Five Tips for Small Business When Choosing a Web Designer
by Stuart Livesey
1. If he wants you to agree to a splash page full of Flash run away as fast as you can. Splash pages are so last year. Besides splash pages are slow to load, annoy the crap out of prospective clients, do nothing for search optimisation and cost lots of money.
2. If he wants to include music run away almost as quickly as you would in point 1. Occasionally there is a good reason to have music on a web page but it’s rare and should never be played over and over again.
3. Ask your designer if he sees all surfers arriving at your site via the index page or arriving on your site via any of the pages on your site. If he tries to tell you that all your visitors will arrive via the index page find a new designer immediately. The one you’re talking to believes the eath is flat.
4. Ask you’re designer what he plans to do about search engine optimisation. If he tells you that it’s all about getting links or the only way to get traffic is by pay-per-click then you’re talking to another guy who believes the world is flat.
5. If your designer is going to arrange the purchase of your domain name make sure that it is registered in you’re name. Some designers will want to register it in their name and that means they have complete control over it. You might find that they never give it back to you.
