Don’t assume that just because you “have” a web designer that they’re keeping up with the trends and their skills. You can retain a design and they can get lazy, get too busy with other projects, or simply not make your site a priority. It’s good to get fresh blood into the mix, and changing up web designers can help you find the right one for a longer haul. Start by looking for local web designers, who might provide a premium level of customer service.
However, if you’re staring down a really boring looking site, it might be urgent that you switch. In the era of mobile readiness, your site needs to have responsive design, maybe elements of mobile readiness, search engine optimization (SEO) and maybe local SEO (LSEO) and a host of other things. Here’s your checklist to make sure your site’s on point:
1. There’s not much white space
White space is crucial to make digesting information easy. You need to know how people read online, and Slate helps, but bear in mind that the general rule of thumb is they don’t like doing it. They want to get in, get what they need, and move in. White space makes text look more manageable, so break up those paragraphs.
2. You don’t rank well for your keywords
If you don’t even know what this means, your web designer isn’t doing their job of educating you about SEO and reporting it. SEO is what moves websites up the Google search result rankings based on a number of factors. However, it all comes down to how well you rank for keywords, which are industry specific (such as “electric blankets Tampa”). Some keywords are highly competitive and you’ll never reach the top spot; check out Moz’s list of the most popular for ideas. However, you should still be an improvement of rankings.
3. Responsive design isn’t there
You may not be able to adequately test for responsive design yourself, but your developer should be keeping you in the loop. This is a way of designing a website so that it loads quickly and presents perfectly on any device or platform. The website might look fine to you, but is it loading correctly on every possible gadget out there?
Breaking up with a developer is sometimes a necessity, and you need to know when to cut the strings.