subject: Finding A Napa Valley Web Designer
[print this page] Finding a web designer Finding a web designer
There are a few ways to find a web developer, but we are going to handle how to most effectively find the correct web designer for the project.
Local web designers vs. outsourced web designers (Support):
First, if you do not know much about computers and want to stay hands off with the design, aim for finding a web designer in your area. This way you can physically meet up and checkthrough reports, designs and future plans for your site on the internet.
If you are comfortable with reaching out through email and comfortable with attaching images and written content for your project revisions it is okay to select an individual to work on your website remotely. But, that brings up a great question. How remotely should you go when finding a web developer?
I always recommend sticking within 2 hours of your current timezone. Why would I suggest this when searching for a web designer? Easy, when you find yourself having an emergency and you need troubleshooting of the issue, it's an enourmous perk to have a web designer that is on the same hours as you and doesn't mind taking on the task right that second.
Local web developers vs. outsourced web developers(Price):
Sure you will save yourself a few dollars per hour by picking an individual in a country other than yours, but commonly seen you will have to overcome or accept the language differences which probably will end up costing your company a bunch of time. Not to mention during your business hours, the developer you hired outside might be sleeping and in my opinion that could be asking for trouble.
What should I look for when picking a website designer?
Simple Projects
More often than not you will not need to ask for much other than samples and prices.
Make sure your designer is up to date on their design programs, web hosting and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics.
I mention this because a college degree more often than not in Graphic Design does not mean a whole lot. Some of the greatest designers I have been around learned EVERYTHING by themselves.
My main rule of thumb is that if you have found a designer that does not know the common CMS platforms that exist like Wordpress,Joomla and Drupal and the PHP and MySQL implemented on the server that makes them operational, you might want to keep looking.
Most non-complex websites should be completed in one of the above Content Management System mentioned. This is because with a platforms, you are provided login details to make modifications to the basic information on your website. In case you terminate an employee or update contact details, you are not forced to pay your website designer to make the changes out of the blue after signing off on the website contract.
I have met many website designers in the field through my web design business with college degrees in Graphic Design that still build with programs and techniques from 5 years ago that do not work good and even worse they build with SEO techniques that commonly will get you dropped out of on Google's search rankings. Check the performance of their other past projects and do not be afraid to pay them for legitimate SEO services.
Complex Projects
When finding a website designer for an advanced project, you will want to see comparisons,traffic reports, and traffic reports on previous design projects they has completed that look like what your company is wanting.
If your company is looking for a full package that includes print design like what we at Napa Valley Web Design offer, ask for sample business cards, fliers, and the capacity in which they can produce them and ship them for you to use.
