I’ve had so many clients tell me about the crazy things that their web designers have done that I ought to tell you how to avoid falling into the same traps. Some of these are rather amusing except for the thousands of people who have had to deal with the consequences.
I’m retiring from the business, so I’m no longer available, but I’ll be glad to put you in touch with good people. These people fit all the requirements below and are somewhat vetted. They have passed the tests I could manage to give them, and so far, no one has complained about their services. I actually threw two people out of the group when clients got back to me with complaints. These website developers and marketers give me a commission which I appreciate, so there is no cost to you for contacting me. Plus, I think you’ll enjoy my friendly conversational style.
Jeff Napier
(805) 843-5353 (voice or text)
jeff@jeffnapier.com
1. Don’t pay someone a big deposit up front. I can’t tell you how many times these developers would start a little bit of work, then disappear, never again answering their email or phones. My clients lost every cent.
2. Avoid long-term contracts and keep an eye on results. I had a client who told me she had been paying $2,000 per month for over two years for ‘SEO maintenance.’ I asked her how well that was working. She said that as far as she knew, not a single client had come from that website.
3. Make sure you have all your usernames and passwords. I’ve had a few clients who ended up with websites full of typographical errors, incorrect images, and downright misinformation. They didn’t have their own passwords, so they couldn’t even take down these embarrassing websites representing their professional identities.
4. You’ll want to work with someone who speaks good English, preferably someone in the USA. Otherwise, you’ll spend a lot of time and perhaps money in editing all the bad grammar and misunderstandings.
5. You want a friendly open-minded developer. It’s really hard to work with someone who is so intimidating that you can’t communicate what you want. After all, you don’t want what the developer wants to create. You want what you want!
6. Ideally, your web developer should have artistic talent. You want a good-looking website.
7. Your developer should also have technical expertise. For instance there’s not much worse than a website that doesn’t work right, or doesn’t look good on mobile phones, for instance. Thirty-two percent of web browsing is done on phones these days. I’ve had more than one client who ended up with an incomplete website because the developer literally didn’t know how to get everything working right.
8. The developer should also be good at SEO and a good marketer, or have good marketers on their team. Once your website is done, you don’t want it to just sit there. You want targeted visitors, people who want what you’re offering, and lots of them.
– Cheers! – Jeff Napier
(805) 843-5353 (voice or text)
jeff@jeffnapier.com
