You need to question your web developer before starting that development project. Before you hire someone to build your web site, before you lay down any cash or outline your project to them, question them. It will not only help you hire the right person or team, but you will also end up getting better results for your money.
I’ve built hundreds of web sites, literally, and I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I’ve seen too many people get screwed over by people that say they can build a web site, only to find their web site painted into a corner when it comes time to expand or improve on the web site that “the kid down the street” built. I don’t like hearing these stories, in fact I’m tired hearing what I can only call good people, who are clueless about web development, getting screwed over by businesses and individuals that claim to be able to build a web site.
It’s easy to build a web site, and there are many ways to build a web site, and many more ways to really screw it up to the point where more money is needed to be spent to fix it.
The best web sites are built such that expanding and improving them is made easier, not harder. Adding new pages and functionality to your site should also be easy to do, not made complicated by bad design. This is often ignored and over-looked by many people that claim to be web developers, and it sucks for the customer. By the time you realize it, the damage is done, and sometimes a complete re-write of the site is necessary, causing even more cash outlay by you.
I’m tired of hearing these stories. This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to express concern over some of the things I’ve seen in my travels. I became fed up and decided to write about what I feel constitutes a true web developer a while ago.
So now I thought about it a little and decided, if the site owner knew the right questions to ask, perhaps there would be less people getting screwed over by web developers that really aren’t web developers. Here are some questions you might ask to help you make a better decision regarding your web development project.
Question Your Web Developer
The best web developers will be able to answer the following questions without hesitation:
- How can I drive more traffic to my site?
- What type of traffic will perform best on my site, and how do I target that traffic segment?
- How can I achieve better rankings in search engines?
- How can I promote my site once it’s launched?
- What are the addresses of some of the sites you’ve developed?
- If I want to add another page to my site, what do I need to do?
- If I want to make changes to my site, how do I do that?
- What testing do you do before launching a site to make sure it’s ready?
- What activities do you perform post-launch?
- What tools do you use to cut down development time, and my cost of hiring you?
The answers to these questions should give you a better idea of what the web developer is capable of. You might not know exactly how to interpret the answers you get, and that’s alright. There are many ways to answer these questions, and it really depends on what you are trying to achieve with your site. So if there were to be a most important question to be asked, it would be “What are the goals of your site?”.
If your potential web developer never asks this question, it would indicate to me that they really don’t care about seeing your project succeed. At least, they’re not asking the primary question to help them determine how they can be the best help to your project!
You don’t need to be screwed over, and you don’t need to pay a fortune to have your web site developed.
More Questions?
Are you in the process of defining a web development project for yourself or your business? I’m more than happy to help you out, just contact me and let me help you find an appropriate course of action for free! I’m available for hire as well, but that isn’t the focus of this post. It’s to help you make a better decision before hiring your next web developer.
Like I said, I’m tired of seeing and hearing about people getting shoddy development when it really isn’t necessary, nor much effort to make it better. Ask your web developer a few of these questions and note the responses. It could help save you money, reduce the amount of development time, create a site that is “more flexible to change”, and perhaps help you find the right person for the job.
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Wayne John is a web developer in Southern California that shares his 25+ years of programming and web development experience freely and happily to anyone willing to learn. He also loathes speaking in the third person. If you enjoyed this post, make sure you 
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A good web developer wont mind you asking them lots of questions in fact personally i prefer it at least that way i know the customer understands what i am doing and i understand exactly what they want.
Lots of questions can never be a bad thing and the questions you listed are very good ones.
Great article
Craig´s last blog ..Sep 5, ASP definition
Maybe I’m am going to be a bit off topic here but to question the developer before you start is essential! I used a web design company to build my first website, an art shopping site, I did not achieve much success with the site and it cost me a lot of money to establish. Eventually I discontinue it as I had no support from the developer and had one problem after the other. Obviously it my own fault as I was stupid and did not check out the company before I did business with them! The lesson I learned was to educate myself and learn to be my own web designer / web master!
Manie @ Best Web site Host´s last blog ..Choosing the Best Place to Host a Website
Those are great questions, and as a freelancer, I’m glad I can answer them for any potential clients. It’s a good reference. I also think it is good for potential clients to ask people that do social media marketing if they know how to promote business in a variety of industries, as some would require a different focus than others.
Kristi´s last blog ..Organizing Your DoFollow Blog Resources
This is a great list of questions that every developers should put in mind. A web designer + search engine specialists + internet marketing experts in one can really make excellent answers for this kind of questions of clients. I think, the answers should be presented to them even they will not ask questions. At least you already given them idea on what to expect from the service. That’s what we do.
Hi
I completely agree with your post and 10 questions mentioned in your article to have a great website. But I think a team of website developer and SEO masters can answer to all these questions properly.
So I think first step is to find a team which deals with all website development and internet marketing as well. Chossing a team is very important task.
Well I like this information very much. great information.
keep up
Asking questions most of the time gives the best picture and one can make out whether your work will tuirn out to be best.
Great article Wayne. Some web development companies truly try to take advantage of uninformed clients. Transparency is always the better route, but unfortunately, it’s not always the case.
Chris Arkwright´s last blog ..Microsoft Training in Redmond, Washington Next Week
Hello Wayne,
Thanks for the advice. I know a lot of people that could have used your list of questions in the past.
One observation about asking questions; you need to have some idea of what to look for in the answer. For example, I’m now trying to dig a friend out of a jam because he had a web developer create a really flat site for him. I started asking my friend about what he would want on his site, and he only had some very vague clues. Sure, he wants SEO, he wants more traffic, he wants expandability, but he has no idea of the technical issues involved in these concepts, so he would not know if he’s being lied to when asking your list of questions.
One possible way around this problem is to ask very specific closed type of questions, rather than questions that would solicit a BS answer. For example, instead of asking “How would I drive more traffic to my site,” I suggest asking, “List 3 steps you will take to drive more traffic to my site.” The person asking the questions can then write down the answers and then do some research to find the reasonableness of the answer. If the answer comes back as more BS, the person who asks can simply say, “Please narrow your answer down to the specifics I requested.” In the web, as well as in life, BS usually comes packaged with a lot of words and no specifics, so one need not know the good technical answers on the spot in order to identify the BS artist.
BTW: I don’t agree that a potential developer should ask for goals of the site. A good developer would instead ask for the goals of the business and then suggest a site designed around those goals. For example, the friend that I’m trying to dig out of a jam is setting up a site for spiritual awareness. He’s written several books (including a best seller on that topic), so he knows his business goals very well. A good web developer should be able to take these goals, research the demographics and come up with an online target audience and marketing strategy, and then the website design can begin.
Again, thanks for the posting. I’d like to link to this posting if you allow.
Best,
Dan
DanOfSoCal´s last blog ..Show-Stealing Squirrel