How to work with your Website Designer for Maximum Effectiveness
It’s common for AEC firms to start their web projects with a specific deadline in mind - an upcoming conference, event, or RFQ. They enthusiastically hire a website designer with this date in mind but, all too often, fail to meet it. Websites, even redesigns or additions, take time, and 90% of that time is spent communicating, organizing, and preparing content effectively so they can get your site up and running. Here are our top tips for working with a web designer effectively.
Define Clear Objectives and Target Audiences - Clearly define the website's primary goals. Whether it’s lead generation, showcasing a portfolio, or enhancing credibility, knowing the purpose will guide design decisions and functionality. Provide the designer detailed information about your target audience, including their needs, preferences, and pain points. This will help the designer create a user experience tailored to your and potential clients.
Start with Structure (Wireframing) - Before any design work starts, you and your designer should collaborate on the site’s structure, ensuring its layout, page hierarchy, and user experience align with your firm’s goals and sales paths.
Share Your Brand Identity - Communicate and share your company’s logos, color schemes, fonts, and imagery styles and files. Other collateral, such as brochures, qualification packages, and presentations, can help point your designer in the right direction and help them learn more about your company. Set up a shared folder system via Dropbox, Sharefile, or the like to facilitate file transmission.
Organize Content - The number one thing you can do to move a website along (and to save money) is to prepare and organize people, project, and company photos, text, and project descriptions in clearly labeled, highly organized, shared folders.
Provide Text - Many AEC firms hyperfocus on website images rather than text. Remember, your website is a written document but differs from qualification writing. It requires brevity, punchiness, SEO know-how, and, often, a slightly different voice. Many firms can save time and money by hiring a copywriter to condense and “webify” their written content.
Incorporate SEO from the Start - Work with your designer to integrate SEO best practices into the design process. This includes optimizing site structure, page titles, metadata, alt text strategy, and content layout to improve search engine rankings and drive organic traffic. Not all designers are SEO specialists. In this case, hiring an SEO consultant simultaneously makes sense.
Collaborate on Content Strategy - Work with your designer to decide on the types of content (e.g., blogs, case studies, service descriptions) and where they should be placed to maximize engagement and SEO effectiveness.
Provide Examples - Examples of websites you like and want to emulate are a great place to start with a designer. They may have examples to share as well. Make a list of features and designs you want to incorporate. Examples are great, but don’t fixate on emulating a particular design. Your firm’s uniqueness may best be conveyed through a unique design.
Be Ready for Some Tech—Getting a website updated or published will involve a lot of technical collaboration. Domains, website hosts, email hosts, social media accounts, CRM and email campaign platforms, Google Workspace, Analytics, and Search Console require usernames, passwords, two-factor authentication, and a technical integration strategy. Make sure your designer has access to your technical team and details.
Plan for Future Scalability - Discuss how new projects, services, blogs, or team members can be added without disrupting the existing structure or design.