How to Pick A CMS Website Designer
On this page we’ll discuss a few tips to help you select a CMS Website Designer. Picking the right Website Designer will make your project go much smoother with a lot less stress.
1. Decide on a CMS Website Design Budget
Reputable website designers ask for 50% down to start, with the last 50% (plus any extras you’ve added along the way) are due at completion of the project, when you are satisfied. Talk to several different cms website designers to get an idea of costs.
WARNING: Avoid “Hourly Fee” CMS Website Designers! You have NO way to know just how many hours they truely did work on your project and an Hourly paycheck is not motivation to get the project done in a timely way. Procrastination should not pay.
Also, Like any Business the success of your cms website is a gamble to a point, so do not budget more then you can afford.
2. Programming Required for your CMS Website Design project
Programming for a cms website such as visitor logins, forums, blogs, calendars or frequently changing products/services can be very costly so you need to be very clear about your needs when talking to a cms designer about this. If you need these types of services make sure to ask the cms designer if they offer them, some do, some don’t. If they do then find out their estimated costs. Write that down for averaging later.
3. Start thinking about CMS Website Design Page Count
Most CMS Website Designers base their fees on how many pages or products your site will have. Keep in mind if you have seperate types of businesses you should have seperate websites for them. Mashing them all into One website looks unprofessional and desperate, not the image you want visitors to see. And to put it bluntly, it ticks off the Search Engines. The Engines like to see your whole website about one general topic.
Example: If you are a Lawyer your pages could be-
Home/ Wills/ Legal Contracts/ Pre-Nups, those are all associated with the Legal world.
You wouldn’t want- Home/ Wills/ Snoopy Tshirts/ Legal Contracts… Doing that would not only look cheesey/cheap but also lower your Search Engine Ranking drastically!
As for how many pages your CMS Website should be, more is always better for the search engines but in reality your budget will control how many you end up with.
4. Do you like the CMS Website Designer
This seems silly at first but understand you will be talking to this person Daily if not hourly for the next week or 2+, and on & off for the next couple years as they manage your website and you need to be able to trust them, their advice and know that they have your best interests in mind. Start by always speaking to the CMS Designer on the phone when you think you’ve got the one you want.
Do not be shy about asking to see their portfolio! Good CMS Website Designers are OverJoyed when someone asks!!!! If they do Not have a portfolio you’ll need to decide if their lack of past clients is worth the risk.
5. Website Designer’s Location
Because the Internet is worldwide CMS Website Designers can be anywhere, not just local to you and still do the project just fine because the whole process is online.
But a word of Warning here, make sure they are in Your country. If things go sideways you have a lot more recourse if they are governed by the same laws. “designers” in other countries like India, Russia or China are not under USA laws and a great deal of cms website design scams come from those countries leaving their victims with NO recourse.
If you would like more information about our professional Website Design, Website Hosting or Search Engine Submission services please feel free to call us!
