The challenge of finding a new webmaster.

What are your selection criteria?

[nokley]

I could really use some candid commits and help. As a previous owner of a successful website, but not a designer, programmer etc., I know a little about running a successful web site operation. What I don’t understand is any of the technical applications and how they work together. I contract all of my work out. I like to come up with a summary of what I am looking for in a site and let the people that do the work, do their job.

My latest project is combing classified software with shopping cart software to create a site that offers classifieds and a directory. I am told that the classified software is very url friendly.

Here is the confusion and where I need some help. I have come to understand content is very important and have pages of text. I also have a great deal of in and out bound links. However, I don’t have any ranking to speak of. Even though through my marketing program we have an average of 1,500 unique visits daily. The site is only about 10% complete.

I suppose I need a well rounded project manager that has an overall understanding off all the dynamics and how they play nice together. How do I find a legitimate webmaster that can effectively be convincing of their skill set and a reasonable since of executing the task at hand?

I tried an Elance listing and quickly became overwhelmed with offers. The problem is all the offers seemed canned and unlikely.

What is a short list for selecting a webmaster?

[chadurban]

Check out some of the Websites that each of them has done and narrow it down to the ones with the style and usability you like. From there contact the Web Designer, tell them exactlly what you are looking for and what you want the Website to do. Have them make you a sample page. They shouldn't have a problem with doing that if they are really interested in your business.

[2by4]

Short list for a webmaster, hmmm. Assuming you actually mean 'webmaster' and not 'lead programmer' or something, I'd consider these skills mandatory at a minimum:

Good working knowledge of web servers, from a technical end, server configuration etc. For example, if it's Apache, and you ask them about mod_rewrite, they should know a: what you are talking about and b: how to do it, at least basically. They should not stare blankly at you if you ask them how to use .htaccess or httpd.conf

Very strong knowledge of HTML - including ability to differentiate HTML 4.01 loose and strict, XHTML 1 loose and strict. Ideally they should have good sample sites where they are the principle person running the site, sites that validate to whatever doctype they use. Working knowledge of javascript. Good understanding of HTTP, FTP etc, again from a technical end. If you ask them what HTTP stands for and they don't know, that's probably a good time to end the interview.

Decent working knowledge of basics of SEO, although if the project is big enough that's probably best left to somebody who does that full time.

Decent skills in a web scripting language, depends on what platform you're running, php for apache, asp for IIS. Demonstrated ability to create scripts that are reasonably coherent. Ability to show you examples of such scripts.

All the other boring webmaster stuff, email configuration, stat tracking and analysis etc.

Many people lie about their qualifications, it's very common, or massively exagerate them, so if you can, the very best thing you can do is have a very qualified person from a technical end do the interview, since it's not possible to BS somebody who is better than you.

[Anyango]

Excellent Words by 2by4

I strongly agree.

[2by4]

Oh, I almost forgot the most important one: the ability to find the answer to a question you don't know the answer to. And the ability to know when you don't know. That's probably the number one skill you need to handle the different disciplines in a real world setting. In other words, if you ask them something they don't know the answer to, they turn to google, type in a search, and come back to you with the answer fairly quickly.

That means they have the conceptual background to know what question to ask, and the technical skills to know when they've found a good candidate for an answer. A programming teacher told me once when I asked him what makes a programmer, he pointed to a wall of books. You know where to look, that is.