Call me now to discuss your web design & SEO strategy at 310-736-2848
If you own a business in Hawthorne, California, and you are looking for a designer to design and build a web site for your company, there are a number of options available. Not only are there many designers in and around the Hawthorne, CA area, but there are also web designers across Los Angeles and Orange County that you could work with to launch your company’s online presence. With so many options to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start looking, or even what to look for. While you will never really know until the site is up and running whether your Hawthorne, CA web designer did a good job, there are few things you can keep in mind while you are searching, in order to get the right person for the job.
1) It’s not all about experience
When you are working with a technical person, experience counts. You want to know that they have been around long enough to see when things go wrong with computers, cars, plumbing, or electricity, and lived to tell about it.
When you are working with a creative person, experience doesn’t count as much as flexibility. You want to know that your Hawthorne, CA web designer is capable of thinking in new and creative ways, so that you don’t end up with the same website as his last client, but with a different color scheme and logo.
In fact, older designers may have been doing it for so long that they are stuck in a creative rut, and have a few templates that have worked well for them in the past, that they now use over and over. If you don’t mind having a well-tested template and design approach, then older designers are a fine choice. But if you are looking for creativity and flexibility, you can really get something unique from younger, less experienced designers.
Younger designers are also more likely to have gone to school and have a degree in web design or at least some kind of creative, design-related discipline. In the early days of the web, a number of people sort of fell into web design as their companies decided that they needed a website, but didn’t quite know how to build one. They have likely picked up the skills and latest techniques of website design along the way—every good professional should keep current on the trends in his or her industry—but more recently-minted Hawthorne, CA web designers will have fresher experience with the new ideas, and not be as stuck in the older ways of doing things.
2) Look at the portfolio
That being said, it is important to know that your Hawthorne, CA web designer knows what he or she is doing. That’s why you should ask to see his or her portfolio at your first meeting. If possible, you should be able to look at your Hawthorne, CA web designer’s own page and see the range of work that he or she has done, even if it doesn’t include a ton of live sites. You should also check to make sure that your Hawthorne, CA web designer has some basic web-design skills like HTML, CSS, and Java, as well as Flash, if you want your site to be a little more complex. Your web designer should also employ or be able to recommend a good graphic designer and a copywriter, specifically one with some knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) writing.
Call me now to discuss your web design & SEO strategy at 310-736-2848
Perhaps more importantly, though, is that looking at a portfolio will let you understand your Hawthorne, CA web designer’s style. Before you sign up with a web designer, you want to be sure that they have the stylistic sensibilities that are going to be able to fully represent your business. You don’t want to work with a web designer that has a completely different aesthetic and design philosophy than you, no matter how experienced he or she is.
3) What do they charge?
How much your Hawthorne, CA web designer is going to charge you for a job is an important question to ask. But that doesn’t mean that it should be your first question. Talk to them a little bit about their approach, what they include, and what kind of pre- and post-launch service they provide. That way, when they give you the actual figure, you have some concrete details attached to it. That being said, there are some things to keep in mind:
- Don’t ask a designer to work for free. Yes, creative people need to build their portfolios, especially ones that are just starting out. But they also need to eat and pay rent. Besides, when was the last time you actually got something good for free? This website is going to be the face of your business on the internet – and you get what you pay for.
- Don’t overpay either. If your Hawthorne, CA web designer’s office is furnished with designer furniture and water fountains, you are probably in the wrong place. Ask them who their clients are. If they work with a lot of large companies and expensive services, they are used to billing at a higher rate than you are likely to want to pay.
- A typical going rate for a professional site is typically $125 per hour but keep in mind that this can vary. They might charge more for landing pages and less for product pages, or pages with more graphics and copy might cost more than those with less. Therefore, it is a good idea to ask for a specific breakdown of why they charge what they do. Also, receiving a set quote upfront, instead of relying on hourly billing may also save you from a big surprise in the end.
Like any buying decision for your business, there are probably a number of right decisions, and countless wrong ones. But if you ask a few basic questions up front, you will have a good idea of who your Hawthorne, CA web designer is, and what they have to offer your business.
Call me now to discuss your web design & SEO strategy at 310-736-2848
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