[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":311},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fi_SA3l8D9e4tuLzFLMXUroEj8Vi4FUp0B2g2TbBke08":3,"post-questions-to-ask-a-wordpress-developer-before-you-hire":147},{"site":4,"features":8,"stripe":10,"bridalfile":12,"analytics":13,"navigation":14,"branding":125,"footer":127},{"id":5,"name":6,"domain":7},"7578a1b2-a8ec-462f-8980-d46ebefc76a2","Pwa Developer","pwadeveloper.uk",{"products":9,"bookings":9,"event_capacity":9,"ugc":9},false,{"enabled":9,"test_mode":11},true,{"enabled":9},null,{"footer":15,"header":43,"services":68},{"id":16,"name":17,"items":18},"4c83a83d-7d89-442d-8e4c-717e61d71c19","Footer Navigation",[19,23,27,31,35,39],{"id":20,"url":21,"label":22},"b8c9d0e1-f2a3-4b4c-5d6e-7f8a9b0c1d2e","/about","About",{"id":24,"url":25,"label":26},"c9d0e1f2-a3b4-4c5d-6e7f-8a9b0c1d2e3f","/blog","Blog",{"id":28,"url":29,"label":30},"d0e1f2a3-b4c5-4d6e-7f8a-9b0c1d2e3f4a","/contact","Contact",{"id":32,"url":33,"label":34},"e1f2a3b4-c5d6-4e7f-8a9b-0c1d2e3f4a5b","/websites","Websites",{"id":36,"url":37,"label":38},"d1e2f3a4-1111-4a2b-8c3d-dddd11112222","/services/nuxt","Nuxt",{"id":40,"url":41,"label":42},"d2e3f4a5-2222-4b3c-9d4e-dddd22223333","/services/supabase","Supabase",{"id":44,"name":45,"items":46},"090e7007-6dd0-4416-8ce2-2680c446d2a9","Main Navigation",[47,49,53,57,59,61,63],{"id":48,"url":21,"label":22},"c3d4e5f6-a7b8-4c9d-0e1f-2a3b4c5d6e7f",{"id":50,"url":51,"label":52},"a43446fd-355b-474a-a846-6f02ba7b4f68","/services","Services",{"id":54,"url":55,"label":56},"6b5e66d9-5267-4948-86b9-11ef75fcf821","/how-i-build","How I Build",{"id":58,"url":33,"label":34},"a1b2c3d4-5e6f-4a7b-8c9d-0e1f2a3b4c5d",{"id":60,"url":25,"label":26},"d4e5f6a7-b8c9-4d0e-1f2a-3b4c5d6e7f8a",{"id":62,"url":29,"label":30},"f6a7b8c9-d0e1-4f2a-3b4c-5d6e7f8a9b0c",{"id":64,"url":65,"label":66,"target":67},"e5f6a7b8-c9d0-4e1f-2a3b-4c5d6e7f8a9b","https://www.youtube.com/@anothermagentodev9161","YouTube","_blank",{"id":69,"name":70,"items":71},"9a2b3c4d-9999-4a2b-8c3d-aaaabbbbcccc","Services Menu",[72,78,84,90,96,102,108,114,120],{"id":73,"url":74,"icon":75,"label":76,"description":77},"1a2b3c4d-1111-4a2b-8c3d-111122223333","/services/pwa","fa-solid fa-mobile-screen-button","PWA","Installable, offline-first apps",{"id":79,"url":80,"icon":81,"label":82,"description":83},"2b3c4d5e-2222-4b3c-9d4e-222233334444","/services/wordpress","fa-brands fa-wordpress","WordPress","Themes, plugins, rescue work",{"id":85,"url":86,"icon":87,"label":88,"description":89},"3c4d5e6f-3333-4c4d-8e5f-333344445555","/services/magento","fa-solid fa-cart-shopping","Magento","Ecommerce & platform work",{"id":91,"url":92,"icon":93,"label":94,"description":95},"4d5e6f70-4444-4d5e-9f60-444455556666","/services/vue","fa-brands fa-vuejs","Vue & Nuxt","Reactive frontends, SSR apps",{"id":97,"url":98,"icon":99,"label":100,"description":101},"708192a3-7777-4081-8293-777788889999","/services/headless-cms","fa-solid fa-cube","Headless","Structured content APIs",{"id":103,"url":104,"icon":105,"label":106,"description":107},"8192a3b4-8888-4192-93a4-88889999aaaa","/services/ai-consultancy","fa-solid fa-robot","AI Consultancy","Where AI actually helps",{"id":109,"url":110,"icon":111,"label":112,"description":113},"a1b2c3d4-1234-4a2b-8c3d-aaaa11112222","/services/migrations","fa-solid fa-arrow-right-arrow-left","Migrations","Move platforms, keep your SEO",{"id":115,"url":116,"icon":117,"label":118,"description":119},"b2c3d4e5-2345-4b3c-9d4e-bbbb22223333","/services/technical-seo","fa-solid fa-gauge-high","Technical SEO & Performance","Core Web Vitals & speed",{"id":121,"url":33,"icon":122,"label":123,"description":124},"c3d4e5f6-3456-4c4d-8e5f-cccc33334444","fa-solid fa-globe","Custom Websites","Bespoke sites, not templates",{"logo":13,"logoDark":13,"favicon":13,"tagline":126},"WordPress & Web Developer in Hull, East Yorkshire",{"summary":128,"copyright":13,"address":129,"contact":133,"socialLinks":134,"openingHours":146,"logos":13},"Senior freelance web developer in Hull, East Yorkshire. 15+ years building fast, custom websites and web apps in WordPress, Magento, Vue and Nuxt. Work directly with the developer.",{"line1":13,"line2":13,"city":130,"state":131,"postalCode":13,"country":132},"Hull","East Yorkshire","United Kingdom",{"phone":13,"email":13},[135,138,142],{"url":65,"icon":136,"platform":137},"fa-brands fa-youtube","youtube",{"url":139,"icon":140,"platform":141},"https://github.com/adamcjackson1982","fa-brands fa-github","github",{"url":143,"icon":144,"platform":145},"https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcjackson/","fa-brands fa-linkedin","linkedin",[],{"id":148,"slug":149,"title":150,"excerpt":151,"content":152,"content_format":300,"featured_image":301,"published":11,"published_at":302,"meta_title":303,"meta_description":304,"fields":305},"589f4149-c928-4442-844a-044ae4326f1c","questions-to-ask-a-wordpress-developer-before-you-hire","The Questions to Ask a WordPress Developer Before You Hire","You cannot judge the code, so judge the answers. The eight questions I would ask anyone quoting for your website, including the one about redirects that costs people the most.",{"type":153,"content":154},"doc",[155,161,165,172,176,180,184,189,193,197,201,206,210,214,218,223,227,231,236,240,244,248,253,257,261,266,270,274,279,283,287,292,296],{"type":156,"content":157},"paragraph",[158],{"text":159,"type":160},"Hiring a developer is hard when you cannot judge the work. You can tell whether you liked the person on the call. You cannot tell, from a portfolio of nice looking screenshots, whether the site underneath is going to be a pleasure or a problem in two years.","text",{"type":156,"content":162},[163],{"text":164,"type":160},"So here are the questions I would ask. I get asked most of them myself, and the ones I do not get asked are usually the ones that would have saved somebody a lot of money.",{"type":166,"attrs":167,"content":169},"heading",{"level":168},2,[170],{"text":171,"type":160},"Who owns the site when we are done?",{"type":156,"content":173},[174],{"text":175,"type":160},"Ask it plainly, and ask about all three parts: the domain, the hosting, and the files. The right answer is that you own all three and you can walk away with them.",{"type":156,"content":177},[178],{"text":179,"type":160},"What you are checking for is lock in. Some setups put the domain in the developer's account, host on a platform you have no login for, and build on a proprietary system that only they can edit. None of that is necessarily malicious. It is often just how somebody set it up years ago. It becomes a problem the day you want to leave, or the day they stop answering the phone.",{"type":156,"content":181},[182],{"text":183,"type":160},"Get it in writing. One sentence in the quote is enough.",{"type":166,"attrs":185,"content":186},{"level":168},[187],{"text":188,"type":160},"What happens if I want to change the text on the homepage?",{"type":156,"content":190},[191],{"text":192,"type":160},"This is the question that separates a site you can live with from one you cannot. The answer should be something like \"you log in, click the text, type over it, and click save\".",{"type":156,"content":194},[195],{"text":196,"type":160},"If the answer involves emailing them, or a support ticket, or a fee per change, decide now if you are happy with that. Some people genuinely are. They would rather never touch it. But most small business owners want to update opening hours in December without booking a job in.",{"type":156,"content":198},[199],{"text":200,"type":160},"Ask for a demo of the editing screen before you commit. Not a video, the actual screen. I do this on every project because it tells me straight away whether I have made it simple enough.",{"type":166,"attrs":202,"content":203},{"level":168},[204],{"text":205,"type":160},"How is this built, and why that way?",{"type":156,"content":207},[208],{"text":209,"type":160},"You do not need to understand the answer technically. You are listening for whether they have a reason.",{"type":156,"content":211},[212],{"text":213,"type":160},"\"WordPress with a hand built theme, because you want to edit it yourself and you do not need anything exotic\" is a reason. \"WordPress with these four plugins, because two of them do things you would otherwise pay a developer for\" is a reason. \"This is just what we use\" is not.",{"type":156,"content":215},[216],{"text":217,"type":160},"Be a bit wary of a very long plugin list. Every plugin is somebody else's code that has to keep being updated, and thirty of them is thirty chances for something to break. I have written separately about how many plugins is too many, and the honest answer is that the number matters less than whether anyone is watching them.",{"type":166,"attrs":219,"content":220},{"level":168},[221],{"text":222,"type":160},"What is not included?",{"type":156,"content":224},[225],{"text":226,"type":160},"Every quote has an edge and most quotes do not show you where it is. Ask directly. Is the copy included, or am I writing it? Are the photos included, or am I buying stock? Is there a limit on rounds of changes? Does the price cover moving the old site's content across, or is that separate? Is there a redirect plan so the pages that currently rank do not go to a 404?",{"type":156,"content":228},[229],{"text":230,"type":160},"That last one costs people more than anything else on this list. A relaunch without redirects can flatten your search traffic overnight, and the first anyone notices is six weeks later when the enquiries dry up.",{"type":166,"attrs":232,"content":233},{"level":168},[234],{"text":235,"type":160},"What happens after it goes live?",{"type":156,"content":237},[238],{"text":239,"type":160},"A website is not a thing you finish. Core updates, plugin updates, PHP versions, SSL renewals, backups. Somebody has to do it. Ask who, and what it costs.",{"type":156,"content":241},[242],{"text":243,"type":160},"The two honest answers are \"I do it, it is this much a month, and here is what it covers\" or \"you do it, here is what you need to do\". The bad answer is silence, because that is how you end up two years later on a version of WordPress that has known holes in it and a plugin that stopped being maintained in 2024.",{"type":156,"content":245},[246],{"text":247,"type":160},"Ask about backups specifically. Where are they, how often, and how quickly could you actually restore one. Plenty of sites have backups that nobody has ever tested.",{"type":166,"attrs":249,"content":250},{"level":168},[251],{"text":252,"type":160},"Can I speak to someone whose site you built?",{"type":156,"content":254},[255],{"text":256,"type":160},"Not a testimonial on a page. A phone number. Anybody doing decent work will have two or three clients happy to spend five minutes telling you what it was like.",{"type":156,"content":258},[259],{"text":260,"type":160},"What you want to know is not whether the site looks good. It is whether the developer replied, whether the timeline held, and what happened when something went wrong. Something always goes wrong. The difference is what happens next.",{"type":166,"attrs":262,"content":263},{"level":168},[264],{"text":265,"type":160},"Who is actually doing the work?",{"type":156,"content":267},[268],{"text":269,"type":160},"Worth asking in Hull as much as anywhere. If you are talking to an agency, the person on the sales call is usually not the person building it, and sometimes the person building it is a subcontractor two countries away. That can be completely fine and often it is cheaper. But you should know, because it changes how fast questions get answered.",{"type":156,"content":271},[272],{"text":273,"type":160},"I work direct, which means the person you get on the call is the person writing the code. That has a downside too. I am one person, so I am not available at 2am and I do not take on more than I can do properly. Either model works. What does not work is not knowing which one you have bought.",{"type":166,"attrs":275,"content":276},{"level":168},[277],{"text":278,"type":160},"A quick sanity check you can do yourself",{"type":156,"content":280},[281],{"text":282,"type":160},"Before any of the above, put their own website into PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile score. It is not the whole story and I would not reject somebody on it alone. But a web developer whose own site takes eight seconds to load on a phone is telling you something about their priorities.",{"type":156,"content":284},[285],{"text":286,"type":160},"Do the same with a couple of the sites in their portfolio. Then click into one on your phone and try to find the phone number. If you cannot do it in five seconds, that is the site you would have got.",{"type":166,"attrs":288,"content":289},{"level":168},[290],{"text":291,"type":160},"If you want a second opinion",{"type":156,"content":293},[294],{"text":295,"type":160},"I do a free 30 minute call, no pitch at the end of it. Bring a quote you have been given and I will tell you honestly what looks reasonable and what I would ask about. I would rather you hired the right person than the nearest one, and sometimes that person is not me.",{"type":156,"content":297},[298],{"text":299,"type":160},"If your project is an ecommerce replatform or a headless migration, that is a different sort of job and I would point you at Headless Digital for it. Different questions, different answers.","tiptap","https://sktegczfmabucrnpgrvp.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/7578a1b2-a8ec-462f-8980-d46ebefc76a2/pwa-svg-blog-handbuilt.svg","2026-09-12T08:00:00+00:00","Questions to Ask a WordPress Developer Before You Hire","Questions to ask before you hire a WordPress developer, from who owns the site to what happens after launch. From a freelance developer in Hull.",{"tags":306},[307,308,309,310],"wordpress","hiring","hull","local",1789200029588]