How can you ensure that the website you are buying is the best for your business? If you are unfamiliar with website technology and terminology you may be confused or worried about the site that is being built. Technology may change, but the fundamentals of what a business is have not. There are sensible questions you can ask your web designer that do not need any technical understanding:
If the purpose of your website is to sell your products and services then you must make sure that your website does just that.
Help your designer understand the market you are operating in. Why are people buying from you? Why are they not buying from you? Ask your designer how the website will facilitate this process.
There are many ways that websites can be used to keep in contact with customers:
Some methods of staying in contact will be suitable for your business, some will not. Contact with customers should be timely. Don’t let your designer add features that you don’t have the company resources to support. For example, don’t have a support forum unless you have a member of staff to answer queries there.
You should know what return you are getting for your money spent on your website. How many visitors are you getting to it, and how many of those visitors are becoming customers?
There are many tools that a designer can pick to help you understand who is visiting your site and what they are looking at. By analysing the statistics you might be able to identify key selling points of your products, and also key barriers to purchases. You can iterate through improvements to your website optimising each time.
A web design project is an ongoing process of design, implementation and refinement. Plan a method of tracking how effective your website is, and budget for making changes and improvements.
One of the most frustrating things for clients is dealing with a web designer that is slow to update the website – even more so if the designer charges an arm and a leg for simple updates!
Talk with your web designer about how updates are made. Websites can be built on content management systems that allow users to make updates. Many such as WordPress come with excellent online resources for training your staff. Ensure that staff training is part of the web design project.
As a web designer I have picked up several jobs where the client has fallen out with the web designer, or the designer is no longer in business.
What would happen to your website if you had to part ways with your web designer?
You should ensure that you have access to your data: the content & the design. You should know how to walk away.
If your website is designed for an open content management system such as WordPress then it is easier for a new website designer to take over the maintenance of your site than if it was built on a proprietry system.
What questions do you ask your web designers? How can you ensure you are getting value for money?
