Are you looking for a new website and wanting some quotes from freelance web designers? Lucy, our freelance senior designer has a few tips which she hopes you’ll find useful.
Do a little bit of research beforehand – I love it when someone comes to me and says ‘I want a website with (list of pages they want), something along the lines of (a similar sized website)’. This will mean looking at what your competitors, or similar businesses offer – yes I’m asking you to Google!
Have a budget in mind – I know it’s hard but there is a huge difference between what you can get for £500 and £5000. I always say it’s a bit like a house – think of the rooms as the content and the more rooms, the more content / pages there are. I can always work to a budget and can tell you what you’d get for it, and also tell you if your budget is more than what I’d normally charge. I like to be honest.
Mention where you found out about the designer – was it through LinkedIn? A recommendation? Google? This is so useful for us – we need to know how people find our websites and work and if our SEO is working.
It’s nice to know why you’ve contacted us – what drew you to getting a quote from us – was it a particular piece of work, a personal recommendation or location? I often get people contacting me close to York as I live in York and people want an initial meeting face to face, or like to think they’re keeping their money locally.
Have a think about your content – you may want some professional photography, or maybe you’re on a budget so stock images will be fine, you will need some copy – images will be fine. You will need some words – and a copywriter who specialises in SEO and websites could be worth their weight in gold. However, SEO friendly copy isn’t as necessary if your website is somewhere you point people to, rather than want people to find.
If you already have a website think about what you want to change. What isn’t working well and what is working well? What is missing or which sections don’t you use? For example maybe you have a blog but never update it or maybe you want a social media feed. Is the lack of a CMS annoying you and you want to update the site yourself?
The more information we get as freelancers, the easier it is to quote! This list isn’t exhaustive – I will definitely want more information for you, but it makes my life so much easier if you’ve done a bit of research and work beforehand and I’m also not bombarding you with lots of questions which can sometimes be a big daunting!
Don’t ghost us! We get that you don’t always choose us for your new website – that is fine but a quick email to say ‘thanks for your time but we’ve decided to go with someone else’ really helps. Often quotes take a few hours so it’s just nice to awknowledge that!
If you’d like to know more about how I can help you with your website needs please get in touch at lucy@transparentdesign.co.uk. Please also take a look at Lucy’s freelance design portfolio website at lucyrigley.co.uk and her linked in linkedin.com/in/lucyharding.