How Much Is The Salary of a Web Designer
How much should a website designer's salary be? In this short article, we will look into the average value of a website designer's salary in Malaysia and compare it to the salaries in other countries, and briefly explain the essential skills that a website designer should have. If you're an employer, hopefully this can help you set an appropriate salary for your website designer. Or, if you're looking to hire a website design agency or a freelance website designer to work on your website, this article might help you to gauge the value of a sensible charge.
In the context of supporting the growth of information technology in Malaysia, some might say the support and education given in Malaysia is still not up to the standards practiced in developed countries. In a way, the average salary given to website designers in Malaysia does reflect this. According to JobStreet Malaysia, the average pay for a web designer in Malaysia is MYR2,900 per month. In comparison, according to Glassdoor, the average salary of a web designer in the USA is $58,517 per year which is equivalent to MYR20,429 per month. Another comparison is made from one website: PayScale. According to PayScale, here's a list of average salaries for web designers in Malaysia and several other countries, already converted to its monthly equivalent in Malaysian Ringgit:
United States of America: MYR18,276 per month
Australia: MYR14,405 per month
New Zealand: MYR13,051 per month
United Kingdom: MYR11,045 per month
Japan: MYR9,437 per month
Singapore: MYR8,295 per month
Malaysia: MYR2,959 per month
Philippines: MYR2,004 per month
From this comparison, it is evident enough to say that the average salary given to website designers in Malaysia is way below international standards. In terms of encouraging IT growth, that is a discouraging fact – especially since Malaysia is aiming to become one of the leading countries in terms of technological advancements.
So, what are the skills a web designer should have? A web designer is a multi-skilled job. According to this article by CareerKarma, web design is the creation, modification, and design of websites. A web designer works on the overall appearance, layout, and arrangement of a website, and sometimes on website content as well. The goal of web designers is to ensure that users have pleasant experiences while using the site. Building up from the list of skills a website designer should have as listed by CareerKarma, here are seven (7) essential skills we believe a website designer should have:
1. Analytical skills
This is probably one skill that not many people talk about when referring to web designers. Analytical skills of external factors such as the local politics, economy, social structure, and available technology (yes, that PEST thing), is probably not an explicitly crucial skill for web designers but it does help web designers make calculated decisions when developing websites for their clients. For instance, in a country where Internet access is very limited and scarce, a website designer should change their approach and develop websites that use less resource and less bandwidth, especially if the main target audience of the website is the people of that country.
2. Website coding skills
While there are many services and tools today that allow the building of websites without coding, those tools are fairly limited in terms of functionality. Hence, it is very important for web designers to master coding skills for frontend and backend development, so that they can satisfy the dynamics of users' requirements. Sometimes, certain tools does not even allow the simple matter of changing of fonts to use one that is in line with a client's branding.
3. SEO skills
When designing a website, it is important that it is designed with SEO in mind. Hence, a website designer must have a fair share of SEO skills. It should be noted that SEO is not all about a website's structure and coding. A big part of SEO will depend on the website owner. However, if the basic structure and coding of a website is not SEO-friendly, then that's the basics not covered.
4. Designing skills
The job is “web design”, so designing skills is a requirement. A web designer does not need to be an expert designer (for that is a different field of study altogether), but does neet to be able to create or edit designs. This is important to ensure that a website looks good, and also to ensure that the images used are optimized to meet the goals of a website.
5. UI/UX skills
While there are people who specialize in UI/UX designs (designing the user experience of a website), web designers need to have their fair share of UI/UX knowledge. Especially in designing websites with a mobile-first approach, web designers should know the experiences a user gets when browsing a website using their mobile phones and design according to that.
6. Copywriting skills
Businesses and companies usually have their own expert copywriters. However, there are times when smaller companies or startups need the website designer to provide some content as well. Hence, a website designer should have some copywriting skills and be able to create good content for the websites that they design.
7. Digital marketing knowledge
Since a website is a digital marketing tool for a business, a web designer must have knowledge in digital marketing and apply that in the website design. A web designer must know the needs of a client, and measure that with digital marketing elements which is highly dynamic. For instance, integration with social media and arrangement of content are some of the digital marketing elements that a website designer should apply in their website design.
Those are the essential skills that a website designer should have. What other skills do you think a website designer should have? What do you think is a reasonable salary for a website designer? Share your thoughts and experiences with us at naim@amz.com.my.
