OK, so you have requested quotes and decided on a web design provider. They have given you a contract to sign and it all seems pretty straight forward.

Unfortunately it’s not. A bad contract will frustrate you and the web designer. Think lots of stamping of feet and angry demands from both parties. At worst, it will cost you a lot more money than you bargained for.

All of this can be avoided by simply understanding the qualities of a good contract and being able to spot a bad one.

But before the specifics of contracts are explained, first you should understand why bad contracts exist.

When it comes to contract signing, the web design provider has already invested a lot of time trying to win you over and they don’t want to scare you away with too many terms and conditions.

This has two effects:

1. The terms in the contact are not properly explained to you.
2. The contract does not include enough conditions about what is to be delivered and when.

A good contract will ensure that both parties completely understand what is expected of each other and ensures a successful and smooth operation.

By the end of this lesson you will learn to spot a good web design contract and even make suggestions for improvement that will benefit both parties.

This lesson is a pretty long one, so use the tabs along the top to navigate between each section of the lesson. Each section represents one of the terms and conditions that every good web design contract should have.

1. Well Defined Specific Deliverables

Deliverables are the final piece of work that is delivered to you. But here’s the catch, how specific is the definition for each deliverable? A website is a deliverable, but the problem with simply specifying ‘website’ is that your assumptions about what a website is are going to be different to the web designer’s assumptions.

Deliverables need to be very specific.

Here is a great example of a specific website deliverable:

“A contact page with a form that forwards form data to an email address.”

Here’s the second catch.

It is your responsibility to decide if the definition for each deliverable is detailed enough.

If during production you decide that the contact form should save enquiry information to a spreadsheet, CRM or any other 3rd party tools, it is going to cost more money.

Whether you change is accepted without charge is entirely up to the web design provider. They will be flexible with small changes, but push too far and you will be charged. This is known as project creep. Eventually so many small changes add up and web designer is forced to charge you.

Make sure the web design contract includes detailed deliverables.

2. Number of Design Revisions Specified

Websites are interactive. That makes it difficult to imagine exactly how it should look and where everything should be until you see a mockup of the interface. This is where you give your input. Typical suggestions are about colours, size of text, order of information, width of pages etc. When any suggestions you have made are discussed and implemented this is known as a design revision.

If the number of revisions is not specified, expectations about what is reasonable can quickly cause conflict.

The number of design revisions must be specified so that both parties have the same expectations.

3. Delays Caused by the Client (that’s you!)

Yes, it does happen. We all live busy lives and sometimes we delay other people. At some point the web designer will ask you for information or content. If it takes you two weeks to send that information or content it can delay the whole project. Here how this can cause a problem.

The delivery date for the website is eight weeks. Waiting for content has delayed the project by two weeks. However you still expect the website to be finished on the agreed date.

The contract must specify what happens if delays caused by you affect the delivery date of the website.

4. Copyright Over the Website, Assets and Software: Who Owns It?

You might not know this, but in most countries copyright belongs to the contractor (the web design provider) unless the contractor explicitly transfers ownership.

If you contract a web design company to make a website your you, they own the copyright.

In most cases the web design provider will will happily transfer copyright to you. If it’s a run of the mill small business website without any unique software programming then there is no need for the web designer to require copyright ownership.

If your website has lots of unique features that have been custom developed by the web design provider then you will need to negotiate ownership right from the start. Don’t avoid this conversation because it will be far more problematic in a few years when the original developers re-purpose the software for your competitors.

Some clients don’t understand why they don’t just own the copyright. Think of Microsoft Word. Just because you buy it, doesn’t mean you own the software. What you bought is the right to use the software. Same goes for when you buy a website unless you negotiate for copyright ownership.

5. Access to Source Files and Assets

At some point you will use another service provider, perhaps a graphic designer to help with some print marketing. The graphic designer will look at the website and will likely ask you to provide the ‘source’ files for certain graphics.

Source files are the Photoshop file or Illustrator file the original graphic was made from.

The reason the graphic designer needs to source files and not just the graphics in the website is because website graphics are optimised for web and look terrible in print.

The graphic designer will need the original source files to create print ready images.

If the website has lots of custom graphics, make sure the contract specifies that you are allowed access to the source files.

6. Client and 3rd Party Changes to the Website

Adding and editing content for a website is a daily task for businesses. Occasionally when adding something new to the website, such as a banner ad promoting your latest offer, the layout of the website can break. The first thing you will think is:

“Ahh, the website isn’t working, I’ll call the web designer to fix it.”

Here’s yet another catch.

If you or someone else makes a change to the website that breaks the design or function, it’s your responsibility.

Depending on your arrangement with the web design provider, you will have to either pay a one off fee to fix it, or it will be included as part of your maintenance and support deal.

7. Ongoing Maintenance and Technical Support

Simple business websites usually don’t require any maintenance or technical support. Websites with technical features absolutely will.

Some web design providers will charge a monthly fee others will provide free support for a specified period.

However!

All good web design providers should offer free support for the original features they created.

If you discover a critical bug that stops certain features from working, then the web design provider should provide support.

But be careful, because they will not provide free support for bugs that were caused by you, only bugs they didn’t find during production.

8. Payment Terms

There are all kinds of payment plans for web design. Most will charge a percentage upfront (this is industry standard) and specify progress payments. For example:

30% of the total fee is to be paid before production, 30% is to be paid when deliverable X is complete and the remainder is to be paid upon completion of all deliverables.

Other web design providers might specify time periods rather than deliverables.

Whatever the payment terms are, make sure they are clearly stated.

Web Design Contract Checklist

Once you have sent a web desigb brief and started receiving quotes you will soon be given a contract to look at. Use our web design contract checklist to make sure the contract covers everything it should. Download the free Web Design Contract Checklist here.

Go back to the Web Design Buyer’s Guide series

Compare Quotes from Local Web Designers.

No related posts.

OK, rule #1. Don’t always choose the cheapest offer. There are many things to consider when choosing a web designer, and price is just one of them.

Experience, portfolios and testimonials aside, the first thing you need to find out about each web design company or freelancer, is where their strengths lie. There are three areas of web design that the each provider will be strongest in:

1. Website Interface Design
2. Website Construction
3. Website Marketing

Website Interface Design Specialists

Web design providers who specialise in interface design will make the most attractive looking websites. These are the sorts of websites you see for music festival and band websites. They are creative and demonstrate the cutting edge of popular trends. If image is important, you want to go with someone that specialises in the design aspect.

Website Construction Specialists (web developers)

Website construction refers to the technical aspect of web design. This includes the way the website is coded (CSS, HTML5 etc). It also includes interactive features like credit card processing, membership features and more sophisticated content. If your website has lots of interactive features (think Facebook) then you will want a team that has great developers (programmers).

Website Marketing Specialists

Website marketing specialists typically provide very low cost websites but which can be a little generic. However their strength is in producing websites that sell. They usually have a combination of conversion rate experts and SEO experts. This is a powerful option since a website that doesn’t get traffic and can’t sell is useless.

The Perfect Web Design Team

The ideal team is one that can cater to all three areas. You want the website to have the right look and feel (interface designers) with the ability to add modern interactive features (developers) but which also gets plenty of traffic that converts into customers (internet marketers).

Web Design Interview Checklist

Once you begin comparing web design quotes and proposals you will need to know how to effectively evaluate each offer. Use this free checklist to ensure you ask the right questions and completely understand each offer. Download the free Web Design Interview Checklist here.

Go back to the Web Design Buyer’s Guide series

Compare Quotes from Local Web Designers.

Related posts:

1. Daniel Duckworth Name: Daniel Duckworth Bio: Daniel is a co-founder of Design...

A web design brief is a single document that outlines your website project and is given to a web design provider for evaluation. A design brief doesn’t need to be complicated.

However…

The more detailed your brief, the more accurate the quoted price is going to be.

This lesson teaches you the 10 key ingredients for a good brief. After you have read the lesson, download the free Web Design Brief Template so you can easily submit your brief to designers when you request quotes.

10 Key Ingredients for Good Web Design Brief

If you’ve read the previous lessons in this 6-part “Web Design Buyer’s Guide” you will already have seven of the ten requirements for a design brief (well done!):

1. Purpose
2. Technology
3. Sitemap
4. Target audience
5. Goals
6. Content and products
7. Required technical features
8. Design style
9. Examples of style
10. Budget

Describing the Design Style of a Website

This can be a little tricky if you are not overly creative. But don’t worry, there are some pretty standard ways of describing style that will make sense for your web design provider. Answer these three questions and you will have enough information to define the style.

1. What is the primary colour for the website’s interface?

Blue, Green, Orange… You get the picture.

2. What is the projected image and attitude of the business?

Professional, sophisticated, young, friendly, techie.

3. What is the main type of content on the website?

Images, videos, text.

Finding Examples of Web Design Styles

When it comes to finding websites that have a similar style to what you have in mind, there are two very simple methods.

1. Search for your Competitors’ Websites

Write a list your competitors’ websites and explain what you like and don’t like.

2. Browse Through a Web Design Gallery

Take a look at Dribble and find examples the match your desired style. Dribble has a great feature that allows you to browse by colour.

Again, write a list of the designs you like and write down what you like and don’t like.

How Budgeting for Web Design Works

Budgets for web design are rarely straightforward. It all depends on the features, design and content. The bulk of your budget will go toward:

• implementing technical features
• customising the design and interface and
• integrating the website with 3rd party software (social networks, accounting software, CRMs etc)

All of the above tasks take time, and of course the more time spent, the more it will cost.

But don’t worry, there are many clever web design studios out there that know how to make amazing websites at very affordable rates.

Generally the best approach is to decide from the start your maximum budget, create the web design brief and request quotes. The web designers will tell you what can be achieved for what you have. If you’re budget can’t support what you want, then the web designer will make suggestions on how to reduce the price.

For example, you can opt to have less interface design revisions (this is where you critique their design) which means less time spent on design.

If you want to get a rough idea of how much websites costs you can use our free online web design price calculator.

Now that you have every ingredient for a web design brief, put it all in one document so it is ready to send out to web designers for quotes.

Or you can download our free Web Design Brief Template modelled on each of the lessons in this 6-part Web Design Buyer’s Guide series.

Go back to the Web Design Buyer’s Guide series

Compare Quotes from Local Web Designers.

No related posts.

There are many eCommerce platforms available. Some of them free, some of them cost a pretty penny. Some web designers provide their own custom ecommerce platform. In many cases their own software can fall short because they don’t have the budget to continually improve the software. Make sure that the eCommerce software used supports these five features.

1. SEO Friendly URLs

Too many online stores have non SEO friendly URLs:

example.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=141

All of that information means absolutely nothing to Google. The URLs must display relevant keywords for products and categories.

Make sure the eCommerce software supports custom URLs for products and categories.

2. Product Filtering Options

Instead of forcing the user to navigation between pages of a category, the software should allow for filters. Filters help the user to drill down to find a particular product

E.g., Shirts, Blue, Long Sleeve, Large. The easier it is use, the more likely some is to buy.

Make sure the eCommerce software supports product filtering.

3. Recommend Products, Cross Selling and Upselling

Amazon invented the whole, “people who bought this also bought this” feature as a way of aligning crowdsourced interests with cross selling. It’s a powerful feature that all eCommerce website should have. When configuring a product, you should be allowed to define an up-sell and/or a-cross sell. An up-sell is suggesting the bigger version, or the product in a package. A cross-sell is suggesting a complementary product.

Make sure the eCommece software supports:

• Amazon style recommendations
• Cross-selling
• Up-selling

4. Flexible Checkout Process

Have you ever tried to buy a product online only to feel like the checkout process was designed to stop you? Modern ecommerce platforms provide with multiple checkout options.

Make sure the eCommece software supports:

• Single page checkout
• Guest checkout
• Final price including discounts and shipping
• Integrated shipping (automatic calculation of shipping by weight and location)

5. Product Reviews

Product reviews are an excellent sales and market research tool. They will help you discover which products should be replaced and which ones should be promoted more heavily. Allowing and diplaying customers to review products increases trust.

Make sure the eCommerce software supports product reviews.

Go back to the Web Design Buyer’s Guide series

Compare Quotes from Local Web Designers.

Related posts:

1. 5 Must Have CMS Features These five must have CMS features will help help you...
2. eCommerce Shopping Cart Quotes eCommerce Shopping Cart Website Quote. Need an eCommerce website and...
3. 5 Must Have Website Features These five must have CMS features will help turn your...

CMS simply stands for content management system and is pretty standard these days. It is not a matter of if you have one or not. It’s a matter of, what can it do? It is the specific features of the CMS that matter.

Many web design providers have their own proprietary CMS which can sometimes be lacking in flexibility which will hold back your success online. Make sure the CMS your web design provider recommends has these features.

1. Flexible Page Organisation

When a website first goes live often it only has 5 – 10 pages or 10 – 20 products. However as a website grows the number of pages and products increases. Categorising the pages and products becomes increasingly important. The ability to have sub pages (example.com/broad-service/niche-service) makes it much easier to categorise information which is good for readers and Google.

Make sure the CMS supports something called sub pages.

2. Modern Content Editor

The content editor is one of the primary features you will use. However it is important the the content editor for the CMS follows standard practice. That is, it uses something called “Styles” instead of “Formatting” (font and colour). Websites that have too many fonts and colours used are hard to read and annoy readers. When the content editor uses styles, all content is displayed consistently.

Make sure the CMS content editor uses styles.

3. Image, PDF, Video and File Management

When creating content you will typically want to include images, video and sometimes downloadable PDFs. Ideally the CMS will let you do the following:

• Add “Alt tags” to the images (great for SEO)
• Edit, crop and shrink the image so it fits the content
• Embed self hosted video

4. Flexible Content Control

Too often clients ask the web design provider, “can we add a list of the last three blog posts on the homepage”? Or, “can we display the top 10 most popular pages in the sidebar?” If the CMS is not flexible enough, it won’t be capable of perfectly reasonable requests.

If you have an idea for content, the technology should not get in the way.

5. Form Builder

The first form you will want is the contact form. However as your website grows you will start using forms for surveys, competitions, email subscriptions, bookings etc. Does the CMS allow you to generate your own forms, or do you need a web developer to get involved?

Make sure the CMS has a flexible form builder.

Go back to the Web Design Buyer’s Guide series

Compare Quotes from Local Web Designers.

Related posts:

1. 5 Must Have Website Features These five must have CMS features will help turn your...