3 Things to Ask Your Web Designer

Getting a new website up and running can seem like a daunting task, and you may have a number of questions to ask your web designer before they get started. Here are three of the most important that you should be asking.

One of the most important things to ask your designer is whether visitors will be able to view your website on any device. You don't want a website that can only be viewed on computer screens because many people will visit it using a mobile phone or tablet – and if they cannot view it properly, they will leave.

It should therefore be viewable on different screen sizes, but you should ask your website designer how they will accomplish this. At CSI Media we use responsive design, a relatively new type of web design that allows your website to change and alter as the screen size changes.

With responsive design, you only have one website to look after rather than a number of different templates, making it simpler for you and less expensive.

All websites need to be optimised for the search engines right from the start – at least if you want your site to be found by searchers.

When someone types in keywords related to your products and services, you will ideally want your website to show up in the first few positions. Most of the SEO work you will do comes after the website has gone live through the addition of regular content, link building, social activity and more.

However, your site can still get a head start if it is SEO ready, and this all comes down to the design and the coding of the site. Aspects such as the page loading times are also important, which you can read about at Search Engine Journal.

You want everything to be as good as possible so that you can start marketing your website without being held back.

You will probably want to add and edit content, add photos, publish blogs, launch newsletters and other things once your site has gone live, as well as add features like sign-up forms and social media integration.

If so, you may be worried that you will need to call your designer each time. However, when you hire website designers at CSI Media, this won't be an issue.

We use a simple but powerful content management system (Umbraco) to build our websites. This allows us to create professional sites that are simple for you to use and update as you wish.

You can also add other plugins to get more functionality, all without the need for any design skills.

It is always worth asking your designer a few important questions before you hire them. At CSI Media, we welcome all questions and we are always happy to explain how we work. 

Don't hire a designer and let them get started on your site without first knowing exactly what is involved. These three questions are important, but feel free to ask them anything else that you want and your designer should be happy to provide you with answers.