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

Developing a website is far more complex than online site builders make it seem.

When it comes time to customise your site, add in new features, incorporate scripts or even troubleshoot problems, you realise the importance of a professional developer. It’s why the best sites rely on a web developer to build and maintain their sites.

You have your hands full creating new content, marketing your business and driving traffic to your site. Let your developer handle all the back-end work for your site so it functions and performs even better.

1. Complex Code

Many of the customisations to make your site truly unique happen within the code. Despite the number of plug-ins and themes available, there are still some changes that can’t happen with knowing how to code. Diving into page after page of code to figure out where to add a new line is daunting to say the least. Even a single mistake could leave your site offline until it’s fixed.

Your web developer not only knows how to tweak code to get the right result, but they know what search engines expect too. The right code helps your rank, but a single line could drastically affect your SEO ranking.

2. Adding In Scripts

Scripts add extra functionality to your website, but added in the wrong place can cause loading issues, security problems and issues with the script itself. If you want custom scripts, you’ll also need to know how to code. Both are reasons to rely on your web developer to help you out.

They’ll create custom scripts to handle your site’s unique needs. They’ll also add them in the right places to ensure optimal performance without security risks.

3. Troubleshooting Problems

Are pages loading slowly? Is a new WordPress update wreaking havoc on your theme? Websites encounter technical problems and the faster they’re fixed, the less impact there is for your visitors and your site’s reputation. Hubspot even created a Website Grader tool to show you a few of your trouble areas, such as page loading speed, security issues and more.

The last thing you want to do is make a problem worse by trying to troubleshoot it yourself. A web developer has experienced most, if not all, common website issues. Rely on a web developer to pinpoint and fix your site’s issues.

4. Integrating 3rd Party Software

It might seem like a simple enough tasks to install your own plug-ins, themes and other third party software, but do you always know exactly what you’re adding? Sometimes the code behind the software is malicious, especially with non-verified software. Plus, if it’s not installed correctly, you could crash the entire website, leaving it offline until you can fix the problem.

Every time you add in new third party software, you have to ensure it’s compatible with everything else on your site. For instance, if you’re using WordPress, you must make sure the software’s compatible with your current WordPress version. Not only do developers know what to check for, but they also know the best software to use for your site.

5. Creating New Features

Your site’s development isn’t done after the initial release. You’ll want to add new features as time goes by to keep your site performing well while giving visitors the latest features. For instance, if you don’t have a mobile friendly design, you might want to upgrade your site to a responsive design, which Google now prefers. With only 18.7% of the top 10,000 sites having this feature, adding this helps you be more competitive.

Conclusion

When you rely on a web developer to build your site, you’re giving your site the best chance at success. From the initial coding to adding in new features over time, your developer takes care of numerous tasks to optimise performance and help provide visitors with a better experience.

Ready to start your own site or add new features? Contact StuartMedia today to get started with an experienced web developer.

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Telling your developer that you need a simple business website isn’t enough to get the site of your dreams.

Your web developer needs a little more information along with a few other things to get your project started. After all, you want a site that meshes with your business goals and increases conversions naturally.

Think of it as a team effort. You provide the background details and the developer helps turn your vision into a reality.

Your Site’s Purpose

Your web developer needs to know your site’s purpose. For instance, a small business site should have different features and a layout than an online lifestyle magazine. Start by providing your developer with details on what your business does, who your target audience is and what you plan to accomplish with the site.

For instance, do you want to increase walk-ins to your local hardware store or boost email newsletter sign-ups for more effective marketing campaigns later? These might seem like small details to you, but they make a major difference in the development process.

Provide Comparisons

You might not know the difference between a widget and a plugin, but if you have examples to show your developer, he’ll have a better idea of what you’re looking for. Do some research before hiring a WordPress developer to see what types of sites you like. Gather a list of your favorite sites along with what you like best about them. It could be the site’s structure, placement of widgets, page loading speeds or anything else.

Ideally, try to find a few competitors’ sites to better explain your business to the developer. List what you do and don’t like about each site. The more detailed you can be, the better.

Prepare Your Content

Your web developer usually doesn’t handle things like content creation and logo design. These might seem like minor things to you, but they’re a vital part of the development. Your content, such as text, images and videos, help the developer better lay out the site and determine the site’s structure. Naturally, you’d want your logo ready for the developer to add well before your launch date.

Consider Site Structure

While you don’t have to have this 100% figured out, you should have some idea of your site structure. The structure includes all your pages and how they link to each other. Your developer needs to know the structure before getting started so he knows how many pages to create, how each page is laid out, what type of navigation each page needs and more.

If you’re not certain about your structure, meet with a WordPress developer for help in laying it all out. Remember, this can be changed later on as you update your site.

Relevant Account Details

This one might seem surprising, but if you already have a domain, hosting and social media accounts, your developer may need access to some or all of the login information. Obviously, your WordPress developer needs details about your domain and hosting so he can upload files to your host’s server and ensure all domain mapping is correct.

If you’re adding social media to your site, your developer needs to know your social media names for each account in order to link them. Keep in mind that when providing passwords to your developer, most hosts allow you to create secondary users, so you don’t have to provide your main account details.

Must Have Features

Checking out other sites you like will help you figure out what features you want. Consider features such as a responsive design in the process. While these might not be obvious when looking at competing sites, a mobile friendly site helps with search engine ranking and visitor satisfaction. Your developer can help you with determining features once he understands your site’s purpose.

Your Desired Deadline

Your developer can give you an estimated timeline once you’ve given him all relevant details and discussed what features you want. Talk to your developer about when you want your site finished. Your developer will let you know if it’s possible and if it’s not, he’ll explain why and provide a more realistic date so the project isn’t rushed.

Conclusion

The more you know about what you want from your site, the easier it is for your developer to envision the site. Before hiring anyone, set up a rough draft of your pages, list of features and prepare some basic content. Doing all this will help get your project started off right.

Ready to talk to a WordPress developer about your project? Contact StuartMedia today to discuss your site. 

Image: Serge Kij

You have two main options when creating a WordPress site – do it yourself or pay for a WordPress developer.

Your first thought might be that DIY is cheaper and better. If you want more than a simple site for a personal blog, it’s actually better to go with a WordPress developer.

All you have to do is look at the difference between a DIY and professionally developed site to see the difference. Which one would you want to visit?

Give Your Visitors Custom

You’ve envisioned your dream website, but can’t quite find the right theme. The great thing about WordPress themes is they’re customisable. Fonts, color schemes, layouts and more can be changed to better match your site’s personality and purpose. You can even do more advanced customisations if you know how to code.

You can go a step further and turn your design into a custom theme if you want. This does require knowing how to code. Plus, you have to make sure your theme is compatible with your plugins and the latest version of WordPress. If you’re not comfortable coding, this is where a WordPress developer is helpful.

Choose The Right Plugins

Plugins are crucial to getting the most from WordPress. Do you know which ones you need? Many people who try to save money by doing it themselves end up with numerous plugins installed. All this does is slow down page loading times. When your site loads too slowly, visitors leave and they don’t come back. Every second counts.

No amount of marketing will fix this problem. When you pay for a WordPress developer, you know your site is using only the plugins necessary for security, backups, SEO and anything your specific site needs. You don’t have to worry about installing them or setting them up incorrectly. Plus, a developer can create custom plugins to make your site even better.

Make Your Site Functional

Your WordPress site is severely limited by your own skill set. You might have an eye for design and be able to create a stunning front-end, but what about the back-end? A design is useless if it’s not functional. Even after purchasing a theme and getting hosting, your site still looks basic and many of the changes you’ve made don’t work correctly.

A developer knows how to edit a theme, install plugins and customise a WordPress site. They can turn your amazing design into a fully functional site. Would you rather just have the basics or pay a developer to take your site to the next level?

Save Time And Money

Money is usually the main issue when it comes to hiring a WordPress developer. Take a moment to think about how much time and money you’re spending yourself. Then look at the final result. When you take the DIY option, you pay for a theme, hosting and plugins. You have to take the time to search for how to change everything single thing on your site. You have to research which plugins to use, how to install them and test settings to see what works best for your site.

You could spend months tweaking your site and still not be happy. A single change could ruin the entire site and leave you back at square one. Paying a WordPress developer upfront saves you both time and money. You get a site that looks professional and it’s up and running faster. This means you can focus on creating content, marketing your site and boosting visitors.

Meet Google’s Technical Guidelines

Developing a site to meet Google’s standards isn’t easy. WordPress developers understand what Google wants, such as a responsive design and clean code. Choosing a random theme and adding content isn’t enough. The last thing you want to do is spend months developing your site only to have Google penalise it for a flaw in the code or bad plugin that endangers your visitors.

Prevent You From Settling

One of the most important reasons to hire a developer is to prevent yourself from settling. You have a vision of what you want your site to be. Without the expertise, you settle for something close. You choose a theme that’s similar to what you envisioned. You have a few of the features you dreamed of. All you have to do is talk with a WordPress developer to turn your online vision into a reality. The right developer works with you to give you a site that goes above and beyond your expectations.

Conclusion

The DIY approach is ideal for a small personal site or blog. When it comes to a site that’s the face of your business or brand, you need a WordPress developer. Make your site more successful for paying a professional to do it while you focus on marketing and content creation.

Ready to go beyond a basic WordPress site? Contact StuartMedia to get started on a professional WordPress site today.

Image: Serge Kij