4 Small Business questions to ask your Web Designer

Making a new website can be an exciting and scary proposition. There are a lot of people that do "web design" and very few who are actual professionals. I've taken the liberty to list a few common questions that I've heard before and a few that I should hear more often. Chime in, if you think I'm missing anything.

1. What role did you play in the sites you've shown me?
   Everyone posts sites they've "worked" on but often times they don't go into detail about what they actually did for each project. This is key to finding out if they were the project manager, the actual designer, or just someone who scheduled the client meetings
2. Are you a designer, a developer, or both?
   Be aware of your contractor's limitations. All to often a developer will "design" a site and low and behold, it'll look like an engineer puked all over your domain. And sometimes, when a designer acts as a "developer" you can be presented with an image that will impress and amaze, but the sub-par technical implementation will lead to future costs.
3. Are you (or is the developer you're working with) WC3 certified?
   Making sure your developer/designer is WC3 certified is like making sure your car will only need a paint job in the future instead of an engine overhaul. One will cost you a couple of hundred bucks and the other will cost you thousands. (A Key: in this example, your site is the car, the programming is the engine, and your design is the paint job).
4. Will I be able to edit the site myself?
   You'll want this (also known as a content management system). You're designer will want this too. Having your vendor charge you a quarter hour's worth of work so you can revise that sentence to have an apostrophe on it will get old really fast. Some designers work with a content management system, but if they don't, refer them to cushycms.com. It will cost a little extra to implement, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

TIP: Your website does not generally include a logo design. You logo design is also known as your corporate identity and should be considered independently from your website. Consult your designer on their pricing for your corporate identity.