The following guest post was written by Sarah Scrafford of Web Design Schools:

We’ve all come across our share of the DIY people – the ones who are jacks of all trades and masters of none. This may be good enough for your pet projects or hobbies, but when it comes to your profession, professionalism pays. So if you own a web-based business or if your website plays a major role in contributing to your income, it’s best if you hire the best in the business. And this is why you need to ensure that the designer of your choice has nothing to do with these five fictional designers:

• The Search Engine Submission Guy: Sure, you want your pages to be picked up by all the search engines, especially Google; but beware of the designer who tells you he’ll pull all the strings he can to submit your site to as many search engines as he can. For one, that’s not the way your site needs to be optimized to be search-engine friendly; and for another, you’re highly likely to get labeled as spam.
• The Friendly Neighborhood Designer Guy: He’s a hit with the whole family, because he designs all their personal sites and doesn’t charge a dime for the same. But if you want the hits on your pages, steer clear of this one. A family designer should stick to his roots and design just those sites that will gain approval of adoring kith and kin. Aspiring to step out and experiment with your site may be on his agenda, but must definitely not find a place in yours. Read the rest of this entry »