment here and try things out. Earlier in my career, I used to discourage business owners from DIYing, but this can actually be an interesting exercise for you if you’re also sort of figuring out what you want your business to be.
But otherwise, if your business is more established and you’re maybe looking for a redesign, then get clear on who your target customers—your target audience—are and what the website needs to do for them. Then, we can consider developing content and a navigation structure around guiding those people to make a buying decision with you.
How should your website look?
Next, let’s look at the visual look and feel. This is something, again, that when someone’s new to getting a website built, hasn’t fleshed out. Maybe you’re expecting your web designer to also be a logo designer and a brand designer and do all that stuff.
So, in some cases, yes, your web designer may also be a graphic designer. But also, make sure it’s clear what you’re getting from working with another person. Don’t assume that if you don’t have a brand or a logo and all that stuff, that it’s included. I would consider those things to be entirely separate exercises from building a website. Often, I would allocate those specifically to someone who designs brands and designs logos and all that visual stuff.
So, that stuff is very useful to have when you approach a web designer. Your web designer’s specialty is in making pages that get customers to flow towards you and get them to their goals.
So, yeah—make sure that if you want good results, I would say go to a brand designer specifically to sort out your look and feel, your logo, your palette, your business cards, and all that. Then, you can send those to your web designer, and they can translate those visual things into a more interactive piece of work that guides customers toward you.
Website content—how many words do your web pages need?
Okay, so now let’s look at content. Your website has to say something! If you’re new to getting someone to make a website for you, I wouldn’t assume that the job of deciding what words to put on your website is the job of your web designer.
If you’re working with someone really good, their specialty is creating an interface—an interactive piece of media—to get customers to come to you. Getting the words right is also another exercise in and of itself.
So, you may be really good at what you do. You may be very well-trained and experienced, but getting a customer over the line—convinced and feeling really good about doing business with you—can be something else. So, it’s really important to, you know, even if you are an expert in what you do, think about what that looks like from the customer’s perspective.
- Resonate message: What do they want to hear?
- Desired outcome: What is in it for them if they choose to work with you? What do they get out of a business relationship with you or being a client or customer of yours?
If this is something that you feel like you struggle with—maybe you’re not really quite sure what to say, what kind of messages resonate, what kind of messages get people to take up your offer—this is something that I would strongly encourage you to work on with a copywriter before you construct a website.
Layout first or content first? Here’s why I suggest doing content before hiring a web designer…
I find that I will have a much easier time creating the pages for your content if you have the content first. If you go the other way and have a website layout first with no content, it’s going to be a little bit trickier, and you may end up having to sort of redesign and restructure your pages to fit the content that is given later.
So, figure out the content first. Figure out what you need to say, how much you need to say, and then send that to your web designer.
It really helps if, when considering a website, you have the copywriting and the website development happening in tandem—or even better, have the copy done and dusted first and then initiate the website project with your web designer.
What about photos?
The same goes for any additional media or photos that you want to include. You’re going to have a much better time designing the website around the look and feel of your photos, as opposed to working with placeholders that may not actually represent what the final photos will look like.
So, if you are considering getting some photos, it is a good idea to work in tandem with your photographer and web designer. You might even want to approach the photographer or videographer first, get those done and dusted, and then look at adding that content to the website.
Who will update and manage your new website?
Okay, now let’s look at management, maintenance, and updates—whose job is that?
This really needs to be spelled out when you’re creating your website. If it’s you—if you’re DIYing it and you’re happy to take care of these things yourself—by all means, that’s fine. But if this is your first time engaging with a web designer, don’t assume that after the website is finished, they’ll continue to help unless a plan was specified before or after you started working together.
By all means, you can reach out to your web designer or developer after the project is finished, but in some cases—especially with beginners or amateurs—they may not respond because they’re too busy chasing new projects. So just bear that in mind and make sure a maintenance plan is clearly outlined.
Whether it’s you, your web designer, or someone on your team, keeping your website up to date, keeping the content fresh, and—if you’re using something like WordPress—keeping it secure is going to be someone’s responsibility. Even things like access and passwords need to be considered. If you share your passwords with someone else to help update your website, that’s a security issue you’ll need to manage. Make sure you’ve thought about this and have an action plan in place to keep your website updated and secure.
‘Build it and they will come’ doesn’t apply—How will people find your website?
Now, the final thing I’d like to touch on is your marketing strategy.
Unfortunately, building a website is not a case of “if you build it, they will come.” Pressing the “on” button, hitting publish—the act of uploading and launching your website—is not what’s going to bring in a rush of new customers.
Unless you’re working with someone on a marketing strategy, you need a plan. Whether that’s social media, attending events, networking, SEO, or paid ads, this is an ongoing process. If you want your website to generate leads and sales, it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it thing. Publishing your website doesn’t automatically bring traffic—you need to actively drive people to it.
Marketing is something you can discuss with your web designer, during or after your project. You can have someone on your team manage marketing, or engage with another service provider for it. Just make sure there’s a plan in place so that you can keep fresh leads coming in.
Is it not your web designers job to bring people to your website?
Unless it’s explicitly stated in your website contract, it’s your responsibility to bring visitors to your website.
Often, a web designer will handle basic SEO, like submitting your website to search engines. Submitting your website to a search engine makes so it’s in their database and can appears in search results. But maintaining and improving your position in search rankings requires ongoing work. If you’re not prepared to do that yourself, you’ll need to hire someone to manage it.
And if you don’t want to rely on search engines, there are other things you can do! You can use social media, attend networking events, go to trade shows, etc. Find out where your people are and connect with people relevant to your target audience.
I hope you found this information helpful! If you have any questions about owning a website or driving traffic to it, please reach out! I’m happy to chat.
Ready for the next steps?
If you’re ready for the next steps of building a website, I have something for you! Download my free website worksheet. It’ll help you think about what you need before you get started on your project.
Thank you for tuning in. It’s been a pleasure to share this information with you, and I look forward to seeing you next time! Please consider subscribing to my email list if you’d love to find out when I publish another piece like this one.
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