For an individual or a corporate to get due recognition and develop their business, they will need to let others know of their existence and what they do. This is possible either through PR activities or by creating a well planned out website.
For a website, seeking the professional guidance is the ideal solution and some questions that needs to be asked of the potential web designer could be :
1. Experience
How many years has the web designer been in this line of work? This will give an idea about aware he or she is of current advancements in the field, such as Ajax, table-less layouts and Web 2.0 design styles.
2. Samples of their past work
What are the sites they have created? Ask them for samples or URLs that you can take a look at to build confidence in their capabilities.
Look for designs that are stylistically similar to what you have in your head. Even better, ask if the designer has ever done work in your particular industry.
3. Industry exposure
What kind of industries have they been involved with? Who are their clients?
This is so you can judge their ability to understand your industry and create a site that will suit your needs.
4. After sales service
What kind of service do they offer clients once the site is up and running? Do they help in updating it if any changes need be made or in acquiring more web space and so on?
5. Visibility through search engines
Do they help in getting your company website listed in search engines or provide a full search engine marketing service?
Having a pretty website is all very well, but you need people to visit it. Ask the designers if this is something they have practical experience with.
6. Copyright and security issues
Will they make sure that the data and images used on the site are copyrighted and protected so others cannot copy them? And the security settings which will be useful while monitoring the traffic.
Also, try to ensure that you have details of where they have licensed images and photographs from. This may save you problems in the future.
7. Duration
How much time will they require to do the design, layout, and upload the same? This will give you good insight into whether they are efficient or not. A good web designer should not take more than a month, but this also depends on the time dedicated by the client.
8. Fees and charges
While hosting your site on a domain, you need to pay registration charges which will be a one time payment.
What will the overall cost in designing a website, with say a minimum of about 5 pages and couple of interactive links? The base charges levied for such a site would be around £300-£500 and every additional page will be an extra charge.
Does the designer’s fee include designing, editing, and installing required software?
9. Links and Animation
Do they also help incorporating links to other sites through this and putting in flash animation videos or pictures?
10. Online shopping carts
For companies looking to sell products and services online, check the designer's portfolio for examples of real, working ecommerce websites.
11. Ownership
Who will own the design, logo, and images that have been used on the site? Make sure to let them know you will be the sole owner so that you can move the site to another host if necessary.