How To Hire Web Developer? A detailed guide to hiring the best one.

They create an experience online shoppers love

Your website design, no matter how flooded with products and information, if not usable and easy to navigate will not fetch you desired results. Here the UI makes a lot of difference and it's the task of web developers to understand customer interface design. 

They create a UI that provides intuitive navigation and ultimately a pleasant shopping experience. A lead thereby easily turns into a customer.

Optimize your store performance

What generally happens on a Black Friday? Users many times face slow loading of product pages, are stuck on checkout pages, payment processing is slow, and images are taking too much time to load. How will you manage this if you don’t hire a web developer? He is the one who ensures the performance and functionality of your online store, enhancing your brand image on the podium.

Responsive web design

Responsive web design is a ranking factor on Google, so any business with a responsive website will find this is adding to their higher search rankings on Google. A web developer is the one who handles the task of creating a responsive web design thereby reducing bounce rate and catering to customer loyalty for your business. They make your website compatible on every device so that no segment of users is left untouched.

Make your website reliable

Web developers have exposure working on multiple projects that they know what element can be a game-changer for your website. They develop features that give your website a human touch and users feel connected before or after making a purchase. Let’s say chat-bots are awesome features to create a 24*7 connection between you and the end-user.

Looking for Professional Web Development Services?

• Well-optimized landing pages
• Strong & visible CTA
• Offers Superior UX
• An intuitive website layout

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Step 1. Define your business objective

Every web development project is different and has unique requirements. You first need to be clear about what you want the web developer to do for you. This means what is your objective to hire a web developer? Define the specific business challenge you want to be solved.

The objective can be various:

• Designing a complete new website
• Add specific features to your current website like CTA, a new template design, a contact form, and so on. 
• Revamp your existing website
• Integration of third-party services such as CRM, CMS, databases, chatbots, APIs, and others.
• You are a startup looking to enter the industry in minimum time and with less investment. 
• Automation of existing website utilizing the capability of both in-house team and external hire
• New technology to be added that your existing team does not specialize into.

Step 2. What skill-set should the developer have

There are three types of web developers: Front-end, back-end, and full-stack developers.

Let us explain which one is apt for specific business requirements:

If you are looking to change the elements that visitors interact with i.e the front face of your website front-end developer is the one. He is the one who will make the website more functional and robust by using HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Node.JS, ASP.NET, React.JS, Angular 8, Vue, and other technologies. 

When looking to make your website more responsive by increasing speed, make it more technically robust, integrate any third-party API, a back-end developer is your  go-to person. Back-end developers use technologies such as PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, and databases, including MongoDB, SQL - MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and others. 

Full-stack developers specialize in developing both the front and back end of websites. If you are a startup willing to enter the market on priority and have limited resources go for a full-stack developer.

Step 3. Find the expert

Always go for a web developer who is willing to be associated with you for the long-term providing continuous support to the platform. Now the question is where will you find the best web developer?

The best option here is to hire a web development agency altogether. They take care of each and everything related to the project, pre-launch, ongoing, and even post-launch.

Why hiring a web development agency is the best choice?

To hire a freelancer, use one of the following websites: 

Upwork is one of the best job marketplaces when searching for freelancers. The site has many powerful tools like automated payments once a milestone is achieved, and time tracking. 

Freelancer.com is another platform with great web developer portfolios. The site has features like online chat, a milestone payment, tracking work progress, viewing bids, and other useful features.

Toptal hosts a network of talented, highly skilled freelancers for web development. Toptal showcases a developer base that understands CSS, PHP, Python, WordPress, and most other programming languages or frameworks you throw their way. The best part is they have a vetting system that allows only the best ones to join Toptal. According to Toptal, only 3% of web developers make it through their battery of technical tests and comprehensive vetting process.

Github is one of the largest communities of front-end, back-end, or full-stack developers. 

People Per Hour It is a freelance marketplace, unique thing about it is that it holds contests and allows freelancers to post their job postings at hourly rates.

Guru is a large network of freelance web developers, propose projects, and pay your hired talent with their secure SafePay system.

When looking to hire a web development team, you can check out the following websites:

Clutch is a B2B review platform, where you can find a lot of customer experience in working with development companies. This will help in making an informed decision.

Step 4. How will you choose a web developer?

• Before hiring web developers, evaluate their work experience and in what domain they have worked the most?
• Do they hold the skill-sets required for your project?
• Check the team’s portfolio before signing any contract.
• Check the company's profile on Linkedin, Dribble, Behance. 
• How does the web developer submit reports and how frequently to track work progress?
• Are they open to provide post-launch services
• In what time zone they work
• Also, check their soft skills like communication skills as this helps in stating clear vision and project requirements.    
• The person should be a team player as web developers work in collaboration with multiple teams and stakeholders.

Step 5. Choose a working model

Subject to the complexity and work scope you may go for any of these work models:

Project-based model 

This model works well with startups where they have a predefined scope of work, timeline, and framework. The client and web developer agrees at a fixed price in this model

The web developer or the web development teams handles the end-to-end task for the project including management and post-launch services taking complete ownership. It’s simple for the client to adopt.

Fixed-time model

This model is good to go when you are looking to include a specific feature or functionality in your existing website and want it to be completed in a specific timeframe. 

Dedicated team engagement model 

This is a great model when you have to implement complex functionalities into your websites like chatbots which require advanced skill-sets and multiple resources. You save time hiring people and get a dedicated team in place who are responsible enough to handle the task. 

Extended team 

Herein the core team is in-house while being extended by remote developers. This works well when you require specialized knowledge over certain functions, or looking to make your website more technically sound but your core team lacks the skill-sets. Instead of spending time training the resources, you get an extended team.

Step 6. Finalize a payment model

Building a new website, or adding high-end functionalities is more than just writing codes. It requires a lot of planning, research, designing, testing, implementation, and much more. So, when hiring a web developer or a web development team, be careful about the pricing model to avoid any kind of confusion arising later which may affect the progress of the project. 

Major factors affecting your decision on pricing model are:

• Your project complexity,
• The size of the team you’re looking to hire,
• Your budget size,
• Project duration,
• The level of control you expect over the team.