How to talk to a web designer – what are some basic questions you should ask?
Everyone starts with how much does it cost? Guys you should know by now that the answer is “it depends” and that’s not a cop out, or prevarication, or an unethical way of trying to get more money out of you, I promise! If I said to a Dr. “how much does surgery cost?” what would the answer be? Not just a boat load of questions but a whole battle field and barrage of queries about just what the specific problem is, and where, and how long and how severe. Do I need to go on?
Think about the questions you get asked in your own business? Whatever product or service you provide there are surely questions you have to have answered before you can just come up with a one size fits all response. Turn this around from your own business point of view and you will see how futile that “How much does it cost” question really is. These are a few others to get your juices flowing.
So what should your question, or more important questions plural, be?
“What is likely to be my ROI?” That’s a good one. And
“How involved do I need to be with all the content and stuff?” Oh, and how about,
“How am I going to keep it running once it’s up?”
“How many hours a week should I expect to set aside for updates & maintenance?”
“Are there things I need to know about before I start like keeping my web presence fresh?”
“How long will it take?”
“How long does it take before the search engines see me?”
So, what IS THE 1 THING you can do before you have this conversation? Become a Girl Scout and “Be Prepared” by having your own answers ready:
- Have a marketing budget in mind so the developer can try to answer your ROI question.
- What the purpose of the site is, selling, brochure, information, what do you need it to do for your business?
- What do you want visitors to know – how much content do you think it will need?
- How much time can you give to the site once it’s done? Or are you expecting it to just sit?
- Do you have a budget for paying someone else to keep the site safe & running?
- Do you have social media already, do you have or want to start a blog?
- Know your Target Audience and business keywords/phrases?
Again, these are just a few but they are definitely things you need to know – telling your web person that you need a website because a relative or friend thinks it would be a good idea is really not going to cut it!
Go for it. J