Web design is an ever-flourishing niche market, and it also has begun to transition into individuals designing and maintaining their own sites. The question is who do you want to allow to have control of your site to maintain it or design it?
All choices, in regards to the site, should be the customer’s sole opinion. If you decide to hire a web design firm, it is imperative to make sure they know your vision. Any reputable company will have the capability of testing, and successful testing results to show potential customers. After the site is completed who will maintain it? If you decide to maintain your own site be aware and knowledgeable of what it will require of you. If you are not a trained web designer the codes, back doors and so on will confuse you and cause future issues. Also if this is not established and future changes need made, the entire site may need to be rebuilt. That is counterproductive for your business, and not withstanding the amount of money lost.
The designer should be able test each and every element on how effectively it is in accordance to visitor response. As the owner of the site you need to have the ability to communicate and respond to any customer questions and suggestions (i.e. web pages, email, and new subscribers).
Another important aspect is to have software that can do statistic analysis, and know how to accurately interpret those results. Confirm that your help button works. Verify that in the instance you have an ecommerce store associated with your site, that each element involved works effectively and properly. Lastly, what type of site are you going for? Is your goal to build a static or dynamic website? A static website is similar to a brochure, and stays the same. On the other hand a dynamic website changes often, is more complicated, and a tad costlier.
