A website in today’s times can make or break your business. With the advent of e commerce and the existing smartphone revolution taking the world by storm, newer technologies like cloud hosting coming closer to the reach of internet users, the innovative web setup is something we all need to catch up on.
This is exactly why you need to find the ideal webmaster who can help you turn around your business.
A good webmaster can help you save your time so you can focus on the more important aspects of your business and their behind the scene actions can help you integrate your web services and has a deep insight into website working and all the hacks that will generate maximum traffic.
Things to consider before finalize a Webmaster for your website
Finding the right webmaster can be challenging as the relationship between the webmaster and the owner isn’t something fostered in a day. You need to also evaluate the skill set of your webmaster as well as their capabilities and limitations. Here are 10 ways you can choose your webmaster and multiply your fortunes manifold. Here are a few considerations and tips you can use if you’re choosing a webmaster.
Check your Webmaster’s expertise
There are certain things that any webmaster should be great at. Knowledge of certain aspects of website building is essential for a good webmaster. Here’s what they need to know.
- FTP, SFTP, SSH
- HTML
- CSS
- Knowledge of Web servers
- Applications of Javascript
- Photoshop
- CMS (like WordPress)
- Good expertise in Social Media
- Basic level SEO
- Adwords (added advantage)
- Hosting
A Webmaster who integrates
Websites require many complex processes from the back end portion. This requires a lot of roles and responsibilities to be fulfilled as well as many departments and individuals working towards different aspects of the website.
You will also find front end developers, quality engineers, DB engineers and many more people on your team. Ascertaining the role of your webmaster in the organization will help you maintain your website better. Moreover, a good webmaster needs to be a team player and work in harmony with other departments to maximize your traffic.
Clarity is key
Most of the times, disagreements and discord can disturb the entire functioning of a website. Though inevitable, it’s always better to be clear about things. Communication channels need to be as open as possible and understanding goes a long way in enhancing productivity. So you need to make up your mind if in case things are not working out with your webmaster before it’s too late. If you think you should part ways, don’t delay it. Just make sure that everything clear with your webmaster.
Avoid Novice Webmasters
Just because you want to save up on time money and effort, don’t ruin the prospects of your website by hiring your friends and acquaintances or just about anyone who ‘claim’ to know about website design. Experience and expertise need to be considered duly.
Hiring inexperienced webmasters can lead to lower search engine rankings, low speed, lagging behind on the hosting front, and lack of peers that you can reach out in case if you need something. And that’s why it’s a crucial part to hire a freelancer webmaster who know life cycle of a website.
Consider the Clientele
Before picking up a webmaster you need to ask the candidate about the clients they’ve worked with previously.
This will give you an idea of their niche, their strong and weak points and asking them to give a list of their clients helps you directly speak to the clients and get reliable inputs in this regard. This helps establish the credibility of your prospective webmasters.
Asking them the Websites they like
You can ask your webmaster about their favorite website and why they like it. What they answer can provide you with an idea of their branding, designing and user interaction skills. This will also help in understanding their niche better. Check which sites he likes to visit, this will give you a fair idea about his techno loges preference.
Determining the Content Technologies
It is always advisable to ask your webmaster about what content, publishing and designing technologies they put to use while creating and maintaining a website. Moreover, they should know the applications, pros and cons of each technology as that would help you analyze and integrate other aspects of your business including budget and scope of work.
Website Optimizing Options
A good webmaster would have a command over SEO. Search engine rankings are the single most important aspect of website design and a good insight of SEO tools, hacks and technologies can help you maximize your sales to the fullest. You can ask your webmasters how they would work towards enhancing the website traffic. Check whether they know on-page seo, how to improve website speed, PageSpeed insights etc.
You might also like reading guide on how to hire an seo expert in this post.
Security Options
Data security threats are looming large on many website owners today. With the nexus of organized hackers it has become even more challenging to manage a website. Therefore your webmaster needs to be well versed with security options and should respond well to any attacks by creating backups. Evaluate the backup frequency and determine how your webmaster would be able to manage threats like phishing, data theft and malicious file execution.
Other factors include data integrity and security for users and verification of users as well as protection of their personal data and safeguarding against identity theft and credit card theft. Also check whether they know how to fix a hacked website or can remove malware from website so that you are hand over website to a good webmaster.
Addressing Copyright Issues
Your webmaster needs to be updated with the latest website copyright issues and any copyright violations can prove to be very unsettling for website owners as many legal implications are involved. Use of licensed, stock photos for your website and awareness of copyright laws can save you a lot of time energy and money as the legal hassles are something nobody certainly wants to deal with.