Choosing the right Web Developer

As a business owner, you understand the importance of planning and executing everything as flawlessly as possible. You also understand the necessity of having a strong brand, a memorable identity and a unique product or service. As such, you should choose your web developer wisely to ensure that your new investment is both planned thoroughly, developed to suit your organisation and will ultimately add value to your bottom line. With today’s applications and tools, any old hacker can create a website but is it really usable? Have they really done their homework on how a website should be designed not only to support your brand but to effectively promote your products/services to your target market? More often than not, the answer to these questions is simply no. Your website will play an extremely vital role to the success of your business thus it is critical that your web developer understands what it is you do, how you do it and who you do it for. When approaching a web developer to design a professional website for your business, you should ask yourself some questions:Do they have a solid reputation?Firstly check whether the web developer has been in the industry for some time. More often than not, designers advertise themselves as being professionals when really all they have under their belt is a homepage or two. Your web designer should be utterly professional and have a firm grasp of the industry he/she operates in.Do they understand the importance of branding?Our branding is but one element of our business model that helps us differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Just like your business cards and other marketing collateral, your brand should be effectively portrayed through your website also. If your web developer doesn’t realise this, then you should turn around immediately and walk the other way.Do they understand usability & functionality?Websites are virtually nothing unless they can be easily used. Internet users don’t want to spend hours trying to find what they’re after on your site. They want to be able to type in a URL, point, click and find what they want instantaneously. Your website should be intuitive and extremely user friendly. Theoretically even your grandmother should be able to work out how to use it!Do they understand cross browser compatibility?One of the biggest problems on the web at the moment is the noncompliance to W3C CSS and XHTML standards between various web browsers. These standards have been put in place to ensure that each browser will render or display standardised code accurately. The web developer you choose should be able to assure you that your website will function properly in any browser at all.Can they provide a Content Management System?A Content Management System (CMS) is basically a tool that allows you to quickly and easily update the content on your website. By providing you with the ability to modify this content yourself, it ultimately reduces on-going operational costs as you no longer have to pay somebody to keep everything up to date for you. Do they understand Search Engine Optimisation?Its common knowledge that everybody uses Google, Yahoo! and other search engines to find the websites they’re after. In order for you to appear within the first ten or so results, your website must be thoroughly optimised using specific keywords that your target audience are likely to search for. Ensure your web developer can provide you with a fully optimised site and firmly understands the importance of doing so.At the end of the day, your website is a costly investment that should be thoroughly planned, designed to specification and smoothly deployed. It should accurately portray your brand, promote your business, expose your products and services and increase your revenue. So, take your time in finding a developer who’s just right for you because if they can’t understand your business then nobody who visits your site will either.