Am I ready for a web designer? If you’re wondering if you should hire a web designer, there are a lot of things to consider. If you’re doing things on a whim because everyone has a website, just know there are things web designers have to consider before they even start designing your site. In this post, I’m going to cover everything you need to prepare before you hire a web designer. If you don’t have this stuff ready, then it could put your website launch on hold.
Everything you need to prepare before you hire a web designer
It’s mine!
I want to hope that you’re not starting a business on a whim, but you probably don’t want to hear that from me right now. Before you start a website, you should already have a foundation for your business. Here is a list of questions that you should have an answer to before you start your web design project.
- Do you have a business name?
- Can you tell me who your target audience is?
- Do you have a host and domain ready for your website?
Once you’ve cleared this first level, then it’s on to the next.
Have your copy ready
Now it’s time to think about the copy (aka the words and what/how you want to convey them) for your website. You can hire someone to do this for you or you can do it yourself. I write the copy myself for my website, but if I had to do it all over again or if I get a chance to rebuild my website, I would definitely hire someone to do it for me. I find writing copywriting very time-consuming. Not only that, but I’m sure a copywriter would do a way better job than I’m doing.
If you’re going the DIY route, then I suggest doing everything in a Google Doc. You can create a separate document for each page. Here’s a list of pages that you will need on your website:
- Home
- About
- Contact
- Services
- Each individual service
- Products
- Each individual product
- FAQ
Once you have all the copy written for your pages, then organize them into a folder. When you hire a web designer, you can just share the folder with them.
Logo and branding
Do you have to have a logo and brand established before you launch a website? You don’t necessarily need one, but it makes your website look more professional. It also makes it easier for the designer to design your website because a brand is already established.
If you already have an established brand, you just have to give your web designer your brand style guide (read more about brand style guides here). This guide will list your brand colors, the fonts you use for your brand, how to display your logo, and other extra things like your patterns and the dos and don’ts of your brand.
If you don’t have a brand style guide, but you do have an established brand, just have your brand fonts and the hex code (#000000) for your brand colors on hand so you can send them to your web designer.
Of course, don’t forget to send your logo and sub-mark (this can be used for the favicon on your website) to your web designer. Make sure the images are in PNG or JPEG format.
Image is everything
If you’re going to have photos on your website, then organize them into folders. You can name the folders after the pages on your website. For example, you can put the photos for the homepage under a folder labeled home or homepage. You can hire someone to take the photos for you or you can do it yourself. Check out this post to learn more about your options.
Need some ideas for photos you should have on your website? Here are some suggestions:
- Images of yourself for your about page and service page.
- A hero image for each page (I like to think of them as banners).
- Images for your service page.
- Photos of all your products.
- Blog post images.
I don’t have time for this…
Want the short version of this post? Here’s what I talked about:
01 Make sure you have a business name, target audience, and a host and domain for your website.
02 Have the copy of your website completed.
03 Make sure you provide your logo and branding if you have it.
04 Have the photos you want for your website ready.
Have you ever worked with a web designer before? Let me know in the comments below.
-Paigon
