Choosing the right designer for your custom web design can be time-consuming and stressful. Since your website is the first thing most of your target digital consumers will see, it will speak more about your website than a blog post or Facebook photo. Your target audience will judge your business based on what they see in your website and if they don’t like what they see and they somehow had a hard time navigating your website, they might not come back at all—both to your site and to your business.

The designer must understand and respect the goals of your business

The first thing that a designer must ask you is the goals of your website and business. While your goals are aligned with each other, a website has a different priority than the brick-and-mortar store of your business. A website’s function is primarily to inform and then to sell (if you have an e-commerce component). A web designer must respect that your goal is to inform and persuade customers. This must also be his priority.

The designer must work for the betterment of the website

While a designer should be up to date with the latest trends in web design, his primary goal is not to show off his skills and to follow trends. His goal is to find a design and create a website that will work to your advantage. He must know who your target audience is so he can create a site that is easy to navigate for baby boomers, for example, or follows the latest trends if it is designed for millennials and Generation Z.

The designer must be full of ideas but must also be open to suggestions

Have you ever worked with a web designer that depend on your ideas? Your responsibility as a client and the website owner is to make sure the designer understands the goals of the website. The planning and the creation will fall on the designer. That’s why you are paying him. And though he must have ideas on how to reach your goals through his design, he must also be open to suggestions and comments from you. He must be willing to compromise and not be so hell-bent about changing his design.

The designer must not need to be micromanaged

You should be able to focus on your business without worrying about the design of the website. As long as you both agreed on the design and he keeps you updated about the progress of the website, you should be able to get on with your life and your business. You are paying him for the comfort of not shouldering this problem.