Do’s

• Do know your budget before you begin your search. You absolutely must know how much money you are willing to spend and what your budget is before you even begin to consider an RFP (request for proposal) when it comes to a web development project. Not only will an up-front budget give you a negotiating point for potential candidates, it also allows candidates to understand any limitations they may face in regards to the work they can provide you with and can help them raise any red flags in terms of budgeting issues that may arise.
• Do create a list of sites you like, but don’t expect the professional you hire to be able to implement every function of your example sites into your own site without knowing how much it cost to build those example websites. A site that you love may have cost tens of thousands of dollars to create, while your budget may be more in the $5,000 range. As mentioned, your budget will impact how much your developer can do and you cannot expect anyone to implement the functionality of a $20,000 site into a site with a $5,000 budget.
• Do have a clear understanding of your objectives. What do you want your site to do? Do you want to implement a slider? Do you want to increase leads? While the way you want your site to look is important, how you want your site to function is equally (if not more) important. As such, you need to be sure you have a clear vision of your objectives before approaching professionals to get the job done.
• Do be sure that you clearly articulate your milestone objectives from the get go, and be ready to be flexible when issues arise. If you are working with an agency chances are that you will have a project manager working with you. If you are working with an independent contractor, on the other hand, you will have to act as project manager. This means that it will be your responsibility to ensure that progress is being made. It means creating milestones and ensuring those milestones are met. If the project gets thrown off schedule, don’t be surprised. Milestones are oftentimes missed and must be rescheduled as complications arise. However, having the milestones in place is important as it gives everyone who is working on the project an idea of what timeframes are anticipated and what deadlines are expected.

Don’ts

• Don’t act like you know everything. If you did, you wouldn’t be hiring a professional. Instead, you would be doing the web development yourself. Nothing will infuriate a developer more than having you, the client, telling him or her how to do their job. Remember you are working with a professional with years of experience (if you hired properly) and just because you read an article about mobile viewing statistics, it does not mean that you understand how to optimize your site better than your developer does or that you have a better understanding of your site’s development needs.
• Don’t hire someone who is rude or antagonistic. While most developers do take customer service seriously, there are still many who are downright rude to their clients. Such an attitude doesn’t make for a pleasant experience. If you get the feeling that a candidate doesn’t want to communicate with you in a manner that you are comfortable with prior to even making the decision to hire them, don’t give them the project. Things will only get worse once the contract has been signed.
• Don’t ever let price be the deciding factor when it comes to who you hire to get the job done. There is a reason some developers charge much less than others for web development services. It is the same reason that a fast-food joint charges way less for a burger than a five-star restaurant does. The quality can’t even be compared. The cheapest candidates are rarely the best and if you make your hiring decision based on price alone, you’re going to end up regretting that decision somewhere down the line. In fact, going the cheapest route at the beginning may end up costing you more in the long run when you have to hire someone again to get your site working properly and to fix the issues and errors the other developer left behind.