Website Design - Questions to ask your web designer

The following is a checklist of questions you should keep handy when interviewing potential web designers.

• Are they capable of adding any back-end functions to your design?
• Are they willing to design around items you've already had designed by someone else, such as your company logo?
• If you don't have a company logo designed already, are they capable of designing one?
• Do they offer search engine optimization?
• Ask how long they have been in the business and who their current clients are. This would also be a good time to get the names and numbers for references.
• Have they won any Web design awards? Which ones? (It's a nice sign if they have, but don't be dismissive if they haven't. There are only so many Web design awards to go around.)
• If they cannot finish the project by the agreed-upon date, will they continue to charge the regular hourly fee to finish it?
• Will they be taking on other projects while working on yours? If your project is large and complicated, you don't want someone who may be overextending himself.