THE CHALLENGE
There's no shortage of developers who can build a website. The challenge isn't finding one. It's knowing whether they'll deliver what your business needs. These ten questions will tell you more than any portfolio.
THE TEN QUESTIONS
How will you audit requirements from a technical perspective? How long will development and testing take? How do we handle post-launch issues? What are the platform implications on speed? What CMS do you recommend for our update frequency? How will CMS management work day-to-day? What happens after the project if we don't sign a maintenance contract? What are your maintenance recommendations? What are the trade-offs between custom and template? And how long before our traffic normalises after deployment?
WHAT THE ANSWERS TELL YOU
A developer who jumps straight to design without understanding your goals is building in the dark. A credible one provides timelines that include QA testing, explains platform trade-offs for your specific use case, and has a plan for preserving your search traffic during migration.
These questions won't guarantee a perfect engagement, but they'll surface the developers who think strategically from the ones who just write code.