So you’ve made the decision to have a website created. Now you’re probably asking yourself where to start. The first step for many is usually to search for web designers on a search engine or freelancer website. There is more to it than that, however. Obviously you need to make sure the web designer can design web pages, but web design really goes beyond just graphic design. While many people can create a design which looks like it would be made into a website, there are many things designers do not always take into account which could cost you later.

If you’re looking for someone who can actually design a site and make it into something functional that people can use, you need to be looking for more than just a designer. What you need to be looking for is actually a web developer. The terms sound similar, but they are different. Typically web developers are capable of both website design and the programming required to make the site usable. Web designers are usually just designers with limited technical capability.

Say the site you want created needs to have a photo gallery implemented, or a discussion board. For these things you’re going to need a programmer. The functionality of these elements also needs to fit in with the design. However when you have both a programmer and a designer working on the same project when one doesn’t know what the other is doing, it can get messy. It’s best to find one person who can do both jobs.

It might sound difficult to find one person who can do both things, however there are many developers capable of such tasks. What’s important to remember is that if you want to have a site created from design to hosting, you’re not looking for a web designer, but a web developer. A web developer might be more expensive, but they’re still going to be cheaper than hiring a programmer to implement the design that you’ve already spent money on having someone else create.

The important thing to remember is to make sure that the person you decide to hand the project to has just as much technical knowledge as design knowledge, unless of course you want to hire two different people to work on the project.

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