Last time we did an introduction to this series of 4 posts about the risks of hiring a wrong web developer. Today we are continuing on with the next three risks on the list:
Risk #4: You get hit with hidden costs
Do you know that you’ll need a domain and hosting to have a live site? Or a dedicated service for reliable email? Or that stock images can cost a lot of money? Or that content writing is most likely not included in the price of the website? Inherently there is nothing wrong with not including something, unless it really should be part of the package. But not to communicate what is included and what isn’t below the professional standard that we hold ourselves to. We will explain where different costs come from and what are your options for minimizing them if you are on a tight budget.
Risk #5: You are stuck with a website that is difficult to update
Many people call themselves web developers since there is no professional accreditation required to use that title. You may work with someone who doesn’t build websites very often (many graphic designers dabble with web design, but it’s not their primary field). Or you may work with someone who learned some bad habits early on and still relies on them. These so called web developers are likely behind the curve when it comes to knowing what is happening in the industry, latest coding guidelines, emerging trends, etc. You run the risk of having a website that is built in poor style with the code may be difficult to read (which is often the case when software is used as a crutch – the generated code is utter garbage). This will make your website difficult (read: expensive) to maintain. At Awesome Co. we spend a lot of time developing professionally so that the code is to the latest guidelines and is easy to read and maintain.
Risk #6: Your website becomes outdated quickly
You run this risk when your web developer is not up to date on the trends and what’s coming down the pipeline. For example, mobile-friendly web design was around for a while, but not everyone knows how to do it and in late 2014-early 2015 you could have had a 3-month old website that is not “responsive”. When in the spring of 2015 Google changed it’s algorithm to favour the sites that work well on mobile devices, many companies needed to look at re-doing their websites, even though they may not be outdated in their look and feel. Getting it done right the first time would have saved these companies a lot of money. You may also face a situation where your web designer uses some design features that are more of a fad, resulting in a site that looks dated before it should. We spend a lot of time reading blogs on what is happening in our industry and continuously educating ourselves, to make sure the websites we build last as long as possible.
Next time we are going to present you with the Risks Of Hiring A Wrong Web Developer – Part 3 in the series revealing the next 3 risks of hiring a wrong web developer. If you missed it, you can read Risks Of Hiring A Wrong Web Developer – Part 1.