8 Steps to Hiring a High-Quality Web Developer: What You Need to Know About Your Project
– What parts of your website do you already have materials for?
Their website consists of many pieces: the “look and feel”; writing, layout, photography, graphic arts, marketing, user interface, etc. It is unreasonable to expect one person to have all of these abilities. In fact, you may need to hire multiple people to perform the various tasks. Take stock of the high-quality photography and written materials you already have before deciding who to hire.
– How many pages will your website have?
The size of your site will make a marked difference in who you hire to build your website. If your website is very large, you may need to hire a web development company with a team of employees who specialize in different areas of development. If your site is small, a high-quality private contractor working from home could save you a lot of development costs.
– What is your time frame?
Your chances of finding a high-quality web developer sitting around waiting for your job are extremely unlikely. Even sleazy web developers have a lot of work to do – you’ve probably come across a lot of their sites! If your site is small, you have all the materials ready, and you find a developer with free time, you could have a website in a month. However, many sites take a year or more to plan and build. (A good reason to start small.) Ask the prospective developer what their time availability is.
– Does your website have programming?
If your website needs a shopping cart, map functionality, or catalog of any kind, you need a website programmed. Programming requires a special skill set and a whole new set of decisions to make. Now you need both a designer (appearance) and a programmer (functionality). These two functional areas may not work well together.
For example, I once had a former student who created great client websites. A website needed programming; so he hired a programmer. The programmer could only work on .NET and she worked on Dreamweaver. Every time the client requested a design change, my former student had to create the design and hand it over to the programmer to be included in the schedule. It should have been the other way around. It was his place. The programmer should have given you the programming to put into the design. This made the development process slow and frustrating.
– How much can you pay for a website?
Ask some of your business friends how much they spent on your initial web development. In general, expect your website to cost you thousands of dollars. If your site is very small (5 pages or less) you can get one for hundreds. The budget issue stems from the fact that web development is a process, and very few homeowners have enough experience planning a website for a developer to be able to give an accurate cost estimate. It is highly unlikely that you will like all the work that your developer does. And it’s unreasonable to expect your developer to read your mind. Changes and adjustments are only part of the process. You can reduce your costs by having a clear plan and by communicating your needs well.
If you can only pay a few hundred dollars for your website, or if you hire an intern, you can’t expect a high-quality professional site. However, there is a wide range of prices even at professional web development companies and contractors. At the high end, it’s not unusual to pay upwards of $100.00 an hour for web development.
– How much will you be involved in developing your site?
Will your schedule allow you to spend an hour or several hours each week gathering images and text, discussing the best options for your website, and reviewing finished work? While there’s a fine line between driving your developer crazy and being a working partner in development, the more you understand about development (listen) and the more you help your designer know what you want (communicate), the less you’ll do. pay in the long run.
For example, I had one who just agreed with everything and told me to do what I think. Then he would get very upset if the job didn’t fit or if there was a typo. I have other clients who carefully test and email me a list of changes. That is very useful for me as a developer. A good website is good for both of you!
– How much will be involved in maintaining your site?
If you want to maintain your own website, your needs are very different than if you expect your developer to be available to do the work over time. First of all, unless you plan to pay your developer a salary, you can’t expect him to jump right into his job and leave out other clients.
If you plan to do your own maintenance, you’ll need to purchase the software you need to make the changes. And hopefully your developer will be very good at teaching you how to get the job done. If you don’t plan on doing your own maintenance, make sure your developer has his work in your future planning! I recommend that all website owners can do quick site updates. You may have a major website change while the developer is on vacation!
– What tools will you have available to maintain your site?
If you plan to work on your own website, you’ll need the software tools to do it. If you already have software, such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Joomla, etc. You’ll want to work with a developer who is using those tools, or who can easily build a site that works with those tools. If your software is very old, it would be better to start with new software. You can expect to pay up to $1000.00 to have the software work on a website. In the long run, though, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can recoup those costs, compared to paying a developer to do the work.