Tips and Suggestions for Hiring a Website Developer

1. Research

Our clients have done one or more of the following:

• Please review our website and blog posts carefully so you can learn about our process and our beliefs.

• Read our testimonials to see what real customers are saying about their experience.

• Check our online social media profiles for customer activity and interaction. While there will always be something negative, make sure these are outliers and that most of the reviews are positive and genuine.

• Please review third party websites or community members in authority who discuss our work.

• If they're SEO-focused, they'll make sure they show up on Google and Bing for important search terms, which is a validation of our SEO knowledge and ability to execute.

 2. Know that bargains aren’t really bargains at all

• This is a big problem because we often find that the source of website development disasters started with a discount, a bargain, or a sale.

• Good website developers have full project schedules and don't need to offer discounts. They set a fee that aligns with your qualifications and experience.

• When you find a developer who is eager to launch discounts, you are running to the bottom and doing so because you have to cut prices to survive.

• The discount will end up being paid to another developer who will clean up the code that the first developer failed.

• It happens over and over again. Nobody wants to clean someone else's spaghetti code. When we do it, it takes us a lot longer than it should, which means the customer pays a lot more than they would if they just started with a quality encoder at the beginning.

3. Articulate your project and define your expectations

• If I have a prospect who can't articulate their needs or provides short or vague answers, I have red flags in my head that cannot be calmed down. This is because I need to understand your project in order to quote it and deliver it to your satisfaction level.

• If the potential client is unable or unwilling to define their needs, I find it difficult to deliver what is required for the success of the project. I am happy to help define these needs together, but I need cooperation and an active participant.

• Collaboration before and after the sale is what works.

 4. Expect a lot of questions and embrace them

• I make many questions. To the point that I know I drive some prospects crazy. But I do this with a purpose.

• The more questions I ask, the more I understand what the potential customer needs and wants. This means that I can have clear expectations defined for my team on the steps required to accomplish during design and development.

• Without questions, I am forced to make assumptions. Assumptions are never good because they can be wrong. And when the assumptions are wrong, someone is disappointed.

5. Stop hiring friends of friends and family

• Just because your nephew took a college HTML class doesn't mean he can design and code a fully functional website that can support a company's sales funnel.

• It may be cheap or even free, but you will pay dearly for this relationship. And that payment will be financially and emotionally based.

• Friends and family are not good developers, designers, or webmasters.

• Keep the business as a business and the family as a family.

6. Know what you’re being given and ask questions until you are confident on final deliverables

• There is a lot of confusion between a truly custom website designed by a professional graphic artist and a stock website theme that a coder is customizing.

• Website owners often believe that they are getting a completely custom website when in reality they are getting a $ 50 website template that someone customized with a plugin.

• The problem is when website owners are told that they are getting personalized services and are actually given someone else's website design that was just tweaked a bit.

• Know what they are quoting you and ask specifically if you are receiving a custom website or stock item. The price between the two will be in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, so it is important that you know exactly what you are paying and receiving.

The First Line of Defense Starts With You

• If you're planning a website redesign or launching a brand new digital property, do your homework. Look around far and wide, then validate your website developer and the project deliverables.

• Educate yourself and ask lots of questions. If you're considering hiring a website developer that doesn’t like questions, dump them quickly and move on to the next agency or freelancer.

• The WordPress community has no shortage of wonderful, honest developers who produce very solid code and truly want to make your project a success.

• The trick is to take your time and weed through the bottom feeders so you find the hidden gems. When you do find these gems, know they are worth every penny you'll spend on them.