Great questions to ask your prospective web developer. Part 1

We've just pitched for a major new project with an existing customer. It was a competitive pitch and they asked us some really good questions.

I expect this will turn into a bit of a series, because there's lots of things you could (and perhaps should) ask any potential web developer.

The client is a recruitment company and I suppose they know the best questions to test interviewees to the limit.

Anyway, one of the clever questions was "tell us something that we don't know about but that could have a major benefit to our business in 2010". What a great question!

So what did we tell them? Well, we told them about Hitwise and Twibes and a way to use Google Alerts to identify new business opportunities.

We suggested Hitwise because the market intelligence it would offer them about their market sector would help them to better understand their competitors and how well they are performing on the web. 

Twibes because we hope to be working with them to develop their social media strategy and this type of site will be invaluable in that process.

The key point is that, whatever your plans are on the web, push you web developer to contribute more to your success than just a nice design. A good web developer should be bringing experience from lots of companies to bear on your business.

One of the things our customers always ask of us is that we push them to use the Internet more and better.

I hope that our answers to the recruitment client will help us win the next stage of their business.

PS. They loved the designs as well!