Whether you're hiring a designer who has created 10 sites or
1000 sites for other businesses, there are 7 things every
website designer should do for you. 

1. Be wary of companies who charge by the hour and don't put
on a cap! There isn't a regulated industry standard in fees.
So websites can easily end up costing you a small fortune.
Ask for a flat fee if possible—you'll know exactly what
you're paying up front. It's common to pay for 50% down, and
in certain cases, when working with businesses online; you
may need to pay the whole flat fee down. This is perfectly
acceptable. You wouldn't order books from Amazon and wait to
pay for them when they got there!

2. Try to get a turnaround time in writing. It is up to you
to bring as much information as possible to your designer.
This will make the design process go much faster. You can't
just go and say "make a website for me" and expect your
designer to know what to put on your website! The more you
bring to the table, the faster your designer can work. And
the faster you respond to proofs, the faster your site will
be active and live! Depending on your designer's workload,
it could take anywhere from 1 week to 3 weeks to finish the
design of your site.

3. Original custom designs are always best for branding your
image. If your designer works exclusively from pre-designed
templates, with no customisation at all, you will not have
as professional a site as if you received 100% customised
work. Make sure you understand how your website designer
creates websites.

4. How much flexibility will you have in the future? The
best aspect of websites is that they are dynamic—or should
be. Print advertising is static. But you can constantly
update your website as your company grows. How fast and easy
can your designer make changes to your site? Is she building
in functions to make these future changes possible?

5. Does your designer optimise your pages and submit them to
search engines? If they don't then you will end up having to
pay for this service, or figure out how to do it yourself. A
web designer may not have 100% of the SEO tools out there,
but at the very least, your website designer should create
your meta tags, make sure your keywords are sprinkled
throughout your content and at least submit your site to the
basic directories and engines.

6. Is your web designer just designing your pages and
leaving the domain name and hosting up to you? Beware of
this. Sometimes their quotes only include the design itself.
If you don't understand domain names and hosting, you need
to make sure your webmaster purchases your domain for you
and sets up your hosting—and then manages this year after
year. Websites with top level domain names (.com, .net,
.org) are taken more seriously. So it wouldn't make much
sense to have a professionally designed site hosted on a
free site like Geocities.

7. Does your webmaster offer a guarantee? If you can't get
your designer to create a look that you like, will you be
able to get your money back? Find out if this is in your
contract before you fork over your cash.