How do you find a reliable web designer near Cairns?
Why choosing the right local web designer matters
In the Cairns, Port Douglas region there are “web designers” and then there are “web designers”. For business It’s not just ticking the box on having a website and to be a legitimate business. It’s about a marketing tool that helps bring you business or a website that portrays who you want to be perceived as online. Your customers are the key to your websites success and unlocking their desires to solve a problem quick and easily is important.
About our local Cairns market
As of the latest numbers from the Cairns council we have an amazing opportunity living in our tropical paradise that is Cairns. 14,800+ regional registered businesses are located here. Construction is the number 2 largest employment area in Cairns while tourism of course rules with over 4.7 million passengers reported during FY 2024 WIkipedia reports. We have over 166,943 people living in our Cairns region. That’s people who Google you’re business every day. Having a quality website is so, so important.
Working with someone local and regional in the FNQ
Having a local contact or someone that can liase in person is far more valuable than we give it credit. Post COVID we all think working remotely and using zoom is the most efficient way to collaborate on projects. Imagine though if your web designer was to be able to drive 15 minutes across town from Trinity Beach to Brinsmead to meet with you in person. Wouldn’t you have more trust in them because you’ve met them and have developed a feel for their integrity and reliability? Absolutely, it’s not just about the website it’s about ongoing support and not being taken for a ride financially.
Are you getting value for money from your big marketing company
We see it all the time large marketing organisations offering their $800 per month packages with their integrated CRM packages that do it all. Problem is nobody uses $750 worth of the value they’re charging you. When you go to the pub for a counter meal and the food is off the plate and we’re paying twice as much at the register. At least we’re using the bloat (and adding to our own) but with digital marketing companies so common you’ll find way more bells and whistles than what you need and most people don’t understand any of it. They make it hard to compare apples and organges on purpose so you’re left with fear, scratching your head thinking if I don’t do it is my business going to fail.
I have a questions for you:
Do you think you can update your own Google My Business/Profile page with your open hours yourself? Is this worth $280 per month to give a large marketing business “management” access where they might only update it once a year. Absolutely not!
What to look for in a reliable Web Designer
- Look for a quality portfolio of custom designs
- Technical skills cannot be emphasised enough – performance and best practice is key
- SEO knowledge – usually comes with experience
- Transparent pricing both project and ongoing
- Great communication
- Capacity to support your organisation
While a proven portfolio might be top of mind beware the DIY website designer and their templates and what they’re really selling you. Website design should be a process from analysing competitors, keywords, goals for your site and putting together a plan that eventually becomes a wireframe and a concept. DIY web designers often shortcut alot of this process and you end up with a marketing tool that is just text and images not necessarily strategically applied. The same can be said partly for the more professional builds with WordPress and Drupal but with these at least you know anything is possible.
Here’s a link to my Web Design Cairns page so you can see some more things you should be looking for.
Local Matters: Why Hiring a Cairns-Based Web Designer Has Advantages
Imagine being able to meet in person with your web designer to talk about what you want to do to meet the goals of your new website. A local will also have far better knowledge of the Cairns market and SEO opportunities that they may even worked with in the past.
Training in-person is totally under rated. We’re driven into a self-serve stlye learning environment that makes business lots of money but often requires more time on the student’s part rather than setting aside time for someone to come in and go through things in person. Having the opportunity to ask real questions to your web designers as they take you through not only the process to get to your new website marekting tool but also how to edit and update it.
19 Questions you should ask before hiring a web designer in Cairns
- How long have you been building websites for? I wouldn’t touch anyone who hasn’t had at least 5 years experience.
- Do you do both the design and the development? Often we want to hear they only do one or the other.
- Can I see examples of customers you’ve built websites in my industry?
- Do you change the registrant email address to be an agency’s address in order to manage that domain, or do you leave it as mine? (The answer to this determines if it’s easy to transfer away from that agency.)
- What type of website building system do you use? We want to hear WordPress.
- Can I transfer my website to another provider in the future? Not that I want to. How easy is it?
- Who creates the copy for my new website? What’s my part in the process?
- Do you have a photographer, or do I need to organise my own?
- What sort of timeframe is involved in building a website?
- What are the initial costs versus the ongoing costs?
- Will I own my website?
- Where is your support team located?
- Do I need to log a ticket to get something done?
- How much are your ongoing charges for one-off type work? Expect between $100-$250 per hour
- Do you have a local presence in Cairns who’s not just a salesperson?
- Do you track the success of a new website versus your old website after launch?
- Is SEO a checklist or a competition? (The answer here is competition.)
- Can you describe the process involved in getting a website built and who are the people involved in each step?
- Do you do website management and security audits on your websites regularlly?
What to watch out for?
- Templates being used
- DIY website builders such as SquareSpace or Wix
- Overseas teams pretending to be locals
- Communication delays often mean they’re waiting for a response themselves and not doing the work
Where do I find a reliable web designer in Cairns
Cairns being a bit of a backpacker haven the obvious answer is finding someone who’s based here permanently. You could lookup map listings and testimonials but often these can be faked. Local facebook groups are often a poor method of asking for help where you’ll get the DIY and budget designers. Cairns business directories and the chamber of commerce while could be good but be mindful new businesses often start out here so there could be a lack of experience.
If you’re searching online and you see a website you like check the footer of that website and often you’ll find a “designed by” signature which will tell you who built it. Searching online and limiting your picks to those that rank well is another great option.
Ask your business colleagues and friends if they know of anyone or if there’s someone they woudn’t use is just as important.
Google – search web designers in cairns and you’ll find page after page of people claiming to be web designers. I’ve counted more than 25 in the local Cairns area. If they rank high is often NOT an indication that they are quality at what they do. In the past IT businesses would attempt to do marketing for clients or manage websites these are to be avoided at all costs as they usually don’t do the builds themselves or have a web marekting team for their clients. As businesses have been around for longer and longer they establish a higher reputation online and thereby rank higher despite other agencies being far better at the craft who may only be 5 year in the market.
I also have a write up on who I think are the best website designers in Cairns which you can read separately. This is a bit more detailed and technical if you’re interested in the technical side.
What does a quality website look like in basic terms?
- Something that uses a framework will be quicker and easier to maintain.
- There’s a thing called Google core vitals – Google this and do a test on example sites to see how they measure up.
- It uses direct messaging and not vague ideas or fluffy subtext.
- It uses real imagery not just stock photos
- They don’t go in for a hard sell but instead understand cold contact marketing often needs to be by a softly softly approach depending on where the client is in the funnel.
Action plan to find your ideal fit
- Google and find 3 local web designers
- Submit a contact on their form and see how long it takes for them to respond
- Ask for a price guide based on your requirements – they’ll most likely tell you they can’t commit and need more information.
- Do an initial phone call with them asking some of the questions I supplied above.
- Get their best examples and why they can help you in particular vs other designers/
- Organise a face to face.
- Find out your terms of payment which should be a deposit up front and other milestone payments – DO NOT PAY EVERYTHING UP FRONT
Bottom line what’s important from a web designer?
Make sure they understand your money is an investment and you the investor expect a return. If they agree here without dodging the statement then you konw you’re onto someone who’s a serious web designer.
We’re not living in 2024 – ha, that’s only 12 months ago but it’s important to note changes in this area are so frequent if web designers aren’t embracing strategy to harness opportunities with AI through best practice SEO and schema. Utilising FAQs and search based blogs like this one they’re not worth the money.
Personal note from the author
That’s it, as you can tell I’m super passionate about quality in web design, raising the profile of the people who work hard in this industry and have so many valuable skills that get tossed aside as anyone can do that.
I only encourage marketing agencies who do best practice and not cutting corners.
Clearly I’m not a fan of the DIY beginner designer crowd but understand people need to start somewhere. I’ve also tried not to be too platform subjective with my approach but there’s alot of tricks to watch out for here that can lock you in and cost you thousands.
If you’ve found this article useful reach out and if we’re a good fit for web designer and customer and can deliver what you’re after at the cost you expect we’d love the opportunity to work with you.
