As your website is critical to the success of your business the choosing of which website developer  to work with needs to be carefully considered.

Remember the goal of a website project is to have the following three elements match up as closely as possible:

1. What you think you are buying

2. What your website company  thinks they are selling

3. What your website company actually builds

These questions will go some way to helping you decide which website developer to use.

Setup Pricing Questions

• Can you provide me with an exact quote based on the scope of the work?
• How much of the total price is for the design work?
• How much of the total price is for the development work?
• How much of the total price is for building the site i.e. content?
• How much of the total price is for a Content Management System (CMS)?
• Is training included in the cost?

Ongoing Pricing Questions

• How much am I paying for hosting?
• How much am I paying for software licensing, maintenance, and support?  It is a flat fee or hourly?
• How much I am paying for ongoing content changes?  Is it a flat fee or hourly?

Make sure for any additions to the original scope you are given a price from your website developer and you accept it before work proceeds otherwise you may get an invoice you were not expecting.

Experience Questions

• Can you provide examples of websites you have built like the one you are proposing to build for me?
• Can you provide testimonials from companies you have built websites for?
• Who will be managing my project? Is it the same person throughout the whole process?
• Do you enjoy working with the company? Do you click with them? Do they offer valuable advice?
• Do they keep to the deadlines they give their clients? Will they give you a deadline?
• Do they understand how to build websites for the Search Engines?
• Are they skilled at Search Engine Optimisation? Do they understand building websites from the visitors’ point of view? Do they understand the main aspects of usability?

Software Questions

• Who owns the Intellectual Property rights to the software in my website?
• Is the website portable (i.e. can I move it off of your system)?
• Can anyone host the website? Do I own my own domain name?
• Is the software customisable (i.e. can I pay for custom modifications to the software)?
• Will you give me the original source files if I ask for them?
• Do you test your sites for compliance with web standards? Do you undertake cross browser testing.