FINDING YOUR NEXT WEB DEVELOPER

SCAN YOUR FAVORITES

Have no idea how to find a developer? “Find a site that you really like,” says Melanie Spring of Branded Confidence, “and scroll to the bottom to see who did it.” It’s easier and a better bet than trolling online job boards.

ASK—THEN VERIFY

Once you’ve amassed some potential candidates, either freelancers or agencies, let them take the wheel. “Say, ‘Here’s what I want to do. What do you recommend?’ ” says Brent Lightner of Taoti Creative. But then look at other sites they’ve created with the content management system they recommend for your business. “Make sure the agency you hire has experience in the platform that it’ll be using,” says Lightner.

CHECK COMPATIBILITY

Find out what plug-ins are compatible with the platform they’re suggesting. For example, “How easy is it to use with a Shopify add-on?” asks Spring. OpenTable allows restaurants to process online reservations without building a proprietary system, and many health and wellness businesses use Mindbody to manage class schedules and sell sessions.

CONSIDER CONTINGENCIES

Then, assess your ability or someone else’s to update the website if the developer is unreachable. “Ask them, ‘What’s the ability for someone else to work on it if you get hit by a car?’ ” says Spring. “‘Are you documenting it? What training do I need to update the site, and can you document that also?’ ” Rubin made sure that he could update his restaurant’s site at 11 p.m. on a Saturday without having to call his developer. “We’re able to control it fully,” he says. ”It’s our website.”