The top 10 questions to ask a WordPress developer. The last one will surprise you

Knowing the right questions to ask a prospective WordPress developer can be a bit of a minefield, as what people say can be a lot different to what they can deliver for your company.

So you do you go about finding the right WordPress developers? You ask the right questions…

Here are the top 10 “must ask” questions for your next project

1. How long have you been developing full-time?

The emphasis on this would be ‘full-time’ as you wouldn’t want someone who is doing it part-time from their mum’s bedroom. We would look for a minimum of 2 years of developing full-time with agency experience.

2. How many projects have you successfully completed?

By measuring a number of sites they have produced you can get a good idea if they are good at their job or not. If this is their second or third site then they won’t have cut their teeth and your project will be their learning process. Not good for you.

3. Can you show us some links to sites you have developed yourself?

Get links and check the sites out by visiting them and viewing the page source. If they are riddled with redundant code then the site may have been built using a premium theme rather than being coded from scratch for your project. Avoid premium themes at all cost.

4. What is your hourly / daily rate?

If they don’t know this they are not for you. The better WordPress developers charge £40 plus per hour so beware of anything that is significantly lower than this.

5. How long would it take you to produce this site (give them an example)?

If they can give you a fair estimate then they know what they are doing. Beware if this sounds too cheap as they will be cutting corners to make it happen.

6. Do you follow the WordPress coding standards?

This is something that is so important to us and needs to be for you too. If they answer that they don’t know what they are then I wouldn’t recommend using them. Here is a link to the coding standards for your reference

7. How do you communicate effectively with your clients?

We hear a lot of stories of clients not being able to contact their developers. Find out if they have a schedule for contacting. If they do it will show they are professional and know what they are doing

8. How do you ensure sites are delivered on time?

Time keeping is critical so find out if they have any strategies in place to make sure that the deliverables are ready when expected. Developers should always provide a schedule of work with timelines for completion. If they don’t then i would recommend using them

9. How do you manage projects effectively?

Speak to the developer to find out if they have any project management experience and if they know how to deliver a project on time and on budget. This will need to fit into your project management cycle and they should be able to work with your chosen project management process.

10. Do you live half way up a mountain

By far the most important factor in choosing the best WordPress developers. Ok, we are joking, living halfway up a mountain isn’t that important but it’s a good story and the air is clean so concentration is easier!

There you have it, the 10 most important questions that you must ask. If you want to know our answers to these questions then get in touch and why not download our full ebook to get even more questions you can ask. It’s never too late to ask great questions.