How to Hire a GOOD Web Developer

It can be difficult for a website owner to figure out how to find a good web developer.

Owning a website is similar to owning a home or a car. Sometimes you can take care of it yourself, and sometimes you need to hire a professional. If you own your home, then you can go online and look up how to install a thermostat, then head out to the hardware store and install it yourself. But you can also try to install it yourself then install it wrong, then you have to call a HVAC pro to install it for you anyway.

But finding a reputable web developer is a bit more complicated than finding a licensed HVAC technician. There are a lot of people that advertise themselves as web developers that couldn’t code a “hello world” program if their life depended on it. Anybody can set their job title to web developer. There are no legal requirements.

Researching a Good Web Developer

Before you submit an inquiry to a prospective web developer, check their resume. Do they have an IT background? There will be IT problems. What is their academic background? Do they have a computer science degree? Do they have published software that you can try that people have had success with? Can they help you develop your content (writing, images, etc.)? If something unexpected comes up (which often does), how well will your web developer be able to handle it?

But even if you find someone reputable, how do you know if you are hiring the right developer for the site that you want to build? You want to hire a professional that is familiar with the kind of site that you are trying to build, someone with a design philosophy that appeals to you, and someone that knows how to say no to you when you have a request that is likely to be problematic for your site’s visitors.

Benefits of a Good Web Developer

With so many website building tools available, you may wonder why you should bother hiring a developer at all. The primary benefits of hiring a web developer are speed, quality, performance, the ability to build your site creatively, and you will work with someone that can minimize recurring costs like webhosting fees and software licensing fees.

How Much Does a Good Web Developer Cost?

Hiring a good solo developer will probably cost you at least a couple hundred dollars for a full site. You might be able to negotiate a slightly lower price than this if you think that you can build part of the site yourself. Developers pricing will vary based on the services provided. You can check out my pricing page here. A good solo developer will be able to help you quickly set up a site that is mobile friendly, loads fast, and is tailored to your content. If you don’t have at least a couple hundred dollars in your budget, then you should take the time to learn how to build your site yourself because you will probably do a better job than someone who is willing to work for less than this. If you think that building part of the site yourself is something you can do, but you will need help in certain areas, then talk to a solo developer about your needs, and you should be able to find a suitable solution.

What Kind of Modifications Does a Good Web Developer Make?

Modifications are often things that you can hypothetically do yourself, but you just don’t have the time or patience to figure it out. They are things that don’t have good generalized solutions that can be well built into content management user interface controls. Things such as:

Emailing a Prospective Web Developer

When you submit a query to a web developer stating an interest in their services, you should realize that most developers get a lot of queries that aren’t very serious. And you don’t want to give the impression that you are likely wasting the developer’s time. Most good developers don’t have the ability to serve every prospective client. You need to give the impression that you are serious about what you are doing and that you have put a considerable amount of thought into it.

Below is a list of questions that your prospective web developer will want to know the answers to. You don’t need to answer every question in your query, but you should show that you are not an anonymous person searching for estimates on a site that you aren’t even sure that you want to build yet. Estimates are time consuming, and most good developers don’t want to take the time to write them up if you don’t seem serious. Here are the questions:

What is your legal name? You should not expect someone to provide an estimate for you if you are anonymous. Anonymity implies spam.
What is your legal address? How are you expecting to be held accountable for your bill?
What is the business or service or media that you will be promoting with your website? How much content do you have? Is this just an idea, or have you actually started taking action?
Will you need any help gathering and writing content?
How soon do you need the site or project completed?
How much money do you have to spend in your budget? Can you afford this?
Do you have any experience building or managing a website? It’s okay if you’ve tried to do it yourself and it didn’t work out.
Do you want to build your site using the developer’s published software? This can save you money.
Do you want any customizations performed on the developer’s published software? What will they be? Or are you expecting a site and content management system built from scratch?
How familiar are you with WordPress and the concept of content management?
Will you want customizations performed to your content management controls? Will you want custom layouts and templates? What will they be?
How familiar are you with web hosting and servers?
How are you expecting the site to be managed once it’s complete?
What is a phone number that your developer can reach you at so that they can contact you with questions?

It’s important to be able to communicate well with your developer. No mater how good your developer is, if you don’t make it clear what you want, then you won’t get what you want.

Solo Developers Versus Agencies

If you can find a solo developer that shares your design interests, then that will usually be a preferable choice over an agency. Most agencies have a requirement to churn through a certain number of clients in a given period to make their overhead, and because they have so many people working in different specialties, they often struggle with a lot of communication related problems that can result in their clients getting a site that is distinct from the one that they requested.

Agencies usually also tend to cost significantly more than solo developers. You can often get a site from a solo developer for hundreds of dollars that would cost thousands of dollars with an agency.

Hiring an agency is usually only preferable when you can’t find a solo developer that has an appealing web design philosophy. Solo developers tend to provide a smaller range of customization options than agencies, but solo developers also tend to be a lot better at the customization range that they perform, and they can usually do it cheaper and faster because they are more familiar with their specific development processes, and they don’t have the overhead of agencies.

Are You Ready to Hire Someone?

It’s okay if you’re still not ready to pull the trigger today. Take your time. Do your own research. And feel free to post any questions in the comments section.

But if you are ready to hire a pro, then check out my services, and see if they are right for you.