41 Questions To Ask Your Web Developer

How much will it cost?

If your website design agency is charging you more than $2000 for a simple business starter website, you are paying too much. If you are paying "by the hour" for a website, you will probably get overbilled. If you get charged more than $15 for your domain name, or more than $10 a month for hosting, you are overpaying. Naturally, if you want fancy features or extra graphic design time, it will cost more. But basic charges for a business starter website - including content management -- should not exceed $2000.

How long have you been around?

Make sure your developer candidate has been around for at least five years, and gives you a 24-hour support hotline.

What CMS do you use?

CMS stands for "content management system". This is a fancy name for a website than anybody can update. It's easy and you do not need technical knowledge. You can keep your website up to date without calling your web guy. Add new information, news releases, articles, blog entries, and so on. This is really handy because search engines favor websites that show rolling content. It shows your business is a lively, going concern.

What e-commerce toolkits are you trained on?

If you are selling stuff online, you want a secure and well-supported e-commerce toolkit. You may wish to use PayPal, Beanstream, Google Checkout or some of the other big names in the business. You may also wish to use a payment gateway provided by your bank, such as the TD Online Mart. Make sure your website design agency has experience here - mistakes can be costly. Make sure you don't get oversold. If your e-commerce store is offering a few dozen items, you don't need expensive and fancy shopping cart software. If you already have a business point-of-sale system, chances are your website can connect to it.

Do you have after-hours hotline support?

There is nothing worse than trying to update your site for a rush project without your webmaster. Make sure your web development shop supports your investment.

How do you test for website uptime?

Is your website live? How do you know? Is it visible in Europe? These issues become very important for websites with a global audience. Make sure your web developer has a strategy for testing uptime, from more than one location in the world.

What affiliations do you have with technology partners?

Serious and professional web design shops form alliances with technology leaders, such as Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and Umbraco. These affiliations mean your web developer stays current with new trends in the industry.

Can you do streaming media?

Everybody wants to embed video and other rich media in their websites. It isn't hard to do, but not every web developer does it right. Usually, the site works fine in some browsers but fails in others. Make sure your studio does it right.

How do you test for browser compatibility?

Not all internet browsers are equal. Even in the same family, different versions of the same browser will display a site differently. This situation requires that your web developer carefully test your website against all popular browsers and versions. Not everybody does this - watch out! You could be losing business to large sectors of your internet audience if a certain browser fails to display your site properly.

Do you guarantee compliance with web industry standards?

Web industry standards are always evolving, as new technologies reach the market. It is important to hire a team of web developers that understands the current set of standards, and knows how to test against them. For instance, did you know there is a web standard that sets out what constitutes acceptable ease of use by disabled users?

How do you test for accessibility?

Is your site accessible to disabled users? Can a disabled person get information from your site, and interact with your business? Make sure your web developer knows how to test for accessibility, and is aware of the governance applicable to certain websites in certain domains.

Will you release website source code?

Like any computer program, websites are built from source code. What happens if your web developer goes out of business, or changes focus? Can you obtain the source code for your website?

Will you release website artwork masters?

The creative and stylistic part of your website project is contained in digital artwork master files. Can you obtain these files, so you can use the same colours, fonts, logos, and themes elsewhere in your marketing efforts?

What are your SEO success stories?

If a website design agency also claims to also be search engine optimization experts, it is reasonable to ask for success stories. Ask to see the before-and-after pagerank for main website pages. Ask for before-and-after conversion rates. Ask for target keywords so you can verify the results yourself.

How do you go about optimizing a site for search engines?

SEO is a business strategy. It requires an investment and it is intended to generate a return. The SEO specialist at your website design agency should be able to present a plan to implement this strategy. There are several proven ways to do this, but "trial and error" is not among them.

Do you provide regular traffic reports?

You will want to see frequent reports on the traffic your website is experiencing, and you will want these reports broken down into meaningful statistics. Make sure your website design agency knows how to do this for you.

How many hits per hour can your site handle?

Visitors to your site will get bored and leave in seconds if your site is not responsive. The more people visiting your site, the harder it is for a website to remain agile. Eventually, as load increases, website performance becomes untenable. How do you measure that point, and where will it be for your website?

Is there a scalability plan?

If you are launching a parallel media campaign, you may expect a sudden and significant change in your website traffic. Can your site "scale" or automatically adjust to the new load level?

How do you protect sensitive customer information?

If your website is collecting sensitive information from users, this information must be protected. There are several levels of protection that are required. Make sure your website design agency knows how to implement bulletproof security measures.

Do you have professional database administration expertise?

If you are building a business website that stores information, you want a professional database designer on the team. There are rules and best practices that guide the design of an industrial strength database system. Database design errors can be very costly.

What is the disaster response plan for my website? Can I see an example?

Some businesses make thousands of dollars a day in online revenue. If the website goes down, all sales stop. Customers usually do not complete a sale another way … they just disappear. So having a plan to recover from a website disaster is imperative.

Can you easily add a blog, or news section, or a web forum to my website?

Make sure your website is designed with future expansion in mind. Some design approaches, especially with templates, make this impossible, meaning that if you want to expand your website you need to start over.

How do you add links to social media, and why is it worthwhile?

Social media marketing can be significant for your website and business. It's more than adding a link to a facebook account. Make sure your website design agency knows how to set you up with backlinks, recommendation counters, and search-engine friendly urls, to maximize the social capital you are creating.

Do you do pro-bono work for charities or non-profits?

Some organizations just never seem to realize a budget for website work. It never hurts to ask if your website design agency works within the community to help out where needed.

Do you advise any black-hat search engine optimization strategies?

If your website design agency does not understand this question, it is time to move on. Search engine optimization is most effective when all the rules are followed. It is possible to get positive short-term results by breaking some of the rules, however long-term this approach will get your site blacklisted. It has happened to high-profile businesses.

Can you prepare collateral branding material?

You want a website design agency that can also prepare print media, online media, and any other marketing collateral you need. It just makes sense.

How do you protect my domain name for theft or unauthorized use?

Don't let somebody else steal your domain name! Make sure your website design agency takes all the appropriate measures to protect your intellectual property.

Do you test your websites against mobile devices?

By 2014, there will be more mobile internet users than desktop users. This includes tablets, smart phones, embedded appliance devices, and automotive devices. Mobile browsers have special requirements. For starters, they use smaller screens and do not use a pointing device. The way they display websites is different. If you want your business to appeal to the largest possible online audience, make sure your website design agency knows how to target (and test against) mobile devices.

Can you do a mobile-device optimized version of a website?

Some websites require a special edition exclusively for mobile browsers. They are optimized for smaller displays and different models of interaction. Your business can command extra attention if you appeal to this online audience by providing a mobile-specific website. Make sure your website development agency knows how to do this.

I want my website to help automate some of my business activities. Can you program this?

This is where the experienced website agencies stand out. If you foresee some kind of integration between your website and a line-of-business application, make sure you hire a firm that can do this. It does not cost anything extra to use powerful web technologies, but it can cost you thousands to redo your website if you start off with the wrong choice.

My organization uses Microsoft Sharepoint. Can you integrate with it?

Sharepoint is a document and content management system that enjoys a large installed base, especially in medium and large organizations. If you are building a website that needs to connect with Sharepoint, make sure your website design agency has these skills.

How does the creative process work?

Websites perform better if they are engaging and visually stimulating. The creative process that results in a high-performance website involves a propose-review-adapt cycle between the client and website design agency. Make sure your agency has thought about this, and has clearly explained the costs associated with review cycles.

Can I preview my website before it is live?

Ask your website design agency how you will inspect the progress of your website. Don't settle for drawings or screenshots. Ask to see the actual site as it evolves.

Can I send newsletters from my website?

Email newsletter marketing is a powerful way of reinforcing your brand. It actually ranks just behind search engine optimization as the second-best bang for your buck in web-based marketing. Make sure your website design agency can set you up with a professional and reliable system for sending out newsletters. Ask about bounce and opt-out handling - if this is not done properly you can get your website blacklisted by spam filters.

Do you have a partnership with a printer to produce print media at a discount?

Many clients of website design agencies need print media as well. Ask if your agency has a volume-based relationship with a commercial-quality print shop. You could wind up with a significant discount on your printing costs.

Can you do set up the website in another language?

You'd be surprised how many website design agencies have trouble with this. Make sure your agency can build-in the necessary smarts so your website can be flipped to any other language in which you do business. Remember, if you want to appeal to international visitors, your site must do more than just speak their language. It needs to accommodate time zone differences, currency formats, and other aspects of culture and region.

Can my website visitors search the site?

It can be frustrating to visit a site that is not searchable. Users are forced to navigate an often-unfamiliar tree of content looking for information. Make sure your website design agency knows how to implement a site-wide full-text search.

Can you set up a pay-per-click advertising campaign?

Got a big product launch? Need to boost traffic quickly? You may be interested in a pay-per-click campaign, designed around your business and its products and services. PPC campaigns can be effective, but they must be managed and supervised correctly. Make sure your website design agency knows how to do this.

Can you help me sell advertising space on my website?

You can monetize the traffic on your website by selling banner advertisements. Some websites make more revenue from advertising than they do from selling a product or service. Make sure your website design agency knows how to set you up. Ask how they track impressions, a measure of how many times a specific ad was displayed.

Can you help write (or edit) content for my website?

Not every business manager is an aspiring writer. The content on websites needs special attention to make sure it can be picked up and indexed by major search engines. Ask your website design agency if they have a specialist technical writer on staff.

How reliable is the hosting?

Not all hosting packages are created equal. You typically will not learn about website downtime because new customers never find you and existing customers simply go elsewhere. You can't afford to take your brand off the web. Make sure your hosting provider guarantees 99.99% uptime, and has redundant power, redundant storage, and redundant network feeds.