How to Hire a Website Designer in 2024 The Smart Way

Big corporation or a local coffee shop - there’s no way your business can survive without a website. Before you just hire a website designer on a whim, however, make sure you know how to choose the best type of service for your business. 

There are about 1.9 billion websites out there. Moreover, people only spend about 53 seconds on a site, but 75% of them will judge your company’s credibility based on that little snippet. 

So, the importance of good website design cannot be overstated.

But before we explain why and where to hire a web designer, let’s clear up some common confusion. What is a web designer, exactly?

What is a web designer & what do they do?

A web designer is the person in charge of creating the look and feel of a website. But there’s more to it than piecing together web page design as though it were any other graphic.

With website design the process is much more complex: both the initial stages, as well as the final stages before designers can let developers take over. Here are some of the tasks a web designer works on:

• Research: To even start thinking about creating a website, designers need a lot of input to understand industry standards, as well as target users better.
• Wireframing: This is the creation of a basic layout of a website. It goes without saying that these “drafts” need to be a lot more detailed than, for example, a social media post design would. 
• Information architecture: Although they don’t create content, designers often need to decide how to group it and arrange it for the best possible user experience.
• Graphic design: While they don’t always do everything, web designers are generally in charge of creating every design element of a website, including graphics, fonts, illustrations, and icons.
• User experience: If a website looks great, but people aren’t able to use it easily, it’s not doing its job. Aside from creating the design elements, website designers also know how to “make them work” in the interest of the user.
• Responsive design: Fluid grids, media queries, and the right format of images and fonts are all things web designers consider when making sure websites scale right for different devices. 

Why hire a professional website designer

Yes there are many great web design tools and free website builders out there. So, it’s perfectly possible to create a website even if you have no design knowledge or experience.

So, why should I hire a website designer, I hear you ask? Here are a few convincing reasons.

1. User experience

You can know your brand inside and out, and even manage to create something that visually reflects your brand identity. But do you know what is user experience design?

Something as simple as the color of a CTA button can have a significant impact on user behavior (Hubspot proved it!). If you’re not a website designer, then you’re probably not familiar with the basic principles of good UI/UX design.

Aside from creating a visually appealing website, this means creating a functional and user-friendly site. This is achieved through web design principles such as familiarity, consistency, accessibility, and adherence to certain UX design norms. These are all things you’d probably forget or overlook, resulting in a website that, no matter how beautiful it may look, will be difficult for users to navigate.

And the results can be damning. According to Hubspot, 88% of users are less likely to return to a site after a bad website experience.

2. Customization

Do you remember how many websites there are? So, you can imagine that making a memorable first impression with people who visit dozens of websites daily is pretty challenging.

When you hire a professional website designer, you can expect a level of creativity and customization that you simply cannot achieve with the DIY approach.

3. Mobile-responsiveness

Over half of the world’s internet traffic comes from mobile devices. So, there’s no way your website can be successful if it’s not optimized for mobile devices.

As you might expect, this is a task best left to the pros. Creating mobile responsive websites requires technical knowledge that you probably lack if you’re only used to putting design elements together to form web pages. 

4. Future-proofing

Unlike a campaign landing page, your business website is meant to last. But that doesn’t mean web design trends always stay the same. A professional web designer knows how to create a website that will stay and look relevant in the long term. Or they will know how to adapt and tweak the website to ensure it’s always what your target audience expects.

You can always use a content management system to ensure your website is kept up-to-date, and has content to help it rank in search engines. However, as we’ve already said, good website design is an investment in your business: it’s what builds credibility with potential customers and can even boost sales. So, even if the cost to hire a website designer is definitely bigger than using a website builder, it’s worth making this expense in the long term.

Where to hire a website designer?

Now that you know why hire a professional website designer, it’s time to find out where you can find one and how much does website design cost with each option. Here are a few options.

Freelance platforms

Opting to hire a freelance website designer is a solid choice. There are loads of talented freelancers, so you can find web designers with just the right skills and style to suit your needs.

Here are some of the most popular freelancing platforms to hire a web designer: 

• Awwwards: This is a website awards site that promotes the best developers, designers and web agencies in the world. You can explore the featured web design projects and reach out to the designers directly, or post a job.
• Behance: The largest portfolio platform in the world, Behance is a great place to find web designers. Use the detailed search options to find candidates with the right skills and experience.
• Dribbble: Dribbble is very similar to Behance, however it only features “snapshots” of design projects. So, you’ll need to dig a bit deeper to understand the designers’ full capabilities.
• Fiverr: Fiverr allows you to find website designers in a vast price range. Of course, with a complex project like this it’s best to negotiate a custom gig, rather than accept a generic one (since additional revision are often not included in the price).‍
• Upwork: Upwork has a slightly better vetting system than Fiverr, but it’s generally pretty similar.

Although the cost to hire a website designer on a freelance basis can be fairly affordable, it’s not the most cost-effective solution in the long term.

It can become fairly expensive in case you need to pay extra every time you want to redesign an existing or add a new web page to your site.

Web design agency

For those that have the budget, web design agencies offer a full-service experience. This usually includes additional services such as copywriting, setting up ecommerce functionalities for an online store, and web development.

Most agencies will also do extensive research to ensure that your web design aligns with your business goals.

If you want to hire a website design agency, be prepared to pay upwards of $10,000 to get your new site. This is usually way too expensive for small businesses, so let us present you with a much more affordable and equally effective solution.

Unlimited graphic design companies

People often forget that web design is technically a part of graphic design. So, an unlimited design agency (like ManyPixels, Penji, Kimp or Design Pickle) can definitely help you with designing a website

You get unlimited requests and revisions for a flat fee, so no matter how many times you wish to redesign your site, we’ve got you covered. Moreover, with a complete graphic design package, you’ll get all the different web design assets in one place: from beautiful, custom illustrations, to motion graphics that enhance the user experience.

Sounds like a good idea? Our professional website design services are right under your nose! You don’t have to worry about hiring the best web designer. We have dozens of vetted pros on our team, with skills and experience to match your every need. Want elaborate illustrations on your homepage? No problem! Want to zhuzh up your site with motion design? We do that! 

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‍Get started today and let us start designing your professional website right away! 

Still have questions? Book a time to chat with us and we’ll be happy to help.