It can be stressful when you finally take the plunge and decide to dive into the World Wide Web, but having that online presence is invaluable to you and your business. The trouble is that you don’t want to get stuck with a designer who does a terrible design, does a terrible job at developing it, or (worst case scenario) BOTH! Unfortunately there are people out that who are just looking to make a buck, whatever the cost to you.

So what can you do about it? Well, knowing what questions to ask is always a great place to start, so that’s where I’ll start. Here are the 5 top questions you need to ask your potential Web designer.

Do you design in tables?

If their answer is yes then hang up the phone on them! This method of producing Web sites is outdated and obsolete. It’s ok to use tables for data and micro-information, but if the entire Web site is one GIANT table, just walk away. Industry standards are pushing the use of CSS to style and layout Web sites.

Do you design for ALL browser and ALL computers?

Not all browsers display a Web page the same, like not all computers show a page the same. A Mac and PC have different fonts pre-installed on them and different computers have different monitor resolutions.

A normal Web site should be constrained to 770 pixels in width. This eliminates a viewer having to scroll to the right to see the whole page.

The acceptable fonts to be used are; Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, Trebuchet MS/Helvetica, Georgia, Courier New, and Lucida Sans.

There are literally thousands of browsers out there, we can’t design for all of them, and so we try to design for the masses. Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE6, IE7), Chrome, Safari, and Opera are the most widely used browsers and should be tested when designing.

Do you know basic Search Engine Optimization?

Every designer should have a basic understanding of Search Engine Optimization and how to optimize a Web site for search engines. If the site is designed structurally for SEO then you can have an SEO specialist go in later and bump your rankings if you need it. This includes the proper use of header tags, internal linking, breadcrumbs, meta-data, and overall structure.

What programs do you use?

Any designer worth considering will use an Adobe Photoshop-like program for all of their graphics. There are free photo editing software’s out there, but they do not produce the same result. Heck, you’re paying them all this money; you want it to look professional.

For the actual development of the Web site they can use anything from Notepad to Adobe Dreamweaver and get the same result… if they’re good. You want someone that can hand code and that doesn’t rely on a WYSIWYG editor to produce the code for them.

Do you have a portfolio I can look at?

You are asking this person to design and develop, in many cases, your first impression to the world. It’s gotta look good! You want it to represent you and your business well. However, new designers can still be good too; you want to see anything graphical they have done. If it’s a bumper sticker… was it laid out nicely? Is there a good use of color? Is it readable?

Remember, you are interviewing them. They should be friendly; you will be talking to them often, as well as knowledgeable. Your Web site is extremely important your success and if it’s not done right the first time, you will be paying for it later on – literally.

Please contact us at Merchant Metrix if you are interested in custom Website design. We’re here to serve you!