Tips For Selecting Gloucestershire Website Designers

In Gloucestershire or elsewhere in the UK, your choice of website designer is vital for your business. Get it right and you build a strong foundation for the future. Get it wrong and you could be setting yourself up for a nightmare of wasted time and money.

With so many website designers available, across the UK as well as here in Gloucestershire, what's the secret to selecting the right website designer? I recently went through this process for my own website. I've also worked as copywriter for clients of website designers in Gloucestershire and elsewhere(as well as for Gloucestershire website designers themselves).

Here are a few tips on selecting a Gloucestershire or UK website designer

Planning is essential

Planning is essential. Before you start contacting prospective website designers:

• Visualise your site and think about what you want it to do (Gloucestershire appeal only or global impact?)
• Consider, broadly, how you want it to look and feel?
• As with any promotional project, early planning is always worth the effort.
• Don't stop with structure but consider how you'll ensure that the website is filled with well-written, search engine friendly content. Consider engaging a website copywriter at the beginning so they can help you plan content that will complement the design. The chances are that they'll have been through similar exercised before and will be able to give you valuable advice - as well as powerful copy. Remember - content is king: good copywriting counts!

Chemistry between you and your website designer

This is important. You've shortlisted between three and five potential website designers, maybe in Gloucestershire, maybe elsewhere. What next?

• Arrange to meet them (allow plenty of time - even travel within Gloucestershire can be time-consuming)
• Get a feel for their experience and skills
• Do you feel comfortable working with them and an affinity with their website design portfolio?
• Gloucestershire or global? Do they understand your business and objectives?
• Do they seem keen to make your ideas work - or just want to impose ideas without proper justification?
• Do you trust them?
• Do they answer your questions patiently and without patronising you?
• Are they easy to contact during your research?
• Is the initial consultation and a detailed proposal free? They should be.

Nothing should be too much trouble. Listen to your instincts - they'll usually be correct.

Recommendation

Credentials, qualifications and experience

Similarly with credentials, qualifications and experience. Qualifications and academic training are helpful but a track record in business, whether in Gloucestershire or elsewhere, is everything. Your business is at stake; a newbie straight out of The University of Gloucestershire may be keen and cheap but do they have the skills, experience and commercial awareness you need?

And then there's your all-important website content. Copywriting should never be an afterthought. Start planning early, ideally in conjunction with an experienced local (Gloucestershire?) copywriter who understands the special challenges of writing for the Web and for search engine optimisation (SEO) copy and can give you the service you need.

Tools and technology

Talk to your prospective website designer about the tools they use.

• Investment in expensive industry standard applications such as Dreamweaver is a good sign
• So is proven ability to use applications to their full potential.
• Working with text-editors suggests strong hand coding skills
• Reliance on Microsoft website authoring tools may be less than ideal...

Is the website designer confident with XHTML, CSS, ASP, Javascript, CMS, MySQL and other website designer tools? Can they prove it - and explain why certain tools are right for your website? Do they hand code their HTML rather than rely on standardised templates?

Strong technology and weaker design skills or stunning design with weaker tool knowledge? You deserve a strong balance of both. Don't settle for less.

Pricing

You must understand your up-front and ongoing website costs. A reputable website designer will clearly explain and document these - in a format that can easily be compared with other website designers. Once you've shortlisted a few website designers, get detailed costings (ideally a fixed price quotation rather than a more 'flexible' estimate) and compare them. Should you state your budget up-front? From my experience in Gloucestershire, I believe you should: a reputable designer will then understand what the budget is and design a package to work within this. This approach makes it easier for you to compare different suppliers to see who's offering most for your money.

Finally, make sure you've included all design and running costs that you will need - including the following:

• Design
• Content (is your website designer a web copywriter? Probably not, so remember to budget for the cost of an experienced copywriter)
• Graphics
• Search engine submission
• Search engine optimisation (SEO) - both off page (in the website architecture) and on-page (SEO copywriting)
• E-commerce services and online database support
• Site monitoring and statistics
• Website hosting
• Domain names
• Site updates - will your website designer do this or will you have a content management system (CMS). In either case, who will be doing your website copywriting?

Is ongoing support included in the up-front price or chargeable on an ongoing basis? Agree clearly how this will be managed and charged. Will low set-up costs be offset by higher running costs - or vice versa?

Testing

How will your website designer test the site for compatibility with different web browsers and different screen resolutions?

Content

Don't forget to budget for copywriting. Good website design is essential but it's your content that will ultimately engage visitors' and prompt the response you want. In fact, well-written, search engine friendly content is the single thing that will ultimately determine the success of your website (even Google agrees and it should know!). State of the art graphics and design is nothing without something worthwhile to say. Similarly, a great message will be undermined by unfriendly technology, bad design or unreliable hosting.

Does your prospective website designer have the skills to write great content for you? From experience, the answer is probably no - in exactly the same way that, though I understand website design principles and can hand code HTML, I wouldn't dream of promoting myself as one a Gloucestershire website designer.

Ask your website designer who they propose to use for the copywriting. Alternatively, website designers will often ask you to provide the copywriting for the site. Do you have the necessary skills, copywriting experience or time? That's where an experienced website and SEO copywriter can help to you - both for your website launch content and in future as you regularly add and update content (vital to attract search engines to your site).

Warning signs

Finally, a few things that should make you cautious when talking to prospective website designers.

• Do they want all the payment up-front? The norm is a down payment followed by the balance on completion.
• Over-reliance on eye candy (inappropriate Flash) rather than well-written content
• Is the website designer making rash promises about search engine placement?
• Be wary of graphic designers who have moved into website design without mastering website design technology.
• Do you get a sniff of unethical SEO techniques? If so, walk away.

Above all, listen to your intuition. If it sounds too good to be true or you don't feel comfortable, something's probably wrong. There are plenty of reputable website designers in Gloucestershire and elsewhere. Don't settle for less than your website deserves.

Your successful website

Follow this advice, take your time and listen to your intuition. Ask lots of questions, listen to the answers and the way the answers are delivered. Don't neglect your website copywriting because content is king - both for human readers and for attracting search engines such as Google. If you do this you'll be halfway to making the best possible choice of website designer.

Now, about that website copywriter you need...

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