June 8th, 2009 | 
Author: Now businesses are looking to finally get some leverage out of the website without spending too much money. In walks the freelancer, cheaper than a web design company as they don’t suffer the overheads of a design company but there are things you need to watch out for.
Point 1 – You can gleam alot of information from a portfolio. If the freelancer doesn’t have a portfolio on their website then email and ask for some links, if you get any excuses then simple discount this person. Firstly and most importantly view the sites they have worked on, are the designs of a good quality? Most designers have their own style which may not appeal.
Point 2 – No Tables Please – In the browser tools click on view source code, if you see many tags then this could mean they are building websites in tables and not CSS. This is the old style of building websites and while very outdated and not Google Friendly, it increases page load time as well as many other reasons. It is amazing how many web designers still use this practice. This is something that should be avoided!
Point 3 – Search Engine Friendly – It’s now fundamental that a web designer designs and builds a website that is search Engine Friendly (mainly for Google of course). SEO Friendly URL’s like exinearticles.com use give the search engines an idea about what the page is about e.g.:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Questions-To-Ask-A-Web-Design-Agency?&id=2354000
This is better than
http://www.madeupsite.co.nz/index.php?cPath=26&osCsid=8ed518d29dea6a6c4aac85f76d0d4c48
The last URL gives Google no clue what’s going on here and will most likely ignore this page.
Point 4 – Metatags, Analytics and more – When you view a website at the very top of the browser you will find a short line of text, this is called the meta tag title this along with meta tag description and key words all make the site Google friendly the last two you can find by going back to the source code of the page.
Your website should also be attached to an analytics program of some description which will give you invaluable data about how many people visit your website, where from, how they got to your website and much much more, a common program used is Google’s own Analytics software
Point 5 – Contact their current clients – If the clients had a good experience they will be more than happy to tell you about it. Was the communication good? Did the web site come in on budget and time? How is the support after the project is finished?
Once you have the answers to those questions you should feel confident about choosing the right web designer for you, something also worth noting is cheapest is not always the best. Sometimes people are cheap for a reason.
Lee has spent several years working as both a freelance web designer and working for large web design agencies, both in New Zealand and in the UK. If you are on a tight budget he fully recommends taking a look at a cheap web design company www.1000dollarwebsite.co.nz
Article Source: What to look out for when employing a freelance web designer.
