Top 15 Tips on Hiring a Web Developer

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hiring a web developer.

Whether you want to build your website from scratch or revamp your current site, you most probably need a freelance web developer or web development company for the project. Hiring a web developer is a crucial decision for your business. The right choice can accelerate your business growth by meeting developmental needs.

But how can you be sure to choose the right vendor or agency? When hiring a web developer, you are prone to make mistakes. So, here are the top 17 tips on hiring a web developer and making the right decision to save yourself from bad hires.

Tips on hiring and working with web developers

1. Ask other businesses

If you find websites that you like, talk to those businesses and get the information from the companies that created these sites. Also, ask about every facet of the service and whether they were satisfied with that. You would also want to ask for the development cost, but if they don’t tell you the exact price, ask them how much you should budget for your website.

2. Search on the web

Furthermore, look around the web and list down websites that you like. Copy the URL in a document and specifically describe what you like on the site. For example, its colour scheme, easy navigation, specific functionality, artwork, photos, or other things.

3. Find company names on sites

Scroll down to the bottom of the website you like. Many companies write their name there. If you find the company name that built the site. You might also find their home page link with the name. This makes it easier to contact them.

4. Find relevant keywords

List down important keywords and phrases related to your business. A good web developer would need these words to set up page titles and do basic search engine optimizations. You can find these relevant keywords through various keyword research tools. The most common one is Google Trends.

5. Decide the type of website you want

Decide whether you want to sell directly on the website or just generate leads. This will allow your developer to determine what type of website you want and give a quote accordingly. For example, an eCommerce site could be more complex than just an online portal giving basic information for the company, and this vastly affects the cost of web development.

6. Buy a domain name

Purchase your domain name if you don’t already own it. There are many platforms where you can purchase domain names. Make sure your business name is listed as a domain registrant, and your credit card is on file. You will have to renew your domain every year, so if you plan to use your site for a longer time, which is most probably what you are, set your registration to auto-renew.

7. Decide content for your site

You would also decide what content you need on your site. Website content includes text, images, graphics, animations, product descriptions, reviews, and other information your customers would like to know. Moreover, you will need, at minimum, 4 pages on your website. These include your home page, pages that give information about your products or services, an about us page that describes your business, and a contact us page where your customers can contact you.

8. Get professional content writing for your site

As soon as you decide what you want on your site, start writing or hire a professional writer to create content. Web developers usually design and program websites; they do not write content. Hence you have to hire additional experts to create content for you. And development and writing go hand in hand, or sometimes writing comes earlier than even designing a website because developers can’t finish the project without ensuring the content falls perfectly on the website.

9. Decide imagery to be used on your site

Decide what images and graphics you want on your site, and also clarify whether you will provide the graphics or developers will need to find them themselves. However, if you want photos of your staff or company, you will have to provide them to your developer.

10. Decide authorization layers

Determine who will make updates on your website once it is up and running, you or your staff. This is also a crucial part of the website and business security. For example, if your staff updates the content on your site, developers have to have more than one admin panel and set up appropriate authentication and authorization functionalities.

11. Have a merchant account

If your website is eCommerce, remember that you need to have a merchant account from one or more payment processors, like PayPal, so your customer can make transactions online. If you already have a retail storefront, don’t assume that your offline merchant account can be used on the web because, more often, they can’t. Instead, contact your service provider and confirm that. If you can’t use your offline merchant account, you must create a new one. For this, you can ask your developer for some suggestions.

12. Decide database-driven functionalities with your developers

If you want to have a shopping cart or any other database-driven functionalities on your site, determine how you want them to work, for example, what customers will see first, where the things should be displayed on the page, what users can do next, etc. Deep dive into this as much as possible and tell the programmer the smallest of detail. After these functionalities are set, what you consider a little change could be major work for a programmer, which often increases the cost of your development.

13. Ask developers for SEO

Ask the developer if they will be able to help with search engine optimization and, if yes, how much experience they have doing it. Most experienced web developers can handle technical aspects of SEO. For example, if they work in WordPress, they can set up a Yoast plugin on your site for SEO purposes.

14. Have a clear contract

Ensure your contract has all the details you discussed with your developer. Also, make sure the contract gives you all the copyright ownership of your site and the work done for you, so if you decide to change the developer or hosting company in future, you can do so without recreating your website.

15. Give quick feedbacks

Be quick and responsive and review the work in progress swiftly. Remember, the developer can’t go further in your development without receiving a green light for the work done by you.

Wrapping Up

Hiring a web developer could be a challenging task. Generally, you will hire a developer online from offshore or offline from local agencies. Whichever way you choose, hiring the right one is undoubtedly essential to making your web development successful. And hence the tips are given here that help how to hire and work with the web developer.

FAQ

What do I need to know before hiring a web developer?

  • Experience and Support of the Company
  • Owning and Operating Servers.
  • Open Line of Communication
  • The Developmental Process
  • Solutions for SEO-Friendly Web Development
  • Study the references

How do I hire a good web developer?

  • Describe your company’s issues
  • Determine the developer’s abilities
  • locating necessary experts
  • Examine the skill level of the web development team
  • Pick a functional model
  • Select a payment method

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