QuarterShark Knowledgebase - How to choose a web designer and how to check for search engine optimization

Web Analysis

Core Business Analysis

Core Process Analysis

Target Market Analysis

Competition Analysis

Determine what your web designer is all about-

Who are you dealing with?
- Look at your web designer’s portfolio.
- Assess your web designer’s SEO capability?

What is search engine optimization and why should I care?
Why SEO is so important?
How to assess your web designer’s SEO capabilities.

Speaking to your prospective web designers existing clients.

Can your web designer cater for your needs?

Meeting and assessing your web designer in person or on the phone.

What should happen at this meeting

Request a concept proposal.

Who are you dealing with?

First you need to understand who you are dealing with. Gathering information on your new prospective web designer is key here. It is the same if you would be buying any item for your household, like a car for instance. Car’s are expensive, they need to be reliable and need to be able to go the distance and very importantly, need to stay in working condition for a lengthy period of time.

You would not buy the first pretty car you see, neither should you make use of the first web designer you find. You need to take a good look into the web designer you intend on using.

Look at your prospective web designer’s portfolio.

Most web designers have a portfolio page with a list of some of the websites they have designed. Visit the websites listed there. Look meticulously at the design of these websites and ask if you find them to be aesthetically pleasing and proper in their design and functioning.

But of course, it must be more that just aesthetially pleasing. While doing this, pay special attention to whether the website’s layout is logical, does the website entice visitors to return?

I know this will sound strange, but look if this web designer actually developed the website. There should be a link on the website that clearly shows it to be so. This link will usually link back to the web developers own website.

Make notes of your findings, and make a shortlist, so you can compare different web designers at a later stage.

Does your web designer do or claim to do SEO?

If the web designer claims to be a SEO – search engine optimizer or to do search engine optimization, you need to take a careful look into that claim.

What is search engine optimization(SEO)?

The short answer is that it is a set of design principles by which, if implemented correctly, a website will receive high volumes of internet traffic and make alot of sales. It is much more than this though– did I mention this is the short answer ?
To design a website that is not search engine optimized is a huge NO – NO ! Do not even think about it, if you want to forget about SEO, rather forget about having a website altogether - Period!

Scrapping search engine optimization is like opening a store on a remote island where you are the only inhabitant and nobody ever visits there, or for that matter, even get stranded there.

I trust you get the point. Reading further will clearly show you why I stress this point to no end.

Why SEO is so important?

Think for one moment. if you go to google and search for something like an online carpet store. Do you start going through the search results on page 1, or do you click all the way to the back and start from page 1000.
Yes it’s obvious! You start from the first results. So if a website is listed on page 1000, how many visitors do you think it will get as opposed to the website listed on page 1? Keep in mind, both websites do sell carpets online – That is what they do.

The website on page 1000 will hardly get any traffic from google, while the site on page 1 receives thousands of hits. Hits mean visitors, visitors = feet into your store. In turn this could mean an increase in sales.

However bear in mind that receiving large volumes of internet traffic does NOT mean you are actually making any sales. You still need to CONVERT traffic into actual sales. This is called conversion and the tempo at which you manage to do it, is called your conversion rate.

Your website needs to be designed with conversion in mind or you will fail miserably.

Conversion = Sales = Profit

Even though I have stressed the importance of knowing and understanding the importance of SEO, please bear in mind that it is the website designer's client's websites that I am talking about here. In other words, when you search for a website designer, the fact that that website designer's web page is on the top ranking in google says nothing about the ranking of his client's websites- and lets face it- the client's website is what matters at the end of the day. As the proof is in the pudding and in the eating as they say- concentrate your efforts on the client's websites.

In our next section we will continue and discuss:

Contact us now to book your website

Your requests & responses here

Need more information about this? Get it now - fill in this form.
	Name:
	Email:
Details of what you require here

Request a quote for this service...
	Name:
	Email:
	Phone:
	Please provide us with the details of the service you would like a quote for.
Quote Details here

Did you find this page useful, or useless? Tell us about it here, we can always improve on our service. Please rate our Useful scale – Tell it as it is!
	1 = Information was virtually useless
	2= Information was less than I expected
	3= Information was as I expected
	4=Information was more than I expected
	5=I learned a lot from this page.
	Please enter any comments below:


	Please note that we do not give out your personal information, or engage in any spam activities. Your information is 100% save with us

Listed in the South African web design company directory | DesignFirms | South Africa Online

How do I know I can trust this web designer?