How to Hire the Right Web Designer & SEO expert for Your Business

You’ve done your research, and you know it’s time you put your business online. But finding the right Arizona web designers for the job is another maze you must navigate. How do you find your way through and come out the other end with a great looking, but functional web design without getting burned?

Teaming up with a web designer who is not right for the job can make it hard to get your ideas across, especially if you aren’t all that familiar with online technology. Many web designers will be all too quick to bewilder you with nerd speak.

Quick Tip from Your Local Phoenix SEO Experts

“If the Arizona website designers you talk to are instantly available, you will want to find out why. Good web designers always have projects on the go and will need to book you in.”

Fortunately, when you follow the guidelines we are about to reveal, finding, and hiring a professional and experienced Phoenix web design company won’t feel so intimidating.

You can break your search down into a series of steps, with each one narrowing down your list and leaving only the best Arizona web designers. In the rest of this article, we will detail the steps you need to take when searching for a web developer, including how to:

Check a developer’s portfolio, references, and areas of expertise
Understand your website requirements
Determine a web developers’ level of support

Check the Designer’s Portfolio, References, and Expertise

You should never hire a Phoenix web designer without first checking to see the type of quality they can produce. Most site developers will include a portfolio of previous customers’ work on their site. If they don’t, then it should raise a red flag.

“If Arizona web designers can’t produce a portfolio of quality work, then you should move on in your search.”

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Visit a few of the sites which are in line with the type of design you think would work. Use the websites to get an idea of how well the user interface has been implemented.

You will also want to keep an eye on site speed, as a slow website will cost you search engine rankings. Google does not like a slow website because of the poor user experience they provide and gives preference to faster sites in the search rankings.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, refers to techniques Phoenix SEO experts use to improve a site’s search engine rankings for competitive keywords.

If you want your site to have the best chance at the top positions in the search results, then make sure you hire a Phoenix web designer who understands that creating content around profitable keywords is an essential part of the design process.

Web developers who don’t or aren’t able to provide an SEO service should be avoided. While they may be able to create a fantastic website, if they don’t have the skills to improve the website’s search results, then nobody will see it.

“In summing up, finding a web designer means checking their previous work, asking about their SEO skills, and also visiting a few of the sites they have developed to check important features such as the user interface experience, and site speed.”

Level of Support

It’s one thing to get a website up and running, but do you know what happens after it goes live? There are plenty of web developers who will leave you to figure out the complicated stuff on your own whenever there are problems.

When you have developed your website to the point that it is regularly sending you lots of hot leads, any downtime can cost you a lot of profit. Figuring out a solution on your own will also take you away from running your business, and who can spare the time?

Check that your web developer has an ongoing support program in place, as well as what they provide for the service. Support services can be delivered in a couple of ways. You may have a complex site requiring regular maintenance. In this case, you would be better off with a service plan with a monthly retainer.

Less complex sites may only require occasional support, such as when the hosting goes down, or the information needs updating. Your level of service will ultimately depend on the type of site you commission your Phoenix web designer to create.

“The level of ongoing support you need will depend a lot on the complexity of the website you require, and how mission-critical it is to your profit margin.”

Understand Your Website Requirements

The first tip on finding the best Arizona web designers is to understand what you need from your website. For instance, a small plumbing business might only require a simple static website with standard pages like home, about us, contact page, and a list of services. A competent Phoenix web design company will be able to create a website in this format quickly.

Larger organizations may require more complex designs and demand more functionality from their websites. Desirable features may include being able to communicate with online visitors at any time, checking stock levels, or making sales.

These types of sites have more going on behind the scenes and therefore require more development time from experienced developers fluent in the various web technologies.

Web design at its core uses HTML mark-up language, but there are a lot of ways to add extra functionality to a site through the popular WordPress platform as well as Java, PHP, and many other web programming languages.

“Finding a Phoenix web designer who is fluent in the technologies you need to include in your site design is crucial to creating a useful online presence.”

In Conclusion

As you can see, finding great Arizona website designers doesn’t have to be hard, but it does require some research on your part. You want experience, great design, fast hosting, an excellent user experience, and expert SEO services.

Fortunately, you can find all these skills and more at your local Phoenix web design company, where you will also find affordable and professional support services that ensure your website is always online and accessible.