TRANSCRIPT :
Welcome to The Work your wellness biz podcast, a podcast for nutrition and fitness professionals.
I’m your host, Jess Freeman here to help you save time and look good online. I’ve got a secret, not all web designers are created equal. And that makes finding a website designer and getting a website built for your business. Frustrating, maybe a little overwhelming. But I’m going to change that today.
Because in this video, I’m going to walk you through what to think about before you hire a web designer, how to find a website designer, things to look for. And make sure to stay till the end, because I’m also going to talk about red flags to look for when you’re talking to web designer. And if you’ve already worked with a web designer before, I want to hear in the comments, your least favorite or favorite part about working with them.
Now before you start your search for website designer, I want you to think through a few things.
We want to think about what functionality you need, your budget and what you’re looking for.
So do you want someone to manage your site for you? Can you afford that? Are you looking to have them? Do the maintenance hosted? Are you like, No, I’m fine. I would prefer to have ownership of everything.
They looking for specific functionality, like having memberships courses, physical products, digital products, do you wanna have a blog or podcast? Do you want to embed YouTube videos? What are you looking for on your website? And you may not know a definitive answer on some of these things.
And that’s okay. Put it in a maybe column. And then you have something to ask these web designers about.
They may have opinions or expertise to steer you in one direction or another one thing I really want you to think about and ask these web designers about is SEO?
Is that something you care about? And if you do, does the web designer actually do SEO? And what does that mean? When they say they do SEO? Ask them what it means.
What does that look like? What do they do to your site? how in depth? Are they going with this SEO? Do they offer ongoing SEO support?
Once you’ve got that outline of kind of what you’re looking for? Now you can actually start your search. So my favorite place to start is referrals.
Ask your friends or colleagues, look in Facebook groups even ask your Instagram audience. Now you want to be sure and ask for someone who’s actually worked with that person. Or you might want to follow up if they send you a name it like have you actually worked with this person, because sometimes people know of a person or their friend does web design, but they don’t actually know if that person is reputable does a good job, etc, etc.
So ask for referrals. But make sure you clarify people that have actually worked with that person. The other thing you can do is look at websites that you like, and go to the footer of the website. And look for site credit, or design by blank. Usually, designers will put that little site credit in the footer.
And that can give you a good idea of like, okay, I liked the way this site looks. Now I might look into this designer, you might want to you know, do some research on them, see if they have any Facebook reviews, Google reviews, if they’re mentioned in Facebook groups to see if you hear any good news, bad news about the designer.
And of course, you can also search on Google Web designers near me web designers for insert your niche or industry. Now, I do want to add a caveat to that. I don’t believe that you actually need someone in your industry to do your website, like there’s no need for a plumber to be like, I have to have a website designer that has worked with a plumber before. It’s probably a pretty basic website.
Same with a lot of industries. Realtors are one of the outliers of that because they have a very specialized system that needs to be integrated into their website. So you need to have experience with that. But more so you want to look at portfolio and then going back to your list of what you’re looking for.
If you’re looking for someone who does membership websites or courses are or whatever, you want to make sure that they have experience doing that that’s more what you want to be concerned about. Not necessarily that they have worked with your specific niche before Not that it’s a bad thing, but I feel like a lot of times people limit themselves to I need to find a web designer who can do this because in this industry and it’s really not warranted I will say I do not recommend going too far. FiVER, or 99 designs, to get a website designer.
These are not reputable websites. I’ve written blog posts about them, you can do your research, there’s a lot of sketchy practices that are done on these two platforms. So highly, highly recommend going straight to a designer. If you are low on budget, you might look at local colleges, there are probably college students who are majoring in graphic design like I did, that would love to potentially build a website for you.
Now again, if you’re wanting something complex, like a membership website, or you know, e commerce, anything like that, you are not going to want a newbie designer, that is a very complex project, you’re also going to have to be very realistic about your budget.
If you are wanting a more complex website with a lot of functionality you are going to want to pay to have it done well. So keep that in mind. Now you’re starting your search for website designers, you’re making a list comparing options, looking at your list of kind of what you want in a website. What do you look for, in a designer, what makes someone on the list or not on the list?
First is design style, you want to make sure that what you see in their portfolio on their website is similar to what you want for the aesthetic of your website. Now, I want to be clear here, don’t get caught up in colors, unless it’s someone that really uses a lot of the same colors for all of their clients, then make sure obviously, that you’re okay with using those colors.
But a lot of people think I don’t see any websites that use pink in your portfolio. Well, depending on the designer, in my example, I don’t force people into a certain color scheme. A lot of my clients come to me already having a color scheme in place.
So I will just use that color scheme. Occasionally I help them pick one. But even then they’re still giving guidance on hey, I’m kind of looking for, you know, a color scheme that’s green, and blue. And you know, whatever, I’m not forcing everyone into a particular color scheme. I’m not steering everyone away from a particular color scheme, except maybe, you know, neon green, and Comic Sans.
But all in all, don’t get too caught up in colors or fonts. Look at the overall style. Is it really blocky? Is it Is there a lot of variety? Just look at all the pieces together? And are there any that stand out to you that like, Oh, yes, I would love that. So don’t expect them to copy that design.
That’s the other thing unless they are really advertising like I sell templates and kind of give you a template to design and so you’re gonna fit into this, that usually is original to you custom to you. But look at the design style, that’s going to be one of the most important things.
Next, I would look at experience, this will be a little bit harder to find, because some designers, you know, on their about page will list how long they’ve been in business or things like that. So you want to think about that.
But look at you know, if they have a blog, if they have a podcast, a YouTube channel, Instagram, anything where you can listen to them, read what they have to say and get a feel for their expertise, I don’t want to give you a specific number. Because there are plenty of people who have been doing this for three years, and are just as good as people who’ve been doing it for eight years.
So there’s not a cut off, or a minimum number. But I just want you to find someone who is reputable because this is your business and you want to make a good hiring decision. And then I also want you to look at what’s included in their packages, specifically around support.
After the website is launched. Some designers offer support, some require that you pay them a monthly fee.
Look at your options and figure out what is right for you in your budget. I don’t love recommending people sign up with someone who requires that you pay them a monthly fee. Because then if you don’t, it can be a pain in the butt to keep your website away from them.
And in your own control so that I would be careful about but ask them if it’s not on their website, what they offer in terms of support for me. I tell my clients, I’m here as much as you want me. If you want to come to me once a year for changes, if you want to have me on retainer.
I’m very flexible to fit what your needs and your budget are. And like I said, we’re also going to talk about red flags. Because every industry has red flags. Designers are not excluded from that.
The first red flag is no contract this should be a given If you’re not new to business, you should be used to signing contracts with everyone. But if you’re newer to business, you always always, always want to sign a contract even with designers. So make sure the contract specifies what exactly you’re getting number of pages, number of edits.
Is there SEO? Is there a store? Support, if they offer support, like after the launch, make sure all of that is listed in the contract, if they make guarantees about getting you to show up in search results, huge red flag, don’t do it. Anybody who makes guarantees, is lying to you are they’re trying to choose strategies that can almost guarantee that you’ll get in search results? Sure.
But a guarantee is completely made up because Google has their own algorithm. Every website is built differently.
SEO takes different amounts of time, depending on the site, depending on the industry. So if this is a web designer who offers SEO, and they’re guaranteeing that they will get you in search, unless there is some kind of like money back guarantee, I would not, I would not do it, I would run far far away.
And if they don’t have a definitive timeline, so many people have come to me over the years, saying that I hired this person. They said it would take a few months. It’s been almost a year now they’ve ghosted me or it’s just dragging on. I can’t get them to like finalize this website. No, you want a definitive timeline, or, or even a range. And again, you want your contract to outline this timeline. And what happens if they don’t stick to the timeline.
Because of course, things happen. personally, professionally in a website. Technology, as we all know, can sometimes be a pain in the butt, you may have a delay of a few days or a few weeks. In my experience, nothing should delay a few months unless it’s a personal issue.
So have some sort of definitive timeline with them that is outlined in the contract. And they should be able to tell you their timeline, either via email or on your discovery call. So that there is a definitive start time. This is how long it’s going to take.
This is when we propose we will launch the new website. So as we talked about, when you’re ready to start finding a website designer, make sure you first outline kind of what you’re looking for.
Then ask for referrals or do some searching online. Make sure you look at their portfolio, see how much experience they have, look at their packages, and then watch out for those red flags, sign a contract, get a definitive timeline, make sure they’re going to do what they say they’re going to do.
If you have questions about working with a website designer. Let me know down in the comments.
Otherwise, I will see you all next time.
