Introduction

As a web design professional for a number of years, I am continually shocked by the standard of service offered by some web designers. From generic quotes with no appreciation of the clients needs to being charged extra for basic HTML elements that form the basis of any good website.

This article aims to show you some common pitfalls or problems you might face and how to avoid them

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The Generic Quote

A new client of mine showed me 2 quotes they obtained before they found wellymedia.  My clients requirements were for a very simple, brochureware, static HTML website consisting of approximately 10 pages with no dynamic content or programming required. The aim of the website was to provide prospective and existing clients with information about the company and their services.  This information would need updating, rarely, perhaps every 18 months.

The first quote my client received was over £3,000.  The quote was a whopping 14 pages long and the first 11 of these were general information about the company and its services.  It was not until page 12 that the quote actually started and in it, the company in question was recommending a full content management solution, which would allow the client to update key pages of his website himself, whenever he wished.

I pointed out to my client, that given information on the site was going to change rarely, what was the point of paying out a hefty fee for a fancy content management solution?  In addition to this, there was an annual admin fee, on top of the normal annual hosting fee.

It was blatantly clear that the design company had sent out my client its general quote and had not amended it in any way to fit with the clients needs.

This is common – Don’t assume that the quote you will be given is a quote for what you actually need!  Often, through sheer sloppiness larger design companies can overlook the needs of small clients, aiming only to upsell them to higher value packages upon which they make higher margins.  Obviously this sort of practice can take place no matter what size a company you are dealing with, but you might find a smaller company will actually be glad of your business and will do their level best to come up with a realistically priced solution that fits your needs, and not theirs!

Basic website optimisation should be included as standard - for free

We all know that nowadays having a website is only the start.  You then need to work at getting people to visit the website and to visit a site, people need to know it exists.  Search Engines are the main way in which people will search for and find websites.  To get traffic to your site, your website needs to be listed in the search engines, and once listed, it also needs to rank well.

There are hundreds of millions of websites out there, and chances are thousands of websites just like your own, selling similar products or services.  If a widget shop has 1,000 competitors, each with their own website – which of these sites will appear on the first page of search results when someone types ‘widget shop’ into a search engine?

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the term applied to a number of methods used to ensure you site is search engine friendly.  The more friendly your site, then the more chace your site has of being ranked and ranked well.

An astonishing number of web designers do not optimise their websites as standard and instead offer this as an add on service.  Quite frankly, a web design company that does not offer you, at least basic standards of optimisation free and as part of their normal design process is not worth bothering with.

When building a site from scratch it is much easier to make it search engine friendly to begin with, than offering it as a retrospective service once the site is built. If you are not getting the following for free, or already built in to your website, then you should seriously consider using a different web design company.

Standard Optimisation should include:

• Complete and full META tags including Title, Description & Keywords on every page
• ALT tags on all graphics and imagesGood page structure and search engine friendly navigationA sitemap containing text links to every page on the site
• Use of appropriate on page tags such as the H1 heading tag

Don’t be afraid to ask your designer if they do these things as standard and be specific.  Use the checklist above to make sure you are clear on exactly what your designer does and does not include.

Any designer worth their salt and up to date with SEO practices will do all these things for you, but also remember that SEO is a highly complex discipline and it does take an expert to fully optimise your site so do be prepared to pay extra for a full optimisation package which will often include additional services like setting up link exchanges, in page text optimisation and keyword rich entry pages.

Content Management Solutions

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you need a full content management solution.  If you have a basic brochureware website whose main purpose is to provide information, and especially if that information will not change very often (i.e. perhaps changing only every quarter or 6 months) then a full CMS option might not be for you.

You can get your website updated cost effectively if you find the right designer.  Some will offer your free ‘small updates’ throughout the year.  I.e. they will happily update your address, or the odd line of text for you.

Others will charge you for their time, some may charge you a flat rate, say £50 per set of changes, or some may charge you a monthly or annual management fee.

All of these solutions can work out much cheaper in the long run than a content management solution, depending upon the scope and frequency of the changes you will require.

An online shop selling 50 different types of widgets will clearly need a content management system.  As stock and products change and as different promotions are introduced the website will need to be reqularly updated to reflect current stock.  It would not be cost effective for a website like this to pay for changes to the site done by their designer as these would be frequent. For many smaller sites however, a content management solution is a high cost solution to a problem that doesn't exist in the first place!

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