WordPress Tips

Many enterprises have excellent ideas for edging out the competition with a better website, but not all of these enterprises have staff in IT to visualize and flesh out the apps. So they interview outside developers. Whether you hire a full-service development team such as NOYO Web Development or are seeking a freelancer, here are some tips to reviewing their portfolio and determining if they are a good fit for your business.

Look For Websites You Wish To Emulate

First, the web developer should have websites in their portfolio that emulate what you are seeking. For instance, if you are seeking a specific hero page design, functionality, or mobile apps, the developer should have examples in the portfolio of similar work already completed. If your enterprise is a global provider of some product or service, naturally you want a developer who has worked for enterprise-level corporations. If you are a startup, you may be fine with a freelancer who works on smaller sites.

Check Their Website Performance

When visiting their portfolio, click through to the websites they have built and double check the performance. The sites should load quickly. If the page doesn’t pop up immediately, a potential customer will simply move on.

According to Kissmetrics, sites that take four seconds or longer lose up to 25% of visitors to page abandonment. This means that one in every four visitors will leave if your pages take a mere four seconds to load. With this in mind, you can verify the speed of websites featured in your prospective web developer’s portfolio. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool and enter the site’s URL.

If pages load slowly, it could be an indication that you want a different developer. However, ask the developer about page load time. Not every element of page speed is within the developer’s control. For instance, a client may have asked for a specific platform or host provider that affected performance.

Test The Website’s Functionality

As you visit the websites in the portfolio, test them for functionality. Click every button or link, fill out forms, or even make a purchase.

On an e-commerce website, even the smallest glitch can destroy sales. You will want a developer who can build easy-to-use, intuitive sites with the features and functions your customers expect. This can include site navigation, checkout, adding to the shopping cart, product sorting and filtering, and site search.

There are other elements to check in a developer’s portfolio. Next week, we will address the hot topic of site accessibility, as ADA requirements begin to increasingly apply to e-commerce sites.