Eight Questions (you may not know) to Ask a Web Developer

There’s more to a successful website than a ‘pretty face.’ But you wouldn’t know that until you’ve had to pay the price for an unsuccessful, troublesome website.

Your website sends signals to robots, other computers and people.

Much of what goes on between your website and your audience depends on how well the website code is written. All too often, new site owners don’t find this out until they have to hire an online marketing professional — who tells them the site needs to be de-constructed and re-constructed just to get the site ready for effective marketing!

Certainly, it would be better to have the basic elements of success built in during construction — not after!

Many designers/developers simply don’t know about these underlying techniques, and some feel it’s outside their scope of work. So, it’s up to you to ask for them.

But, if you don’t know the right questions to ask, how can you be sure you’re getting a well-crafted website?

I’ve written this article to save you time, money, and the dismay that comes from not knowing the right questions to ask.

Question 1: Who owns my website?

You can get a cheap and ‘easy,’ DIY website from many sources these days. And when you’re first starting out in business, especially if you’re operating on a shoestring, it’s the right way to go. With the proper setup, it can give you a chance to develop your content while building status in Google Search.

A website consists of the electronic files it’s made of, a secure and fast hosting company to store and deliver those files to the public, and a domain name that serves as its address.

The ‘drag n drop,’ web-builder platforms allow you to create a website and use it — as long as you stay on their servers. You are, in effect, renting your website.

Like any rental property, there’s only so much you can do to improve your website. When your business has outgrown what it can do — or if you become dissatisfied with their service — you can’t just take your files and go. You get to keep your ‘content’ (words and images), but you’ll have to rebuild the system…