10 things your web developer must have
It's
a jungle out there for companies wanting help with their website. Just
ask Simon van Wyk, chief of web services firm HotHouse.
"I think there are more web developers in Sydney than there are milk
bars," he says. "There are a lot of cowboys in the industry. It's an
industry that continues to move exceptionally quickly. It's very, very
hard to get anybody with long-term experience and a deep level of
experience."
There are a plethora of web experts available, specialising in
topics from social networking to illustration design, so making a solid
website should be simple. But with so many voices telling you what to
do, how do you figure out which to ignore and which advice to take on
board?
To help you find the right assistance for your site, we've developed
a 10-point checklist of things your web developer should always have.
1. Credentials and experience
Craig Reardon, head of development firm The E Team, says businesses
need to hire developers whose websites have delivered returns on
investment for their clients, and are willing to brag about it.
"I think the biggest thing to do is work with people who are proven
to have good business results, not just whose sites look good. It's
easy to say you have a good looking site, but it's not until you use
them that you find out how good that website is."
"A developer should invest as much as possible in making a site look
good, but at the end of the day it's evidence of your professionalism.
Clients are going to trust you with their cash, and a good website is
going to convert sales for you. You need developers who have achieved
that before."
John O'Neill, managing director of web marketing firm Komosion, says
businesses must look for developers who are "reputable... with
experience".
"You want someone who is designing something appropriate, and you
want to see they have done it before. It's really quite fundamental.
Depending on your functionality as a business, you want a firm that has
done similar work before."
2. Long-term commitment
These developers can cite several instances where a client was
promised a design job, but when problems arose the developer said the
work was done and they wanted nothing more to do with the site.
Matt Chamley, general manager of development company Webfirm, says
regular maintenance and updates are critical when choosing a designer.
"People put energy into getting a website constructed and built, but
after that they get distracted with normal business and need someone
else to take on that job. If you need the website to be updated
constantly, you need someone who can offer long-term maintenance if
things go wrong."
"It just looks bad to have an outdated site. If you go to a site in
June and you see Valentine's Day promotions, that sends a bad message.
It doesn't look good, detracts from the message and that isn't needed -
professionalism is paramount."
Sean Fishlock, marketing manager for web development firm Datalink
agrees, and warns businesses should avoid certain freelancers who may
not have a proven track record.
"These may be uni students who can do a site for cheap, but will
leave them in the lurch. You need to find a reasonable developer that
isn't just going to leave halfway through a project."
But the experts also warn about the opposite - watch out for
developers who will lock you into a long-term maintenance contract that
will provide no avenue of escape if the service isn't what you had
expected.
3. Creativity
It's obvious a designer should bring an element of creativity to web
design, but these experts recommend developers who have a proven streak
of creating unique websites that may not follow the usual trends.
Fishlock says developers should be able to recognise interesting
trends and adopt them for use in their own websites, as this will
demonstrate relevance and professionalism.
"With the whole Twitter phenomenon, one trend that has been revived
is illustrations. There are a number of sites that have used the little
blue Twitter bird in their own unique ways, and that gives your site a
certain look which is a whole field in itself. This type of creativity
goes a long away, and I see a lot of companies doing that sort of
development now."
4. Business sense
Good experience in the web industry is one thing, but these experts
say developers won't build you a successful website unless they
understand business and your particular industry.
Chamley says businesses must first have a clear understanding of
what they actually do, and their target market, in order to communicate
that need to a developer.
"One example is that we dealt with a company that sold furniture and
asked them what their market was, and they said "everyone". That wasn't
good enough, so you need a developer who can understand that and tailor
the site to suit a certain demographic."
"For the financial services industry you want to go with companies
that have experience in working with the KPMGs, and so on, and have
done work with companies in the industry you work in."
O'Neill says understanding how your business can market itself is
paramount, "because it doesn't begin and end with your website".
"The web gives you that ability to create and build a media channel
to market yourself, but you can't do that without knowing and
communicating to a developer what it that market is, and they need to
understand it."
5. SEO skills
Dominic Gamble, chief executive of WebDynamic, says there is no
point in hiring a developer if they cannot spend resources on making
your site easy to find.
"If you go to a web company that doesn't have a proven record in SEO
and don't have that capability, you will end up having to pay for it
elsewhere. The most relevant thing is not building a website, but
figuring out how you get traffic. A lot of people claim to use SEO but
will take your money and give you no results."
Fishlock also warns against developers who may design sites without any thought about how it will affect Google rankings.
"Many developers use Adobe Flash to design sites, and it does look
good, but keep in mind your site then won't rank in Google at all. If
something like that happens you may fall behind your competition."
6. An up-to-date skills base
Entrepreneurs can hardly keep up with their own business, let alone
the fast-paced world of web development. Shayne Tilley, marketing
director for Sitepoint.com, says self-development and education is
important for businesses wanting to hire individual developers as
employees.
"They need a willingness to learn, as things change quickly in this
industry. You need a programmer willing to continually keep abreast of
news and changes that will affect how they code."
"When interviewing, we ask leading questions like, ‘what blogs do
you follow?', ‘what was the last conference you went to, and what did
you get from it?', to gauge how active they are in the wider
programming community. We certainly put effort and investment into
learning, but post hire, we need people with a desire to learn, so the
effort is worthwhile."
7. A holistic approach
It's inevitable that creating a good website is going to cost you a
lot of money. But Reardon says businesses should avoid throwing all
their money at making a site look good, and instead think about what
your site actually needs to succeed.
"Suffice to say that it's important you shouldn't spend all your
money on design. There's a whole range of things that might be
particular to your business. You need to look at your industry and what
it needs, and that might be a little extra money here or there in
different things."
Gamble says businesses need to view their
web development as an investment, and perhaps sacrifice some money from
a design budget if other avenues, such as email marketing, will deliver
a better result.
"If you buy a cheap product you get what you pay for, but if you put
in a little bit more you get the results. But look at what you're
spending money on, because you may want to sacrifice some money from
design to get a bigger benefit."
8. An ability to grow with your business
When businesses design a new website, Fishlock says they must work
with designers that have the ability to scale up as the business grows
and can deliver new products and services.
"We've seen a number of projects where they will be contracted at
the small business level, but once the business reaches a certain
stage, the amateur might not be able to keep up. At the higher end, you
might see companies want to integrate emails or a CRM, but the
developer says they can't do it, it's a recipe for disaster."
"At the higher end, I think you really need a one stop shop that can
achieve the technical goals of the project as well as the visual goals
of the project. It's hard to find a developer with the right mix of
those skills."
9. Project management skills
David McLaughlin, marketing coordinator for development firm Revium,
says a number of SMEs have run into trouble when their developers miss
a deadline, only to be told the company had outsourced the work.
"Look for a company that keeps things mostly in-house. Many will
divvy out work to subcontractors, and that increases the line of
supply. You'll have developers say ‘It's not our fault we missed this
deadline because the subcontractor is doing it', and that can obviously
cause problems."
"There's nothing wrong with outsourcing but it has to be managed
closely and transparently. We have used freelancers before, but we
guide every program along meticulously and keep an eye on what's going
on. They need to be transparent with you."
10. A well-educated client
While developers need to keep an eye on industry developments by
themselves, Fishlock says business owners would do well to educate
themselves before bringing someone on the team.
"It's important to have a bit of technical knowledge because you
need to recognise what your developer can do for you. For instance,
some developers code in languages that aren't supported by a lot of web
hosting services, and that will end up costing you a lot of money. A
little bit of knowledge goes a long way."
Tuesday 27 October 2009 Patrick Stafford - SmartCompany
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
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