TOP 7 Tips for hiring a web developer

Article Published: Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 9:09 pm | Subscribe

A few weeks ago I was having issues with my car making some noises in the front end area. A friend hopped in and mentioned “Man, what is that noise? Sounds like your struts are going bad”. He went on to tell me he has this “guy” that will do the work for me and charge very little for labor. I almost Immediately dismissed the idea. I Don’t like the thought of someone that isn’t a trained professional working on my car that I have invested thousands of dollars into.

Many people make the mistake of hiring someone off the street to design & develop their website for them. After all,  Timmy made a website for their cousin that owns a small bait and tackle shop. Why is this a mistake? Because most people dismiss the complexity and necessity of having a properly designed & developed web solution for their business. From an end user perspective, Timmy made that there web page lookin’ all fancy and got it put up on the Interweb didn’t he? (redneck accent & pun intended).

To put this in perspective, those of you with businesses looking to get a website developed, you wouldn’t buy office supplies from someone off the street, you wouldn’t hire a secretary with no portfolio or formal training would you? Why hire an inexperienced kid that likes to draw to do your website? Keeping in mind, at one point I was that kid.

As much as investing in computers and other materials for your business is part of building assets, so is the decision to invest in your web presence.  It’s hard enough to find a professional web development firm to stick with what they promise you let alone someone lacking credentials and a BBB profile. With that being said, enter this venture educated and with the proper mindset to invest in your web presence rather than just having something thrown up on the internet.

Here are 7 tips to being successful when hiring a web developer:

1. Ask to see a portfolio

Many web firms will over look this when meeting with you to discuss your web project.  This is mostly because the majority of web firms aren’t happy with their portfolios themselves. After all, if you don’t see work in their portfolio that best represents your business’s personality and/or image then you might just be throwing away your web investment.

2. Ask for an open project listing

Because of the economy, web firms and companies in general are cutting costs just to bring in more work, but more work is bringing in less revenue so this becomes a vicious cycle and your project quickly is visible only in the rear view mirror.  Make the best assessment you can to decide if your hired development company is truly dedicated to your project. You might pay a little bit more, but that’s fine because at least your project will get done on time with expected results.

3. Get a clear project outline and contract

I see it all the time. Clients sign the contract and never ask for a copy.  Make sure when you are planning out your project with the development company all aspects of what you discuss are included in the contract.  This includes how many pages your site will have, the colors that will be used, the layout, any modules like photo galleries and shopping carts and certainly anything you discuss that might be custom tailored to your business.  When you have decided on project scope make sure it’s all there in print and get two copies if needed.

4. View the developers corporate website

This is kind of a given, but make sure you read through the corporate website of the company you are contracting.  See who they are, what they promise, what their image is and how long they have been in business.  Check through their site for spelling/grammar errors and anything else that might seem fishy.  After all, if the company doesn’t take care of their own website and image how can you expect them to take care of yours?

5. Ask if they comply to web standards

At this point, you’re probably like “huh?”.  Have you ever seen a website that looks, or is experienced completely different in Internet Explorer than it is in Firefox?  This is most likely because the developer doesn’t develop their sites compliant to the W3C standards (the organization that decides how websites should be developed).  This is bad for many reasons, not only will the website experience be inconsistent for your visitors, but search engines have a problem with websites that aren’t programmed properly and decides not to index them.  Double Wammy, now your site looks bad to those that know about it, and it doesn’t look at all for those that try to find it.

6. Watch for the pitch

Websites aren’t used cars.  Make sure the company you are contracting isn’t trying to sell you a dream as part of their “Carny” sales approach.  I’ll be completely frank, if you are paying under or around 1000$ for your corporate website don’t expect a lot in respect to marketing.  Anyone that sells you a website with guaranteed Google page ranks, surely effective e-mail marketing, SEO tweaks and a “wait and see” Adwords campaign probably isn’t too concerned with your project.  It shouldn’t be all about making a sale, it’s about building a client base and relationship. This is how companies grow in the Information Technology industry. Furthermore, play your part and don’t be cheap, avoid approaching this as a one time get-it-done project, it’s an investment, treat it as such.  Understanding that there are budget and time-line limitations it is best to accept less features and package benefits for something that is developed properly, if this is done right, it should be seamless to add these later on down the road when the budget increases.  Being that the web is constantly changing and evolving, your web project framework needs to be dynamic enough to change with it.

7. Ask around!

Found a company you think you might like?  Don’t jump to conclusions just yet.  Go through their portfolio and client listing and make a couple calls.  For the most part, people are responsive to this, ESPECIALLY if they had a bad experience.  In this case it’s worth making a few calls and asking “I heard *company* made your website? How do you like it? Is It effective?” You get the idea.

Would you like more information? Contact Me to schedule a free consultation.

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