What to ask before you hire someone

You cannot judge whether somebody is good at building websites, any more than they can judge your pointing. What you can do is ask questions where a vague answer tells you as much as a clear one.

Ask by email rather than on the phone. Not to catch anyone out — so you have it in writing when something is unclear in six months.

The nine questions

• Who owns the site when it is finished, and who owns the domain? The only acceptable answer is you, for both.
• What is the total, including the first year of hosting? Quotes that leave hosting out look cheaper than they are.
• What happens if I want to change a price or a phone number? Included, charged, or on a monthly plan.
• Are you writing the words, or am I? This is the single most common misunderstanding.
• Where are the photos coming from? Mine, stock, or a shoot I am paying for.
• What do I get if we part company? The files, the domain, the content.
• How long, from what point? From today or from when I have sent you everything.
• Can I see something before I commit money? Not everyone works this way, but the answer tells you how confident they are.
• Who do I ring when it breaks? And what does that cost.

Answers that should slow you down

• "We’ll sort the domain out for you" without saying whose name it goes in.
• A monthly price with no total and no minimum term stated.
• "We guarantee page one on Google." Nobody can.
• A portfolio you cannot click through to live sites.
• Everything up front before any work happens.

Things that do not matter as much as people think

What it is built with. WordPress, hand-written, some system you have not heard of — your customers cannot tell and neither can Google. What matters is whether it loads fast, works on a phone, and can be changed without a fight.

How local they are. Almost all of this is done by email and phone anyway. Someone two streets away who is hard to get hold of is worse than someone two hundred miles away who answers.

The reference worth chasing

Ask for a customer from about two years ago, not last month. Anyone can keep a client happy through the build. What you want to know is what happened afterwards — whether changes got done, whether the invoices stayed the size they were meant to be, whether the phone got answered in year two.

Common questions