Essential Questions to ask before hiring a Webmaster

There’s a great article on Entrepreneur.com about the 10 questions to ask before hiring a Webmaster.  We cannot stress the importance of doing due diligence before eliciting services from webmasters or companies providing website maintenance.  In the past, ‘updating’ a website was simple – just copy-paste the content and upload to the Internet.  Nowadays, with databases, SEO, security, CMS, frameworks, reputation and authority, you need to consider much more.  Your webmaster needs to be multi-skilled and reliable.  Price is not a differentiating factor.  In fact, if someone promises you ‘best price’ then you can be sure they will take shortcuts which will burn you and your reputation in the long run.

Here’s a snapshot of the list:

1. Where can I find current and past examples of your work?
2. May I have a list of your current and past clients?
3. What’s your favorite website and why do you like it?
4. Which publishing, design and content technologies would you use to build and maintain my website?
5. How will you optimize my website for search engines?
6. What kind of special features can you integrate into my site?
7. What is your approach to security issues and other potential website problems?
8. How well versed are you in copyright issues?
9. Who will own the website?
10. What are your fees and payment terms?

Here’s the full article.