Essential Questions to Ask Your Web Developer

Website is the key part of your business, and very often it’s the first step for a client in connecting with your project. Thus, the website must be suitable and perfectly functioning to make the client stay longer and learn more about what you do.

Indeed, for creating a good website you’ll need a loyal Web Developer, who will fulfill your technical wishes. To find a suitable web developer candidate, it’s always important to ask some specific questions to get a better image of your possible future teammate and your mutual collaboration.

Here are 10 smart questions to ask a Web Developer before hiring

1. What kind of involvement do you expect from me? 
This question is actual from the very beginning of the project, as it will help you understand if both of your ends meet. Do you yourself expect to track every step, or share your thoughts and needs to get the final results? It’s certainly an important part of the collaboration, thus you will know how to schedule your work days according to your participation, and prepare to give as much investment into the process as profitable for both of you.

2. What is your research process like? 
This question will separate amateurs and profs, and show you how the developer sees the website him/herself. How do they understand the target audience? How do they see the brand? What are the priorities of that specific project? The start of the project is very important; this way you will see what kind of start they’ll give and how much they’ll dive into the process. 

3. What is your SEO strategy like? 
When creating a website the owner surely wants it to appear in the search engine (like Google), with the help of key terms. If any developer says that it’ll happen after the site is designed, that’s not the answer you should receive. The best and most efficient SEO is planned into the very foundation of your website.

A lot of big websites spend much money to incorporate these features after the site has been built from scratch with no SEO strategy. That’s why you need a developer with a plan. 

4. What assets do I need to provide? 
Before hiring a developer, you should collect all the necessary assets to be ready to provide your new colleague. When you have a discussion with the web developer, determine which party will be responsible for delivering content, photos, and graphics for the website. Some web developers and agencies will create or provide these website elements, but you will see this work reflected in your bill. 

5. What platform will the site be built on? 
Web platform is essentially the base of your website. So you not only want to know which platform they use but also the reason behind it.

6. What is your expected end-to-end cost and how do you charge? 
A good website certainly has a cost as it’s a good investment. Each investment should be rational and never an endless money pit. A professional normally outlines a specific cost upfront and works with you while making sure it suits your needs and budget.

7. Will the website be editable? 
This one comes down to your individual needs. In case you are expecting to be able to make changes to the text, banners, images, and other features without knowing coding, you need to establish this upfront. In the end, you should know what you will be able to edit and what you will need to pay someone to edit.

8. How do you ensure the responsiveness of the site? 
Responsiveness is the ability of a website to adapt to screens of different sizes, be it a large monitor or a small mobile device. This question will help you understand whether the developer is familiar with the latest web trends and will they be able to provide an ensuring mobile experience for your future website, 

9. How many revisions do you provide? 
The perfect response will be “as many as you need”, however, some define their limit or request additional billing for the revision. This question will help you come to an agreement because you’ll surely require modifications during the project.

10. Do you offer both custom and template websites? 
There is both quality and price difference between them. A template website is more costly-effective and can negatively affect with the clunky code. The custom option is built specifically for your website with the codes you need, and it, as you have guessed, costs more. 

You should know what you expect for your own project and what kind of service you’d like to receive from your future web developer.