You would like a new website or want to update your website or just have questions about web design, but you do not know any web developers.

So what do you look for in a web developer that will help you meet your goal?

And that is point one.

Have a specific goal.

Having a website without a goal is like driving around in circles, at first the scenery is nice, but eventually you realize you not going anywhere.

When talking to a web developer have a goal in mind and use that as a way to judge the developers work. Asking yourself will this developer create a website that meets my goal?

What could that goal be? It could be a restaurant website that is designed to make a great impression with enough information to get visitors to make a reservation. Or maybe you want to increase conversion for your email newsletter. Or you want visitors to buy a product.

Whatever the goal is, specific beats general.

With a specific goal in mind you can judge the web developers work and ask yourself, will this person or company help me meet my goal now and as it changes in the future.

Reliability is the trait a web developer needs to meet the goal of your website.

A reliable web developer will be able to do three things: do what they say they are going to do, respond to you in a timely manner, and provide you with information to make good decisions about your wesite.

Therefore, test reliability by how long it takes to respond to your emails. If a web developer is taking a long time to respond to you then how long will they take once you have paid them?

Another part of reliably is giving you information in response to your questions, to help you make informed decisions. One question I received recently was, “Should I get a blog for my site, because someone told me a blog can increase traffic?”

A true statement, a blog can increase traffic, but….

I looked at the site, the niche the client was selling to, and found a small market for it. However, writing a blog does not magically increase traffic it takes a lot of work. Only 20% of a blog is making content the rest is promoting and sharing that content with relevant sites with interviews, guest posts, videos, etc….

I concluded that a blog could be useful, but only if the client was willingly to put in the time to make it succeed and I let them know that.

This way they could decide if they want to spend the money to get a blog and then more importantly spend the time to make the blog succeed.

Having a web developer that will answer your questions and not just say, “Lets Do it” will help you decide whether it is worth it to spend your time and money on different aspects of your website.

Once you have decided a web developer can meet your goal and is reliable there are steps to take to protect your investment and that is next in “How To Protect Your Wesite”