Hiring a Professional to create your Website

I've always found it amazing at the amount of money that many I've come across have paid to get their website created. Unfortunately, I hear stories where the web designer didn't do exactly what they wanted; took their money and didn't want to complete it unless they forked up more money; or they can't do any maintenance on their site because they don't know how to do simple maintenance.

These have been the kinds of stories that I've heard since being on-line. Hence, one of the biggest reasons why I decided to become a web developer. I don't think many understand that there is a vast difference between a web designer and a web developer. Now, this might piss off many with the Web Designer title, but I've visited many web designers sites and their portfolio of clients and have found that although the site looks nice enough the html source is not well developed to fulfill the at least most of the search engine criterion.

A web designer is a graphics designer with some advanced html skills. A web developer is proficient in advance HTML maybe not every single aspect but they also know how customize and install scripts as well as PHP or ASP driven program, they are the ones that will make sure that their client understands the need to create keyword density web pages, install static html link exchange programs, insert alt tags for links and images, create a navigation hub that will be easy to use for their client's site visitors, insert all necessary meta tags, help provide clients guidance and information to survive on-line or at least make sure that they know how to get their site seen by the internet surfers before the search engines actually catalog their site.

Their is a myth that many web designers believe. You cannot get a Google Page Rank of 3 if you haven't been on-line for a year. Well, the WAH Business Mall was officially launched on June 1st, 2005. However, before the launch 30 days to be exact the Page Rank indicator that I put on the home page came up with a Google Page Rank of #4. This is also the same story with the Mom Biz Network which is not completely done yet.

How then do you know if you're hiring a Web Developer that knows what they're doing or just a Web Designer who is great at creating graphics and has maybe some advance knowledge with HTML?

Before you send your money to anyone that tells you they can create your website, please do the following:

1. Ask a lot of questions, I know you might not know the type of questions to ask. But, do send your would be web developer samples of websites you would like developed for you. This will give you an idea of how much they'll charge you.
2. View their website source code. This will tell you a lot of how they really develop webpages. Meta Tags are not just keywords, title and description. There is so much more that can be added to help your site get cataloged by the search engines and in it's proper categories as well as the ever important meta tag that tells the robot spiders to come back to your site to read all of your new additions to re-catalog it again. How do you view their source code? Click on "View" which is located at the top of your browser window, then click on "Source" in the drop down window. You'll see the html source code that is used for creating any website.
3. By all means follow the links provided on their portfolio of clients. Check out their html source codes as well.
4. What kinds of terms are they offering when it comes to their graphics? Will they give you copyright of the images and graphics created specifically for your site? This is something very important to know, some may turn around and tell you that you cannot have another web developer re-do your website because they not you own the copyright of all the images created specifically for your website, that you have already paid for.
5. How many layout choices will they give you? This too is something you need to know.
6. Get all prices up front, be careful of the hidden charges. I've heard many stories where shopping carts were installed and when the client asked why the site graphics and color theme didn't match their site, they were told that would be another charge. Don't fall into this type of hidden after you hire cost. Ask for all pricing up front.
7. Put down a down payment, do not send all of your money up front. This is a big no, no. This is how many get burned. Yes, you can sue, but technically they have you beat before you even think of suing them. You see, in order for you to sue anyone who is not in your state or county, you need to go to their court to process and get your results. Yes, it's a bit unfair, but until their is an Internet Court, there really isn't much of a recourse to getting your money back. You can report the business to Better Business Bureau, tell all your friends about them, but as far as getting your money back, well . . How do I know these things, well aside from being a law buff, I have many relatives that are lawyers and have had to write up many different types of documents filled with law jargons that many wouldn't understand. The law is there to protect the consumer but on the internet it is a bit hard to chase someone you've never met. So, be very careful with your money and how much you pay up front for this type of work. Many will allow you to put down a percentage of the work before getting started, some will tell you that they want a certain amount after the work has started and of course the rest of the balance immediately after you've approved the work.

Okay, I discussed what you should do, but please be aware that a web designer or a web developer can also only go by what you tell them. A web developer will:

1. Answer all of your questions to your satisfaction.
2. Want to call you on the phone to make sure that they understand all of the emails that they've received from you.
3. They will ask lots and lots of questions, which might be confusing to you, but this is necessary.
4. Have an enormous amount of patience because many clients do not understand the machinations of creating a website. It may require a lot of explain on their end, but explaining to make the client understand is part of the job.
5. Require payment from you before a job is started and require payment from you at least 24 hours after the job is completed.
6. Require you to answer their messages as soon as possible. This means answering the questions that is asked in their messages and making sure that you reply with the message they sent originally so they know what you are answering. Maybe this is tedious but you need to remember you may not be the only client they're working with at the time. This type of message reply will keep your site creation fresh in their mind and if you reply as soon as possible they don't need to try to figure out where they were at when you replied to their message.
7. Fulfill 3 criteria's: 1: Develop a website that is easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing in appearance to your site visitor; 2: Develop a search engine friendly optimized website to fulfill most of the major search engine criterions; 3: Client Satisfaction.

These are just some of the things that you should know before you hire someone to create your website. Do your homework first. Search the internet for the type of sites that you want created. Make sure you know exactly the type of text content you're going to have for each of the webpages you're going to want created. Compare pricing and type of work done. Know exactly what you want as far as how many webpages, names of your webpages, categories for your site and what kind of programs you want installed. If you want to install a shopping cart, please check them out to see which one you really want to use. All shopping carts have demo sites and feature listing for their products. If you want to be able to maintain your site afterwards, which I highly recommend then you should check out the Content Management Programs. These have many features that allow you to add your own content as well as adminster who can access these content all in one control administrative panel.

One more thing, make sure that you hire someone that will make you a real homepage. What I mean is one that is search engine friendly, does not have frames, in-line or otherwise and does not just contain your "enter" image or word. Your homepage should be rich in keyword density and provide proper meta tags for the search engines. Do not have them create just a "doorway" page, many of these barely comply to the major search engine criterions.