My aim here is to give you as much information as possible to spot these imposter's. The first thing to look at is the designers website and see how well it is laid out and what type of content they want you to see first. If a designer wants you to see how popular they are and what awards they have won before they show you what services they offer that is a sure sign that something is very wrong.

If they have won awards or hold a certificate from a reputable source. They should also provide a link to the actual page where they are talked about. Just as anyone can appear to be a web designer, anyone can appear to be a graphics designer as well. Many times what they have done is found some graphics that someone else created and either stole it or paid for it, then opened it up their favorite image editor. Taken the graphic and manipulated it to look like they are some award winning guru.

There is no easy way to prove that they did or did not create or edit the graphics unless you have a trained eye or are able to verify its authenticity. Even if they provide you a link to a site there is no guarantee the site they linked to was not created by them or someone they know or that the source themselves are a valid and can give a non bias review. I am sorry I cannot offer a fool proof way to identify a designers authenticity by their listed accreditation.  Just know that if the first page of their website is full of fancy images and awards it should raise a big red flag.

Another not so obvious thing to spot is testimonials on a page especially on the front page. A true designer if they feel the need to show a testimonial, it should be listed on a portfolio page and better yet on the actual websites case study for that persons testimonial. There is no way to know if a testimonial was not written by the designer without contacting the source and verifying its authenticity.

This will lead us to the next points of interest that need to be looked at. Every web designer should and must have a portfolio page or another way to show case their work. A shady web designer will shelter this area and more times than not they will fill it with images of other web designers work making you believe they did it.

The portfolio is the backbone of a developers skills, it should show details on the site, showing you their best work and details on what they did for the client and here is the perfect place to view a testimonial as well. The images or some other clearly marked link should take you to the website and many times the phony web designer purposely leaves this out or they link you to a site that does not exist. A cleaver web designer will even create the site just for the purpose of making you think they built a real site for someone. Always look in the address bar and see where you really are on a web page.

If the links are not there or it leads you to a page not found. Then you can bank on the fact the site is more than likely not real and was not created by them. Sometimes a desperate designer will link to work that was done by some other web designer and call it there own. In this case do the real designer a favor and take a few minutes to send them a link to the impostors website. The first thing to look for on the site is a link or some other element that shows they did in fact build the site. Now this does not always show up and in some cases the person who had the site built does not want these types of elements and links on their site. This is bad news for the designer because now the only way for you to know they built the site is to contact the sites owner by a form or email address on the site and ask then to confirm the site was in fact built by the designer you are investigating. When I have a client like this I will put some code in the header that does not show up on the site but will still be able to be seen if a potential client wants to verify I did build the site.

This is another way to make some identifications regarding the site and will give clues as to its origin. If when you are on a site, right click anywhere in the open area (off of any text or site images) right click and click "View Source". This will bring up the code that the browser uses to render the page you see. Have a look in the top (Header) area for any identifiable information regarding author or designed by elements.

I will be writing more on this in future articles identifying and exposing these so called designers. For the amount of money it costs to build a website you should do your homework and know you are dealing with a reputable and highly skilled designer. You would not hire a contractor to work on your house without doing some research to make sure they are what they say they are. The same applies for your website and it can be even harder if not impossible to get your money back when a design goes south.