If you want your small business to be successful in the current world, it needs to have a website.

And, it can't be just any website. It has to be a website that's impactful - meaning it must connect your target audience with your message, in an instant.

Then, it needs to keep them there.

A good website has to grab hold of your potential clients and then get them to read about you, watch what you do, and trust you to sell to them or perform services for them.

A website is marketing asset that must be taken seriously, from the earliest stages of planning and design through client acquisition and sale.

But, how do you create a serious website if you don't have design or coding skills?

Your best option is to hire someone to do it for you.

Here's how you hire a good web designer for your small business:

Ask About Marketing

When you hire a web designer, you're hiring them to take over a huge piece of your marketing strategy. Which means your designer has to realise that the website he creates for you must serve a precise purpose for your small business.

As you search for possible web designers, seek out people who advertise themselves as marketing professionals.

You're going to want your web designer to be a skilled marketer who knows how to promote a business through website design, content, and functionality.

Question the Content Provided

Website content is one of the primary ways a small business gets its message to its audience. The web designer you hire must be able to design your site to showcase informative and engaging content that your potential clients and customers want to read.

She should know how to integrate headlines and subheadings into your website's main page, product pages, and About Us page.

She also must be able to effectively make space for headlines and subheadings that catch readers' attention and prompt them to respond the way you want.

our website designer should suggest a blog for your website, which will provide valuable information to your clients and customers and help with search engine optimization.

If your designer doesn't actually write content, it's good if she can recommend someone that does.

Ask About Experience

Be straightforward about asking web designers how much experience they have creating websites. Inquire whether they've worked with small businesses similar to yours, so you know if they're skilled to deliver exactly what your company needs.

If you can, speak to your web designer's past clients and ask about their satisfaction with that designer.

You need to be sure your web designer has a history of creating engaging and effective websites for business like yours, but you also want to see some variation in style and design. You don't want a designer that puts out cookie cutter sites.

Focus on Interaction Design

A good web designer should be able to craft a succinct and attractive website design.

He should know how to put type, text, color, photos, and illustrations together to show your audience who you are as a small business and what you represent.

Your web designer needs to know how to design a website that gives a good first impression, but he also must understand how people will interact with the design to make it easy for people to move around your site.

Your future clients and customers, and your loyal ones, won't stay on your website long enough to learn more about you if they have trouble navigating through it.

Evaluate Communication

Your web designer needs to be adept at communicating with you throughout the design process.

From the start, even when you're interviewing your designer, he should return calls promptly and listen to your needs. He must demonstrate he's your partner by asking what your business goals are and telling you how he'll help you realise them through website design.

A good web designer is open to hearing your ideas, and then will use his experience to translate these ideas into a website that does what you want it to do.

The ideal website designer is in it for you, not for himself.

Armed with these tips for how to hire a good website designer, you should end up with a trustworthy and reliable supplier and partner, who will prove to be a valuable asset to your small business.