Your web developer is capable of creating stunning websites that will impress your visitors and even help with SEO.

Developers can only do this if you give them a little help. It’s true, you have to help your web developer before they can help you get the perfect site for your needs.

You don’t need to understand programming or how to customise a theme, but you do need to answer a few questions before hiring someone. This makes the process easier for everyone involved.

1. What Features Do You Want/Need?

You might not know the difference between plugin A and plugin B, but you probably know that you love certain functions and features on other websites. Take the time to look at a variety of websites to determine what features you like and don’t like. Make a list of a few sites that you love and a few that you don’t. These will help your web developer better determine which features and functions to add, even if you can’t fully explain them yourself.

2. What Is Your Target Niche?

Different niches require different types of websites. For instance, a news site would want their homepage full of stories, while an car parts business would want images of their shop along with contact information on the homepage.

Take the time to define your target audience so you can fully explain your audience and what you want to achieve. It might not seem important, but your developer needs to know how to create a custom site specifically for your business.

3. Is Your Content Ready?

It’s not uncommon for someone to want a new site, but not have any content prepared. Content, including text and visuals, aren’t just something to add in after the site’s finished. Your developer needs content to provide you with a better site. Take time before hiring a developer to gather all logos, images and content. Your developer will be happier and it’ll keep your project from being delayed over something as simple as content.

4. Do You Need A New Theme?

If you already have a website, you have to think about whether you want a completely new site or a more customised version of your existing site. If you love your current WordPress theme, but need different functions, let your developer know. Instead of having to have an entirely new theme created, your developer may be able to customise your existing one. If that’s not possible, your developer can create a new theme that resembles the old one, but provides the features you need.

5. Are There Any Technical Details?

This is actually a series of questions, such as:

• Do you have hosting already?
• What is your domain name, if you have one?
• What social accounts do you want to connect?
• Do you have your own servers?
• How are backups handled? (necessary if you want a backup plugin installed during the process)
• What analytics code should be used?
• Can your developer login to your host?

Your developer can’t answer these questions for you. You have to provide them with the answers so they can set up your site so it works flawlessly on your host.

6. What Do You Consider Conversions?

It might seem obvious to you, but different sites have different types of conversion goals. For you, it may be sales, but another site might strive for newsletter signups. When it comes to choosing and customising your theme, picking plugins and incorporating features, your developer needs to have some idea of your conversion strategy.

7. What Pages Do You Need?

While your developer can help with this to a point, you can help your web developer by planning out a sitemap before starting the project. This tells your developer what pages you need, how they’ll be organised and even how to navigate between them. Otherwise, your developer has no idea how many pages you need and what the purpose of each page is.

Conclusion

Creating a website is a team effort. You need your developer to handle a large part of it, but you have to provide the developer with guidance so they have a starting point. Be prepared and have answers to all these questions in advance and you’ll have a happy developer on your hands.

Already have all these questions answered? Contact StuartMedia today to discuss your web development project today. 

Image: Rennett Stowe