A brief guide on how to get a website built for your business might be exactly what you need to save yourself hours, and thousands of dollars before jumping into a contract with someone you’ve never met before.

Getting started on a new website can be daunting for the business owner who’s never done it before. You’ve probably asked yourself “how do I find a web designer I can trust?”, “what do I need to do before hiring a web designer?”, “how much is it even going to cost?”. “what if it doesn’t work out?”, “what if I don’t like the website that gets built for me?”, “where am I going to find the time to be involved in the project?”.

I know exactly how you feel. In fact, I’ve personally had the privilege to help more than 20 businesses in a variety of industries overcome those questions as they were smoothly guided into the rewarding life of owning a website that got them tons of new business opportunities (one client has enjoyed a 16X increase in new customers 50 days after launching their new website - that was after they had debated getting a new website for over a year!).

In this article, I’m going to address the concerns you have to help you make the right choice in hiring a web designer for your new website! If I don’t happen to cover something you’ve been wondering, you can easily contact me and ask as many questions as you’d like.

How To Find a Web Designer You Can Trust

The research phase in hiring any new service provider, especially a website designer can be turned from an overwhelming and nerve-racking experience into one that’s exciting for you. It’s always good to err on the side of caution and take everything someone is telling you online with a grain of salt (even this article!), but having an open mind can still be rewarding.

My recommendation to you is that you start by searching for a web designer local to you. That way, you have the option to meet in person before the project begins, and throughout the website build itself (as a web designer in Calgary, I love working with clients local to me - meeting in person allows me to dive deep into their business goals).

I have compiled a list of questions you can ask your potential web design company that will guarantee you both start the project on the same page.

How to Prepare Yourself Before Hiring a Web Design Company

This section highlights the 5 key actions you *can* take before hiring a new web design company.

1. Purchase your domain name
   If you haven’t already, lock in a domain name that matches your business name. If a domain name is already taken for your business name, you might have to get creative, but try to keep it as similar as possible to your domain. My favorite website domain provider is [namecheap](https://www.namecheap.com/).
2. Have a logo and brand identity ready to be used
   Having a logo, brand colours, fonts, etc, are the building blocks to a website that highlights the personality of your brand. If you don’t already have this, no worries! My affordable website design packages include the option of getting a brand kit (I don’t design logos myself, but I have some awesome connections who specialize in logo design and branding).
3. Take photos, lots
   If you don’t already have 100’s or even 1000’s of high-quality photos of your services, products, storefront, team headshots, etc, I highly recommend you start taking some (your phone can be a great tool for this - but there are professionals out there who can always help too. Luckily, I have the privilege of being connected with some awesome photographers if you would like a referral!). You can never have too many photos - the more the better! Having a large variety of photos and videos to choose from when building a website aids in the design, uniqueness, and even SEO potential!
4. Determine your business goals
   When you know your short-term and long-term business goals, your web designer will be able to use these as a guide to crafting a website and SEO plan that’s going to help you get there. Otherwise, your web designer might just be creating a website aimlessly which ends up getting scraped a year later when you realize it doesn’t align with what you want to accomplish in business.
   
   I have put together a roadmap that will help you dig deep into your audacious business goals so your website can be a tool to help you get there! These same questions are what ultimately led me to help a glass contractor 16X their service calls.
5. Have an idea of how you want to use your website to get new leads
   Whether it’s Google ads, Facebook ads, search engine optimization (organic visibility), video marketing, etc, having an idea of which marketing avenues you see yourself investing in long-term will help your web designer define the structure of your website. For example, a website built for Google ads will be heavily focused on quality and concise landing pages highly specific to the service or product your advertisement is geared towards. Comparative to leveraging the longer-term benefits of SEO, your website will be structured in a way that combines effective call to actions with keyword-focused content, linking, and article writing.

If after reading these 5 points you feel overwhelmed and unprepared to get started on a website, that’s what I’m here for. Not everyone wants or even has the time for this, which is why marketing service providers exist 🙂

Your Investment on a New Website

If you’re asking “What am I even getting myself into? Can I even afford a website?” This section will show you exactly how *anyone* in *any* financial situation can start making the most out of a new website.

The typical approach to web design company pricing vs. the Aaron Tonner Web Solutions approach:

Typically, a web design company is going to have a minimum project cost, often in the range of $5,000 to $10,000. This is normal - it’s hard work to build a new site unique to a business.

However, this limits a lot of businesses from leveraging a website and what it can do for growth, which is the foundation of most service-based and product-based businesses in the modern age.

This is why I created the “out of this world affordable” website package that’ll get you up and running with a completely custom and hand-coded SEO-friendly website for no more than $150 per month with lifetime edits, with no startup fees, and no long-term commitments. If that piques your interest, you can read more about this on my service page, or ask me about it directly.

What If I Don’t End Up Liking My New Website?

That does happen from time to time, especially with the many web designers out there with different styles who might not end up catering to what their clients are looking for.

It is not uncommon either for a business to revamp its website around the 3 - 5 year mark after building it. Oftentimes, websites are built without any long-term visions in mind, and are built with tools that aren’t managed well and simply become outdated.

Unfortunately, a few of the most widely used and popular website-building tools (who shall remain unnamed) use bulky and unnecessary code in their pre-built components which, when not managed well, eventually break the website, and the business is left with no other option than to redo the site, and the cycle repeats itself.

One more plug - my last point on “what if I don’t end up liking my new website?” is another reason that I created a ridiculously affordable web design package (read more here). This option will show you the exact look and feel of what your new website will be before you spend any money. Feel free to reach out to me or have a peak at my client reviews!

That’s it folks! I hope you feel ready to move forward in finally getting a website built for your business!