Ten Questions Your Web Designer Should Be Asking You | Wes McDowell, Small Business Trends

If you are a website manager planning a new website or planning a website renovation, these questions are for you. I have found that designers (for publication as well as for the Web) often ask just the right questions to help even editors become more reader-friendly and reader-focused. if we aren't meeting the needs and expectations of our readers, what's the point of publishing anything!

McDowell writes:

Going beyond general stylistic questions that you might expect a designer to ask, these questions are designed to get to the heart of what it is you need your website to be for your business.

If you are working with a web designer who isn’t asking you these questions, you would be wise to bring them up and provide answers to them sooner than later.

Here are the questions. McDowell's article provides more information about their purpose and value:

1. “Can you describe your business in a few sentences?”
2. “Who are your main competitors?”
3. “What sets your business apart from your competitors?”
4. “Can you describe your target customer?”
5. “What is your deadline for completing the site?”
6. “What are some other sites on the Web that you like and why?”
7. “What specific functionalities would you like included on your site?”
8. “Who is going to be responsible for the website’s content?”
9. “What key search phrases would you like to be found for?”
10. “How much time do you want to put into new content creation per week?