For many businesses, there is no better way to achieve your website goals than by hiring a freelance web designer in Fresno. When planning a website, it is important to take into consideration what’s at the core of your project and determine key features that are necessary to your business. For example, you need to look at which platforms to use (WordPress, Strikingly, Magento), e-commerce functionality (WooCommerce, Shopify), contact forms, registration/booking forms, calendars, any user only areas, subscriptions, and newsletter sign-ups, etc. The list can get quite long and it can be difficult to know where to even begin. This is where your trust web designer comes in and can help guide a new or established business owner. This guide will help you to narrow the focus of the need for your business and keep costs low and within your budget.

Table of Contents:

• Getting Specific with Your Goals

• Why You Need to Hire A Freelance Web Designer in Fresno

• Freelancer vs Agency vs Building The Site Yourself

• Determining The Final Needs For Your Website

• The Next Steps And Hiring

• Reaching Out

Getting Specific with Your Goals

When you start planning out your business website, you know you have a few goals in mind. One of those may be to have the phone ring more, establish your new brand, or increase awareness for a new product etc.

Your first step is to ask yourself what is my website trying to achieve?

*Grab a piece of paper or open notepad and write them down*

If you don’t know, feel free to get in touch with me. We can brainstorm together.

Why You Need To Hire A Freelance Web Designer in Fresno

The work world is changing at a rapid pace when it comes to the influence of the internet. Your brand means everything and research from this article at the Guardian shows that “it only takes one-tenth of a second for someone to make up their mind” and judge whether they like something or not. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to be on top of your game with your business.

Here are my top four reasons why to hire a local web designer in Fresno:

1. You Will Save Money. Hiring an employee or agency will be a lot more. You will stay within your budget and get the best bang for your buck.
2. Less Red Tape. Hiring a web designer who works for themselves only answers to you. There is not the command structure of a typical business so results are better suited to your needs.
3. They Are Experts. People make judgments quickly and professionalism with your brand is everything. Making a good first impression is key and they are tried and tested to deliver this for their clients.
4. They Are Flexible. The job will get done quicker. It might take more than a few days for a larger firm to get back with you. Working directly with a web design freelancer in Fresno is one way to speak with someone local and get issues solved quickly.

Freelancer vs Agency vs Building The Site Yourself

Now that we’ve talked about the reasons why to hire a freelancer. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of hiring a freelancer, hiring agency, or doing it yourself with a site like wix.com.

Freelancer Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Freelancers are the most affordable option plus the additional perks above. Specific attention to your business.
• Cons: They lack some resources if its a large project. More than one freelancer may need to be hired to tackle different elements.

Agency Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Agencies have more staff so they are able to handle large development projects. More designers and more managers.
• Cons: Agencies inherit larger hiring costs with more staff and with that higher costs to you. There are also drawbacks when it comes to more staff and larger projects. It is important for an agency to limit a term called “design by committee” because it can bog down a project when too many people have input when it comes to design direction and changes.

Building The Site Yourself Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Cost is the absolute lowest in terms of monetary cost but you experience loss in time which results in a Con.
• Cons: Self-builder sites like Wix are cheap but struggle to give you the tools to give a site that polished and finalized look building trust. A platform like Wix also struggles with SEO due to the nature of their platform so I advise my clients to always be cautious if you intend to build on their platform.

So now that I’ve convinced you to hire a freelance web designer, do you remember how I had you write down your web site was to achieve? Grab that paper or open that document and let’s answer the following questions.

Determining The Final Needs For Your Website

I’ve worked with many clients over the years these questions are some of the exact questions I ask all of my clients. Answering these will help you to finalize what you need and hire a freelancer. And if you come to a freelancer with these questions already answered it will rapidly get your project off the ground. Hiring a freelance web designer in Fresno doesn’t have to be hard!

• What problems trying to overcome? What does success look like at the end of this project?
• In a perfect world, what would this website achieve? What are your goals?
• Reflect on your business and write down what you sell, make, and offer.
• What are your major differentiators over other businesses?
• Who are your competitors?
• Who is your target audience? Get specific and write them down.

The Next Steps And Hiring

Contacting Designers and Review Portfolio and Ask About SEO:

Contact designers and review their portfolio. After answering the above questions, they will be able to accurately share direction and solutions on how to improve your business. It is important that they know how to design a site in accordance with search engine optimization in mind. If they don’t know much about (SEO) I advise you to also consult an SEO expert. The reason why I say this is because there is a term called white hat SEO (also known as organic SEO) that is so so so vital to the success of a website getting consistent customers and new reach on the web. Without it, your site lives but does not rank on Google.

Talk About Pricing and Get a Quote:

Speak about pricing and what they can do for you. With this be sure to see what the price will offer and what the estimated timeline will be. There are enough web designers in Fresno that will help you to come to a decision. Cheaper options while enticing can also lead to headaches. Get quotes and find a designer with the right experience that meets your budget.

Why Hire A Local Freelance Web Designer in Fresno:

One of the best aspects of hiring me is that I know both Web Design and SEO. I will design you a professional and clean website that will generate traffic. Your brand and online presence of your business is my goal. I am more than happy to talk to you about any website idea you have whether you hire me or not. It is my goal to provide the best possible solutions. I am proud of my field as a web designer and hold myself competitors to a certain standard.

Reaching Out

We know your business is what you’re focused on and I am happy to help you.