What NOT to Look For In a Web Designer

I was catching up on my podcasts the other day and in Episode 141 of Diggnation Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht discussed a recent heavy hitter on Digg.com. The article titled "9 Signs You Shouldn't Hire THAT Web Guy" by David Walsh lists 9 things that should send you running for the door when talking with a potential web designer. Consider this your primer to selecting a web designer/developer. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to read it.

Here are my thoughts point by point:

1. He Calls Himself a "Webmaster"

   I agree 100%. The many technologies involved in web design & development has led to the need to specialize. The adage 'jack of all, master of none' holds very true here. Don't look at just their technical skills but also what markets they have experience with. A designer/developer who largely works on large e-commerce sites might not be the best fit for a business looking to drive business to their brick and mortar store.

2. He's a FrontPage Expert

   No professional web designer/developer uses Microsoft Front Page. There are many technical reasons for this but I won't bore you. I personally would lump anyone who primarily uses a WYSIWYG editor into this. That's not to say that WYSIWYG doesn't serve a purpose in the early stages of development, but more often than not wireframe theming (the look and feel of the site) is done in Photoshop or Fireworks. The bare minimum a web designer/developer should know to produce a static site are XHTML, CSS, XML, and a working knowledge of JavaScript. To add anything dynamic they will need to know some kind of server-side scripting language (PHP, Python, Ruby, ASP.net etc.).

3. He'll Submit Your Website to [Inflated Number Here] Search Engines

   In today's search engine market there are only a few that matter - Google, Yahoo, and MSN - the others mostly use these search engines to populate their own. Also stay away from link sharing/link farm schemes, which I'll go into in another post later.

4. He Wants a "Designed By ...." Plug on the Bottom of Every Page

   I don't entirely agree with this - established firms don't need this kind of advertising, however, for firms that are just starting out this provides them with needed exposure - which as small business owners you understand. Since I don't actively market my services and rely largely on word of mouth I ask the client's permission. I don't condone requiring it - after all you are the client. If they agree, I place a small plug line at the bottom buried beneath the copyright information.

5. He Created a Cool Website for [Insert Family Member / Friend Here]

   Developing a personal web site is very different from developing web sites for business. If you do not look at their portfolio and check their references you are heading for disaster. If they are new to designing they should at the very least have a portfolio of concept sites and an understanding of your needs.

6. He Can Make You a Great Splash Page Flash Animation

   No - no - no - no! If you want to kill your SEO make a flash site or use flash navigation. The reason behind this is that search engine indexing sites use robot scripts to crawl through your site. These scripts only read text therefore they cannot see inside images and Flash movies. I am not against the use of Flash entirely but it should add something to your user's experience - i.e. animate a concept or provide some interactivity that can not be conveyed with static imagery or through text. There are other reasons why you should not create a Flash site - rather than delve into things like accessibility just look at YouTube.com, they deliver Flash video content but their site itself is not done in Flash. Follow the leaders.

7. He Mentions He's a HTML Expert

   See above. This is a tool of the trade and should be a given, but . . . you may want to ask just to be sure, because if the answer is no you don't want them anywhere near your web site. This is like asking a cook if he knows how to use a pan.

8. He'll Fit a Cool Counter on Your Site

   I can't add any more to Walsh's comment on this. Do make sure some sort of web statistics tracking is integrated into your site - Google Analytics is currently the most poplar, and it's a free service for up to 5,000,000 pageviews a month. These stats can give you more information about who is looking at your site, how they got there, and what they looked at than any other marketing medium - radio, TV, or print.

9. He'll Place a "Best If Viewed in..." Message on Your Website

   Out of date and extremely bad practice. Just check these stats and ask yourself to do really want your site to not work properly for the percentage of people not using that particular browser or operating system.

I hope this helps some business owners to avoid making the wrong choice when picking a firm to do their web design & development.