If you are planning to create a website for your business, or upgrade an existing business website, you undoubtedly will need the assistance of a professional website designer/developer. Here are some critical questions you should always ask before you agree to work with anyone.....
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Questions To Ask A Potential
Website Developer
by Dr. Robert Martin, Ph.D.
If you are planning to create a website for your business, or upgrade an
existing business website, you undoubtedly will need the assistance of a
professional website designer/developer. Here are some critical questions you
should always ask before you agree to work with anyone.
1. Experience
How many years has the person been in this line of work? How many actual
websites have they designed/developed from the ground up?
Keep in mind that some website design/development
companies might employ several people, and so the person you speak to initially
may not end up being the person who actually works with you on your website
project. Ask for specifics about the experience of the person who will actually
be working with you, not the experience of the company overall.
2. Samples of their past work
What are the websites they have created from start to finish?
Ask them for the URLs of websites they have
designed/developed that you can take a look at to better assess their
capabilities. Make sure these are websites that they actually built from scratch
and not just websites they revised or updated. Look for websites that are
comparable to what you have in mind in terms of complexity. For example, if you
want a state of the art ecommerce site, and they have only designed Blog sites,
that could be a problem. Also, look for designs that are stylistically similar
to what you have in mind for your website. Even better, ask if they have ever
done work in your particular industry. And while it may not always be an
indicator of the quality of their work, if a large number of the websites they
have designed/developed are no longer online or have gone out of business, that
should be a cause for concern.
3. Industry exposure
What kind of industries have they been involved with? Who are their clients?
It may be important that they be able to understand your industry and create a
site that will suit your needs. And always ask for references and contact
information for previous customers. If they decline to provide it, or don't have
any, move on to another developer.
4. After sales service
What kind of service do they offer clients once the site is up and running? How
long after the site goes online will they be willing to make corrections,
additions, revisions, etc?
Many website designers/developers will provide such support for at least 30 days; others for as long as a year.
5. Future website management
How exactly will the website be constructed? What types of code will be used, e.g., HTML, XHTML, PHP, JAVASCRIPT, FLASH, etc. How will it be possible for you or anyone else to make changes, additions, revisions, etc., to the site once the free support period has ended? Will a design/management tool such as MS FrontPage or Dreamweaver be used? Will access be limited to FTP? Will there be any type of Content Management System included in the development project?
Any type of website will need periodic updates, revisions, additions, new pages added, etc. So you, or someone else, will need to be able to occasionally access the website by some means in order to do this work. Making sure you understand up front exactly what will be required in order to do this work in the future can save you a lot of headaches and stress.
6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
During the design/development process, what exactly will be done to optimize
your website for listing in top search engines? What experience does this
developer have in designing/developing websites that are highly ranked in key
search engines in critical keyword categories? Will the site be submitted to
search engines on your behalf once it is completed?
You can have the best looking and most content rich website in the world, but if
no one ever visits it, what good does it do you? Getting your site highly
ranked in key search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com, and AOL, will
be critical to getting visitors for your site. Most website designers/developers
should have some basic familiarity with things such as designing websites that
are "search engine friendly" (e.g. using menu structures and internal links that
are easy for search engines to follow and index), avoiding design elements that
are in violation of key search engine rules (e.g., text that is hidden by making
it the same color as the background color for the page), developing and
installing metatags, optimizing page content for "indexability" and "keyword
depth", etc. If your developer is not at least familiar with these issues,
you might still use them. But you will then also require the services a
professional SEO provider. These issues are too important to ignore.
7. Traffic monitoring
Will the development of your website include the installation of some easily
accessible method for you to monitor traffic to your site?
In most cases, this will be in the form of a link or
page that you can access 24/7 using a web browser that will show you view
critical traffic stats such as unique visitors, page views, referrals, referrals
from various search engines, keywords used to find your site in search engines,
length of visit, depth of visit, etc. Some popular tools for this type of
information are Urchin, AWStats, WebStats, etc.
8. Duration
How much time will they require to do the design, layout, and set up the
website? Does the website need to be completed and online by a certain date?
Given what would be required to complete the project, is it even possible to
complete this project by the date specified?
This will of course vary depending on a number of important factors. But generally speaking, a four or five page website shouldn't take more than a few days to a week to complete. More complex websites or ecommerce websites should probably take no more than a month.
However, in the latter case, the amount of custom programming required, the type of shopping cart system being used (e.g., pre-existing software or one custom built from scratch), the number and type of products to be added to the site, the amount of detailed information to be added for each product on the site, or other similar issues, will also influence the amount of time required to complete the project.
And of course, the inclusion of special features that might require additional work, frequent changes in project objectives, requirements, or plans by the client, and the amount of time or attention devoted to the project by the client, can also impact how long it will take to complete a website development project.
If, after discussing these issues in depth, it seems
unlikely that the project could be completed by a specific date that might be
required, it is probably better to err on the side of caution and find another
developer or put the project on hold. Despite their best efforts, any website
developer might not be able to meet a set deadline because of unexpected or
unanticipated problems that might pop up.
9. Fees and charges
What exactly will you be charged for and how will you be charged? What will be
the total cost for the complete project? What partial payment amounts will be
paid at what point? What tasks will need to be completed to your satisfaction at
various points during the process before a partial payment is made? Does the
development cost include domain name registration? Does the development cost
include website hosting? Does the cost include designing, editing, and
installing required software?
Getting all of these questions answered up-front,
preferably in writing, can save you a lot of frustration and agony. But
that does not mean that the cost needs to be set in stone. As the project
proceeds, you may decide you want some feature or capability that had not
occurred to you before. Just understand that this may result in an increase in
the amount of time necessary to complete the project and/or the cost of the
project. As long as you and your developer discuss the options and costs
involved along the way (and you get the information in writing) before you make
your final decision, there shouldn't be any problems.
10. Ownership
Who will own the design, logo, and images that have been used on the site?
Make sure to let the developer know you wish to be the sole owner so that you can move the site to another host if necessary. Even better, get this in writing. Also, try to ensure that you have details of where the developer may have have obtained images and photographs used in the development of your website. This may save you problems in the future.
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