Questions to Ask When Hiring a Web Developer
If you are a business owner who is not an expert in Web development, finding someone you can trust to build your website is critical. To help with the vetting process, here are some questions to ask your would-be developers before making a decision.
1. What do you do? Developers should be able to explain what they do in terms you can understand. Don’t let them confuse and/or bore you into working with them.
2. Can you break down the process for me from start to end? Choose developers who use an iterative approach rather than a "one giant deliverable" or "waterfall" approach.
3. What are your goals for my website and how do you intend to accomplish them? Asking this forces them to outline their future plans. It’s important to know they have some.
4. Do you work predominantly with open-source or proprietary software? One of the main benefits of open-source software is being able to pick up where others left off. Should you choose a firm working with proprietary software, you may be locked in with that company for good.
5. How long will it take you to respond to e-mails? If you find yourself waiting awhile for answers, chances are your developer’s team has not been working on your site or has taken the project in a different direction.
6. Do you outsource? Web companies that outsource their projects tend to subscribe to the one-size-fits-all approach, and you are unlikely to get the custom work you desire.
7. Will my website be scalable? Your developer should be familiar with the combination of hardware/software needed to ensure full scalability so that your site doesn’t crash the instant it gets some traffic. Important systems like database clustering, memcache, query optimization, and others shouldn’t be foreign concepts to them.

1. He Calls Himself a "Webmaster"
Any web guy that calls himself a "webmaster" probably isn't a master of anything. The term "webmaster" has become a translation for the word "amateur." The web has diversified into so many different realms that webmaster is no longer meaningful (was it ever though?)
2. He's a FrontPage Expert
Any developer / designer with a degree knows that Microsoft FrontPage most definitely isn't a professional tool. FrontPage will pass for Mom and Dad who want to create a website dedicated to their dogs, not someone who's trying to do business. I'd argue that a solid Web Developer should work at code level.
3. He'll Submit Your Website to [Inflated Number Here] Search Engines
Submitting your website to hundreds of search engines would be great...10 years ago. Websites are indexed by relevant search engines by how rich their content and keywords are. Search engine optimization is big business and submitting sites to search engines simply isn't the way to get to the top of Google.
4. He Wants a "Designed By ...." Plug on the Bottom of Every Page
You've paid this person to create a marketing tool for you -- not a billboard for him. Your website is a launch pad for your business and Poindexter McScooner is simply the man behind the curtain -- keep him there.
5. He Created a Cool Website for [Insert Family Member / Friend Here]
Your business needs someone who's been there before. The most common answer to my "Who was he and what business did they work for?" question is "Oh, he did a website for the CEO's daughter's [insert lame organization here]." I honestly hear that friend-of-a-friend story all the time. Choose someone with a sizable portfolio that can provide references.
6. He Can Make You a Great Splash Page Flash Animation
Translation: "I can spend dozens of hours wasting your money to create something that will take too long to load and will be skipped more times than dessert at a bad restaurant." Consistency and website flow are important to web design -- not meaningless animations that waste visitors' time and your money.
7. He Mentions He's a HTML Expert
Who the hell isn't? I would argue that dropping any language acronym on a customer (PHP, Ruby on Rails, ColdFusion, etc.) unless they ask is meaningless fluff. A mechanic could use a banana on my car if it would fix it. Keep your tools, especially HTML, to yourself -- the customer doesn't care.
8. He'll Fit a Cool Counter on Your Site
You'll add an ugly relic of the early internet on my site so that my competitors have an idea of my web stats? Sweet! Counters make a website look as unprofessional as possible -- don't use them.
9. He'll Place a "Best If Viewed in..." Message on Your Website
Any real Web Developer knows that he doesn't make the rules. Follow standards in the initial build and then fix it in Internet Explorer -- that's the flow. No responsible programmer would place a "best if view in..." message on the front-end of a website.