Aotearoa Web Design Ltd - WordPress Design, Development & Hosting

Great post by Jay Hollywood, here’s a snippet.

In my experience I would suggest that the idea of hiring a freelancer for your next project is not given much thought, if any at all. After all, you want the experience, and quality that only an established company can provide, right?

Wrong! Well, in the most part.

I’m sure you’re looking for all these qualities and more, but the idea that only a company can provide them is a large misconception. Freelancers often provide above and beyond the traditional business model, because they don’t have the limitations that most companies are bound by.

You should hire a freelancer for your next project, and I’ll explain why.

Read the rest of the article here.

The initial meeting with any client is likely to be one of the most crucial moments in any web design project, outlined below are some basic questions to raise, to ensure there’s enough information to create a great website. There are many more, but with these basic questions addressed the chances of delivering a great product improve dramatically.

Your Business

With these questions you’re looking to get to the core of how you do business, how any orders are processed, and where you rank with your competition.

• How does your business make money?
• Describe a typical enquiry or the order process for your company
• Are there any challenges your business is currently struggling to address?
• Is your business leading-the-way, keeping pace, or playing catch–up in your marketplace?

Your Audience

This set of questions will get you thinking about your target audience and what it is that they need from your website.

• What does your target audience care about?
• Where/how do people learn about your company/product/service?
• Why does your target audience need this website?

Your Website

Here we get to some specifics needs that your client wants to realise via your website. The first question might seem a little obvious, but you may be surprised what kind of answers you get and what kind of discussion it stimulates. It’s a great one to lead with.

• Why do you need this website?
• How does this website fit into your business model?
• Should this website influence your company’s current enquiry to sale process?
• Are there any business challenges you want to address with this website?
• How does the website affect your profit model? For example, if the website fails to be effective, how specifically does it affect your profitability?

Work through the following to see what you need to consider when approaching a freelance web designer (preferably me) for the first time. If you need any help or advice with this, please feel free to contact me for a chat.

1. Can your designer demonstrate the ability to build web pages that validate to W3C Recommendations and other web standards?
2. Is search engine optimisation, and any keyword marketing included in the package? This is particularly important if your business will rely on search engine traffic to generate revenue.
3. Do the websites they build load quickly? Ask for examples and test. The way graphic images and media files are optimised, then deployed, makes a significant difference to the time a visitor has to wait for a page to load.
4. Do they build web pages that look consistent in different browsers such as: Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari?
5. Can you provide your web designer with [i] a clear and concise brief on what your website needs to achieve, [ii] how you would like it to be organised, [iii] when you want it completed, [iv] how you would like it to be updated, and [v] how you intend to measure its success or performance?
6. Is your draft web content finalised and written up, or will you need a copywriter? Who will be responsible for sourcing this service?
7. Do you have good digital images of all your products and services, or will you need the designer to source these for you?
8. Have you considered how your website will fit in with any existing branding you have, such as brochures, and other printed documents?
9. When your website is complete and the project finished, will you then own all legal copyright over: the finished design, the website assets, and any databases being used?
10. Is your proposed web designer able to communicate with you clearly, resolving any issues you have and without using confusing jargon from the start.