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Choosing a Magento Developer? Here Are 10 Things You Need To Ask Before Hiring!

  • Written By Andy
  • Posted November 17, 2017
  • 5 minutes Read Time

Building an eCommerce website is not an easy task no matter how much experience you have, so how do you align yourself with a Magento developer who is able to make your website a dream a reality? Just ask them these ten things and you should be A-Okay!

Building an eCommerce website is not an easy task no matter how much experience you have!

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Certification

Your first and initial question should focus on a Magento developer’s certification and experience. In order to get the best out of this try and familiarise yourself with the current certification requirements so you are able to know exactly what you are looking for when it comes to recognizing a developer’s skills.

Experience

It’s probably a good idea to ask about a developer’s past projects and experience. Live projects are a great way to assess your developer’s skills. It will provide you with an insight into what it is you can achieve as well as raising the bar of your expectations. Also, you may get some ideas for your project while taking a look at a potential developers work.

Ease And Effectiveness of Communication

Communication is essential for any Magento development project to run smoothly. Thus, making sure to ask what level of communication you can expect to get, from the very first project meeting through to post-development support. Make sure that your developer agrees to regularly update you on the progress of your project.

Development Time

Every single web development project should be based on milestones and a strict deadline. You will need to be aware of how your Magento developer will address this request, as well as what is to happen if something unexpected gets in the way. A reputable developer will offer you a timeline of when your project will be expected to hit completion

Billing

Make sure you ask how the developer invoices their clients as it might vary based on the project at hand. For a bigger, more hefty project prices may be charged on an hourly basis, while smaller projects might be more of a fixed price situation. You will, however, want to know exactly how often you will be invoiced and exactly which services you are going to be billed for. Also, it might be best to clarify if the developer bills in a quarter-hour, half-hour or hourly increments.

Additional Fees

With some projects and in certain situations, additional fees may also apply. An example of this would be that some developers have a maximum number of hours per month. Anything over the agreed hours might be billed separately. You may also be charged an early termination fee if you are to cancel your project prematurely. It’s best to request clarification on this before hiring a developer.

Website Design And Responsiveness

Your developer may use a Magento theme when building your site. There is nothing wrong with this at all as long as you receive a uniquely designed website. It is beneficial to know if a developer is capable of producing customer-designed content blocks.

Building a reputable and recognisable brand is easier if the website is custom designed. Creating an eCommerce store that is unlike any other on the market, at least aesthetically, will make your brand instantly recognisable.

Another important consideration is responsiveness. Today, a significant portion of internet traffic will come from a smartphone. If your website isn’t responsive to smaller screens, you might be losing potentially valuable customers. So in order to avoid this ensure your website is responsive and friendly to the mobile user.  

Back End Editing

Once your new eCommerce store is up and running you will need to maintain it. This includes adding and removing items, photos, text descriptions, banners and more.

This kind of back-end editing should be pretty straightforward and intuitive so there is no reason to make it overcomplicated, no matter how complex your website is. Irrespective of if you plan on maintaining your site or having an e-store manager, straightforward back-end editing can save you a lot of trouble in the long run. If you don’t have the knowledge to work in the back end editor, you can discuss the price of this assignment with your Magento developer.

SEO  

Search Engine Optimisation is a set of principles to make your website visible to search engines. The money you spend on building a highly polished eCommerce site will go to waste if visitors and customers won’t be able to find you.

It’s probably a good idea to discuss SEO fundamentals with your Magento developer. Budget time for the developer to spend time on SEO, but only opt for this is you know your developer can you some real results. Ask them about previous SEO projects and their effectiveness.

Ongoing Support And Maintenance

Even if your eCommerce stores back-end editor is fairly easy to use, some problems might occur. Therefore it’s fairly important to talk about post-development maintenance.

Post-development support includes dealing with bugs and other technical issues that usually happen before your site goes live. Magento is a highly complex platform and it’s not unusual for users to experience the odd bug and glitch while they work in the back-end editor. Visitors to your website will pick up on every single technical glitch so it’s essential to have the support to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.

So that brings us to the end of the top things to ask when hiring a developer. In a nutshell before hiring anyone don’t just ask for certificates but also make sure you ask to see previous work they have done. Don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions, as you would rather find out they weren’t right at the interview stage than halfway through the project.