You might have a brother or best friend or found a freelancer who designs websites and quoted you a low price, but handing your project over to them might not be as good an idea as you think it is. While they may have an eye for design, do they have the technical skills to implement that design and bring your site live without a hitch? Before putting your website – indeed, the success of your business – into the hands of a loved one, consider these pitfalls of hiring lone website developers:

• They might not charge the right price, whether too little or too much. A friend or small firm might be overly eager to capture your business and quote you a price that vastly underestimates the true cost to build a website. Upon realizing this, they might skip important steps to increase their hourly or end up charging you more than you planned. On the other hand, they might inflate the value of their skill set, leaving you to deal with the aftermath of mediocrity.
• As far as freelancers go, they usually specialize in one area. Sounds great! However, if they specialize solely in design, they might fall short on other equally important aspects such as site security or technical SEO (search engine optimization). Small firms may also not have the full package of resources needed to build a fully functional website.
• Maybe your web designer isn’t a family member but a freelancer you found online. Price is great. Work looks amazing. They seem nice. However, the drawback of hiring freelancers unattached to a business is they could just disappear. Whether they had something better to do or met with tragedy, doesn’t matter. You’d have to start all over again.

Website development is a multi-step process, from research and strategy to design and launch. Your best bet is to hire an established firm that offers a full range of website services that extend beyond the date you take your site live. To help you get started, here are 20 questions to consider before hiring someone to build your website:

1. How much do they charge and what services are included in their package?
2. Will they use custom design or templates to build your website? (Note: there are pros and cons to each.)
3. How many webpages are included in their quoted price?
4. Do they offer content writing services?
5. Can they build a search-friendly website using the latest in SEO best practices?
6. Do they offer web hosting?
7. Can they assist in purchasing a domain name?
8. Can they design your website with mobile responsiveness?
9. Can they assist in security issues, such as purchasing an SSL certificate?
10. Will they run website tests before going live?
11. Which content management system (CMS) do they use (e.g. WordPress)?
12. Will they design your website to accommodate growth?
13. Can they assist you with site transfer?
14. Do they offer website maintenance packages?
15. What kind of sites have they built (e.g. personal, business, blogs, ecommerce)?
16. Do they have a portfolio?
17. Will you have access to all login information, including to the host account, domain account, and website?
18. Do they offer promotional services, such as social media or search engine marketing (SEM) to get your business noticed?
19. Do they offer logo design?
20. Do they have a project manager?

Website development involves more than simply creating an appealing online storefront – your website needs to be functional and searchable too. Don’t you want a company with the full package? That can see your project from design to promotion? Whether you need a brand new site or want to redesign an existing site, Social Spice Media offers a full range of web development services, including up to 10 webpages with custom copy, individualized design, an SEO framework, and web hosting on our servers. Our inbound marketing experts will also make sure your site gets the attention it deserves through social media promotion and site optimization that will push you above the fold on the search engine result pages (SERP). Feel free to contact us anytime to set up a consultation or get started with a free website performance analysis.