5 Branding Elements You Should Get From Your Website Designer

If there's anything I've learned during my time as a coach is that lack of knowledge is not bliss. What you don't know can hurt you and, regrettably, almost always does.

If there's anything I've learned during my time as a coach is that lack of knowledge is not bliss. What you don't know can hurt you and, regrettably, almost always does.

And among the most significant unknown worlds for coaches is the innovation that goes along with running a business-- specifically, your website.

When it concerns getting your website developed and out into the world, you are essentially (pardon the pun) at the mercy of your web guru. You might not even realize that some of their "perk services" such as acquiring and hosting your domain for you, could seriously jeopardize your company in the future.

So to assist guarantee that you have total control of your brand, here are a few things you must hammer out with your website designer prior to hiring them.

You ought to constantly register your domain.

Your domain is your company's online address and a huge piece of your brand name, and it must be on an account you own. If your website designer owns your domain and they fail, or you have a conflict (which may seem unlikely, however it takes place!), you could run the risk of losing your domain.

I wasn't so clever when I began among my very first services. A design company called me and used to establish my website for no upfront fee, and then if I liked it, I would pay a low regular monthly membership for ongoing upkeep. It seemed like a great deal; they even registered the domain for me as a convenience. I believed to myself, "Oh, how nice of them!"

Then, when I chose I didn't want to utilize the site they constructed (it was beyond horrible, up until now beyond), they stated I couldn't transfer my domain to a new host unless I paid them $2000. Yeah right!

Recalling, it's amusing how naive I was, however at the time, I was devastated and had to create something completely brand-new.

Make certain you own your logo and graphics.

It might seem obvious that, obviously, you own your logo design and graphics. After all, you paid for the designer to create them! However that's not constantly the case.

In your contract with your designer, make sure that when payment is complete and the design is approved, it is yours to keep, and they can't utilize the very same design elsewhere. (and this goes both methods, of course, if you haven't finished the payment, then you can't utilize the design aspects or take your mockup design to someone else to duplicate.).

As part of this, you may likewise want to ask for the graphic source files. This is usually in the form of an Adobe Photoshop file which contains your website's design. The source files will have layers that make up your design aspects that can be separated and altered as required.

In this manner, if you require to have modifications made by your assistant later, or perhaps another designer, they have the initial files to work with. I likewise find these files useful when making other branding aspects like your social networks profile images so that they match your website without going back to square one.

Get your logo in high resolution.

Expect you can get it as a vector file that's even better (a vector file can be resized without jeopardizing the image quality). Often this costs a little extra, however it deserves it! A logo created just for your website will look fuzzy when you use it on your business cards or other printed products unless it's been built for high resolution.

Self-hosting is normally a good concept.

With all of the reliable and user friendly hosting companies, hosting your website is really easy (and inexpensive!). Some web developers offer hosting, keeping the site up to date, and a couple of hours of upkeep every month. And the majority of the time, this is an OK arrangement. It simply always makes me worried not to have overall control of my account if they go out of business or we have a dispute (similar to above). Obviously, they could shut down your website whenever they choose, though it is not likely.

At the very least, make sure that, if required, you get FTP access to your website if you require somebody else to work on the site or you want to preserve the website yourself. If you use WordPress, for instance, and something breaks, often FTP access is the only method to bring it back, and if your developer is out of town for the weekend, you will be out of luck.

Premium plugins on your website.

If you're paying your designer to acquire premium plugins for your site, you might ask to purchase them yourself, so you have the login info. That way, you own the plugin and can get support yourself if needed.

Typically developers will have an unique license to use the premium plugin on multiple websites, so this may not be needed, particularly if they will be your ongoing support for the website. It doesn't injured to ask, however.

These aspects are necessary to preserving your brand online and do not constantly "come basic" with your website design, so it's worth asking about them. The more control you have more than your brand name, the better!