How To Avoid Working With Fake Web Designers

I know you might not want to hear this but the price, like in anything else in life, is a clear indicator of how much value lies in the service you’re about to purchase.

Don’t be impressed by fake web designers that boast about working faster for cheaper. Check the work they’ve done for the prices advertised. Do the sample pages on the designer’s portfolio look like the company website you would want?

If not, then the price is no longer relevant. You’re throwing money out of the window, almost like buying a pair of cheap shoes you’ll never wear. And if you wear them, everybody’s going to laugh at you. Better pay what your image is worth.

It is likely you’ll be persuaded by one of those scammy emails from self-proclaimed experts ready to fix your website, or design you a new one for cheap especially if you have this idea ‘the cheaper the better’.

If the offer has arrived via email from a free email address, such as Gmail or Yahoo, stay away. You can’t trust a web design expert that does not have his own email address and a website address to start with.

Also, some might suggest using students, but based on our experience with apprentices, in most cases, they abandon the project, especially when it gains complexity or if it starts to take too much time to complete.

Finding a good and trustworthy web design company is not easy. Behind beautiful websites, sometimes there are horror stories. You don’t want to be the next victim so always make sure you shop around for quotes.

Always check their previous jobs, templates and sample pages if they have any. If there is no previous web design work, that should tell you something.

This is very important. You better watch out for fake web designers who charge by the ‘page’. Always ask for a full website to avoid further financial surprises.

Ensure the intellectual property and ownership of the site is yours after the final product is delivered. If they refuse, walk away.

Also, ensure the domain name/address (mycompany.com) is in your name rather than on your web designer’s name as it might cause you problems in the future. If the web design company has a hosting package included, and insist on registering your domain under their account, that’s fine. Just make sure it is specified in the contract that the domain name also belongs to you.

Despite being very professional and trustworthy, some web design companies might have terms of service agreements that could surprise you. Take the time to know what work they guarantee, and what they don’t, free or paid updates, hosting fees, and SEO related changes.

This is a big one… Are they a brand new company? Have they just rebranded themselves to entice you to do business with them? How big is their staff, and do they actually have staff. Sometimes a one-man operation will sell himself as a legitimate company, then use a handful of “freelancers” to do the actual work… This will make it impossible to get consistent quality of work and security in your work…