What to look for when hiring a web developer (and what to run from)
Hiring a developer is one of the harder calls to make when you're not technical. Here are the green flags, the red flags, and the questions worth asking.
Hiring someone to build your website is one of the more consequential decisions a small business makes, and one of the hardest to judge if you’re not technical. You’re trusting someone with a critical business asset while they speak a language you only half understand.
Here is what to look for, what to ask, and what should make you walk.
Green flags
They ask about your business before they talk about technology. A good first conversation is about your customers and what a working website would actually do for you, not whether you want WordPress or Shopify. Technology decisions should follow business decisions. If the opening pitch is all frameworks and platforms, they’re building what interests them, not what serves you.
They show real work and can explain what it did. A portfolio is the minimum. What matters is whether they can tell you what problem a project solved and what happened after launch: the leads, the rankings, the thing that got easier for the client.
They give you a clear scope. “We’ll build you a great website” is not a scope. A professional tells you exactly what’s included, what’s out of scope and what it would cost to add, a realistic timeline, and what they need from you and when.
You own everything. Ask directly: “If we part ways, do I keep all of it?” The answer should be an immediate yes. You should own the code, the domain and DNS, the content, and every account created for the project. No proprietary platform that only works while you keep paying them.
They talk about what happens after launch. A site isn’t a one-time delivery. Good developers will tell you how you’ll update content, who handles hosting and security, and what ongoing care looks like. This is the one that protects you from the most common disaster: a developer who vanishes and leaves no one responsible.
Red flags
“We use our own proprietary platform.” This means lock-in. If they raise prices, get busy, or disappear, you’re stuck. Insist on standard, open tools that any competent developer can pick up.
Rock-bottom pricing. A custom business site for a few hundred dollars is a template with your logo on it. The corners get cut somewhere, and you pay for it later in fixes and rebuilds.
They can’t explain their work in plain language. Technical skill with no ability to communicate is a liability. If they can’t explain their approach now, imagine how it goes when something breaks.
No contract, or a vague one. Get scope, timeline, payment, ownership, and an exit in writing. If someone pushes back on a contract, that’s your answer.
They promise you page-one Google rankings. Nobody honest guarantees rankings. A good developer builds a fast, sound, well-structured site that follows the fundamentals. Rankings depend on content, competition, and Google. Anyone promising specific positions is either lying or about to do something you’ll get penalized for.
Questions worth asking
- Walk me through a recent project from start to finish.
- What happens when I need changes after launch?
- How will the site perform on a phone? (Here’s why that question matters.)
- What does your testing look like before launch?
- Can I update content myself, or does every change cost me developer time?
- If something breaks on a Saturday, what happens?
The bottom line
The cheapest option is rarely the best value, and the most expensive isn’t automatically good either. Look for someone who understands your business, talks straight, can point to real results, and builds things you actually own. That’s the whole list.
If you want a second opinion on a proposal you’re holding, book a call and I’ll tell you what I’d ask before signing.