While it may seem like every small business should have a robust online web presence, over 30% of businesses still have no website. Often, business owners don’t know what to look for in a web designer, so they put it off indefinitely. For Indiana designers, it can be hard to find the right person to hire for website design in Indianapolis.
When searching for a web designer, it’s important to know what you want from your website. If you spend most of your time updating your social media feeds, you may just want a central hub for customers to follow you and connect that way. If you have a physical location, you may just want to get other Hoosiers into your shop ASAP.
A business owner who is looking to open an online shop has a lot of other considerations to make. Follow these tips when searching for someone to handle website design in Indianapolis.
Are We Talking Designer Or Developer?
Looking online, you might think that these two roles are interchangeable. People throw them around in descriptions as if they don’t have vastly different meanings. Get to know the difference between the two before you start making calls.
Web Designer
This is someone who primarily handles the visual elements of your site. They will choose your colors, figure out logo design, and help you figure out what kind of direction your branding should take.
You’ll save time and money if you come to them with an idea of how you want the website laid out. Know your navigation and the hierarchy of pages in advance and you’ll save yourself and your designer a lot of trial and error.
Web designers are more than just color theorists though. They know how to organize content, to make sure you have calls to action that get activated, and that your layout will meet your goals.
Web Developer
A web developer will use the templates and mockups created by a web designer to build a functioning website. The behavior and interaction between elements will be the job of a developer.
If you use a content management system like WordPress, they might design a custom theme for your site. Developers can also take a currently running site and introduce added functionality.
Be sure you know the basics of web design before you call someone so that you can start off on the right foot.
Which Should You Hire?
When you’re looking to hire someone for website design in Indianapolis, you’ll need to figure out what you want your site to have.
If you’re a salon, you’ll need a site with a list of services, your opening hours, a Google map with your locations, and that allows people to book appointments. This isn’t a very complex list of needs but it could require hiring someone who knows about design and development.
If you’ve already got your logo, colors, and branding took care of, you’ll likely need a developer. If you’re starting from scratch or looking to rebrand your company, you might need someone who can do a little of both.
Depending on your budget, you might want to work with a designer first and then give all of your images, text, templates, and mockups to a developer. This could be slightly more costly but it could also mean that you get to work with the best designer and best developer working in website design in Indianapolis.
What To Look For When Hiring Someone
1. Style
Take a look at the portfolio of your designer and see if they’ve done any projects that fit in with your kind of brand. You don’t want a designer who is a one trick pony and you don’t want them to copy the design of a previous client. Find someone who is unique and who can take your idea up a notch.
Have a conversation with them about what you’re trying to do. You’ll be working with them for a while, so make sure the relationship feels right
2. Can They Develop?
Some of the best design companies, large and small, work with developers on staff so that once the design is created, its easily implemented. They keep the developers behind the scenes so that what’s usually most important to the client, the look and feel, get taken care of with one cost to the client.
Make sure you know the limits of your designer. Not every designer can set up a complicated e-commerce site, so be clear with how complicated your idea is up front.
3. Maintenance
Websites are not the kind of thing you set up once and forget about. With the fast-moving development of new browser technologies and number of devices that people are using to connect, needs are constantly changing.
Find someone you want to work with for a long time and make sure they’re clear about the elements that will be updated. A WordPress site with a lot of plug-ins could see a lot of issues as plug-ins need to be updated on a regular basis.
4. File Transfers
Your designer should provide you with all kinds of scalable versions of all of your images, logos, fonts, and graphics. You should keep everything on several backups in case your contract with your designer ends.
Be sure that you have licenses for any images that your designer uses.
5. Charges for Updates
You should have a clear idea of how much your designer will be charging you for updates. See what kinds of bug fixes are part of the final cost of the site.
Find out their hourly rate and, assuming you’ll need at least 10 hours a month of extra work and maintenance, be sure you can afford them.
Doing half of a project with one designer before passing it off to another designer will cause more problems than it could solve. Communicate now to avoid headaches later.
Start Hunting For Website Design In Indianapolis Today
Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want and what you can afford, it’s time to start scheduling meetings with who you want to work with for website design in Indianapolis.
If you’re struggling to find the right person in the Indianapolis area, contact us for tips on how to find the best web designers in the region.