How to Tell if Your Web Developer is Actually Doing Their Job

Your Website Should Not Be Broken. Period.

Are there broken links? Pages that don’t load? Images missing or that look weird on mobile? If you’re finding these things yourself — instead of your developer spotting and fixing them first — that’s a huge red flag.

Pro tip: Go click around your own website. If anything’s broken, slow, or confusing, that’s what your customers are seeing too.

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Are You on an Annual Contract?

I've been doing this a long time. Unless you're an enterprise-level company, working with an enterprise-level consulting firm, you should think twice before entering an annual contract with your web developer.

Annual contracts are a red flag. They lock you in, often with vague terms that make it hard to get out if things go south. It's very common for us to rescue clients who have been stuck on annual contracts, with nothing to show for it.

My experience has been that annual contracts are often used by companies who simply want guarenteed revenue, not to actually help you succeed. If you're allowed to jump ship whenever you want, there's a higher chance your web developer will actually show up for you and do the work you need.

If you're still considering working with a company on an annual contract, ask to speak to 3 reference clients before you sign.

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Is Your Website Actually Secure?

Your developer should be:

• Keeping your CMS, modules, and extensions updated
• Verifying SSL certificates are valid (at first page load!) and renew automatically
• Making sure your domain, DNS, and email are properly configured and secure
• Enforcing strong passwords and account security
• Applying security patches as soon as they’re available

If you don’t know whether any of this is happening, ask. Their answer shouldn’t be vague.

You should be receiving a monthly update, telling you everything they did for you that month

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Is SEO Built In… or an Afterthought?

No, I’m not saying your developer needs to be an SEO expert (that’s a separate role). But your website should be at least:

• Load quickly (yep, that matters for SEO)
• Use proper meta tags, titles, and descriptions
• Include Open Graph and social sharing metadata
• Be fully mobile-responsive
• Have clean heading structure (H1, H2, etc.)
• Include an XML sitemap and robots.txt
• Preparing you for SEO with AI

If these basics are missing, it means your developer wasn’t thinking about how anyone would actually find your website.

If you want to check your site to see if they're doing this, use Website Grader by HubSpot (it's free).

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Are There Regular Updates… Or Radio Silence?

When was the last time your developer proactively reached out about:

• Security updates
• Performance improvements
• Bug fixes
• Tech debt cleanup
• Maintenance tasks

If the only time you hear from them is when you reach out first… that’s not a partnership. That’s a transaction. And it’s risky.

You should be receiving a monthly or quarterly report from your developer, detailing the things they've done for you.

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Do They Speak Human… Or Just Tech?

A great web partner can explain things in plain English. If you feel confused every time you talk to them, that’s not on you — that’s a failure in communication.

If you ask, “Why is this broken?” and get an answer that sounds like a bad episode of Star Trek… 🚩.

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Bonus Red Flags:

• They won’t give you full admin access.
• You don’t own your domain, your hosting, or your website.
• There’s no written agreement about support or maintenance.
• You wait weeks for simple updates.
• You’ve reported the same issue multiple times… and it’s still broken.
• Getting locked in by a contract.

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The Bottom Line:

If your gut says something’s off… trust it. Websites are mission-critical today. You deserve a web partner that treats it that way — someone who’s proactive, transparent, and invested in your success.

And hey — if you need a second opinion, I do this all the time. Whether you work with me or not, I’ll tell you straight if your site’s in good shape… or if it’s quietly leaking customers behind your back.