​This is a comment we come across on occasion, usually after someone has been in touch and asked us for a price to design their new website.

There's not really any way to respond except for being polite and saying 'No problem, thanks for letting us know.'.

However, whilst we are probably going to come across as biased given website design is what we offer from our own business, very often we find that getting your friend to design your website is not the best idea.  Many of our clients have come to us after a friend has done just this, designed them a website which isn't working properly and isn't doing their business justice.

On occasion, your friend may do a great job, but often we see the end results of such work and feel bad that we were not able to help you ourselves.  With over 20 years of experience designing websites for businesses, individuals, schools and charities, we have spent thousands of hours researching, building and improving the websites of well over 100 clients, and love to use this to work with our clients.

If you are thinking of letting your friend design your website, then you need to ask them lots of questions to be sure that they really can do the best for your business.

Here are 10 questions to ask your friend before letting them loose on your website:

1. ​What SEO are you building in to the website?
2. Is the website built on a content management system (CMS) so it is easy to update without special software?
3. Will you provide secure hosting?
4. Who will keep the CMS and website software up to date and secure regularly?
5. Will the website be backed up automatically in case of problems?
6. Will any images used on the website be the correct size, image quality and file name to meet Google's guidelines?
7. Do you have sufficient time to provide updates to the website when I need them?
8. Will all images you use be correctly licenced and not copied from another website or from Google image search?
9. If you are no longer able to help me in the future, how do I get a backup of my website to host elsewhere?
10. Can you show me examples of websites you have designed for anyone else?

Websites are a very important part of nearly every business now; can you risk the reputation of your business on a friend?  The 10 questions above should help you decide!

If you're not sure of anything related to web design, or would like to ask us more about our own web design services in the Carlisle area, call Chris today on 07880 858381 or email him via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.