You may be asking yourself if it’s worth investing in a web developer. Has your business reached a point where a basic website will no longer suffice? Has business plateaued—or reduced—and are you wondering if better-utilizing the Internet may boost sales again?

Following are six common functions and projects of web developers that may help you determine if it’s time to pass your online operations over to an expert.

Establishing or Improving Online Presence

A website may be the first impression prospective customers have of your brand. How are you going to make your website stand out? There are millions of websites on the Internet. As of 2013 there were close to a billion. Purchasing a nice template may seem like an easy, cost-efficient solution, but you risk having your website look like several others. Also, many custom features that you may need for your website such as contact forms, galleries, forums, and other special scripts are simply not available with pre-made templates. If you have a website built with a pre-made template and in the future you want to expand it, chances are you will have to rebuild the whole site to include the custom features that you need.

Content Management and Creation

Your business and industry are constantly evolving, and so should the content of your website—that is, if you want to stay relevant in the hyper paced, Internet marketplace. Displaying and broadcasting information are what your website is all about, and this can be done continuously though the avenues of newsletters, news feeds, blogs and content in general. But again, do you have the time or resources to manage and create website content on an ongoing basis?

Maintenance and Hosting

What if your website’s server goes down or some other technical issue arises? Are you qualified to handle these difficulties? Do you have the time or resources? One of the most important—and comforting—reasons for having a long-term web developer is for their technical assistance and back-end support. You have enough to deal with already in running your business, should maintaining and fixing your website be on the list too?

Online Marketing

Your online presence is not limited to a company website. Leveraging online and inbound marketing techniques—which reach beyond the tiny corner of the Internet your website occupies—are an effective means, and emerging standard, for advertising. Some of these techniques include social media marketing, blogging, podcasts, videos and other types of content that draw consumers to your brand. Are you leveraging the Internet to boost not only your image but also your business?

Website Responsiveness

Browser incompatibility occurs when a website doesn’t show the same way or appears “broken” to site visitors on different browsers. The reason for this is that different browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Safari, etc.) have different standards for displaying web pages. What looks perfectly fine in Internet Explorer may show up as a jumbled mess in Netscape. Professional web designers are skilled at knowing how to make websites display properly on a multiple browsers. An efficient web designer will test your website across browsers, insuring that the majority of people on different browsers can view your website the way it should be displayed.

Search Engine Optimization

It's no secret today that everyone wants a website that can be found on search engines. Implementing search engine optimization may not be what you want your designer or developer to do for you; however, how your site is designed or coded can affect your strategy when you are ready. There is a direct correlation between where your website shows up on search engines and the amount of traffic your website gets—and a correlation between website traffic and overall business. The earlier and more frequently your website shows up on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines, the more effective your online presence. Web developers know how to optimize your website for search engines, do you?

If you were intrigued by the points above, follow the offer below for invaluable information on how to go about hiring a web developer!