You may ask yourself! Why would you need a guide for hiring a web developer? Why would you need to hire a web developer in the first place?

While in the past you needed to either be a web developer yourself or hire a web developer if you wanted a website, today that’s not the case anymore.

Content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal have enabled many people to build websites themselves. Additionally, website builders like Wix let you create sites via simple drag and drop.

However, there are still two very good reasons to hire a web developer:

1. It would save time.
2. You might need help with some of the more technical bits.

In both cases it’s important to know how to find, hire, and work with a web developer so that your project runs smoothly. For that reason, our guide on how to hire a web developer will go over all the necessary steps of doing that.

Web Developer Hiring Guide – Defining Your Project

To hire a web developer, you first need to make clear for yourself what exactly you are trying to accomplish. If you don’t know that, you won’t know who to look for and what to tell them.

For website changes, most commonly the tasks come from two different areas:

1. Design — This can be anything from redesigning your logo or header image to overhauling the entire page layout or adding design effects.
2. Functionality/coding — For example, adding a shopping cart, custom image slider, or making changes to your website’s management panel.

Depending on which area your project focuses on, you need to hire different people (more on that below). If you are planning to create an entire website, you will need people for both.

Here’s the most important part:

You need to be completely clear about what you need and write it down in detail. Doing so will help you to:

• Eliminate the wrong candidates — If the job description is clear, you can already weed out people who are not qualified. If you keep it vague and broad, a lot more candidates will apply to your posting as opposed to if you provide details.
• Save time upfront — If you are clear on your expectations, your web developer can spend less time in the discovery process. Instead, they can jump right into how to implement your project.
• Receive better estimates — Knowing the extent of the work will allow the candidates to better estimate the time and costs beforehand. It will also make costly changes less likely.
• Achieve clarity for yourself — Writing things out is also a good exercise for yourself. It helps you really think through what you are trying to accomplish and makes your ideas less hazy. That’s an important step towards accomplishing them.