Choosing a Web Site Developer for Small and Medium Size Businesses
Getting your very own website is a great idea. It’s the easiest and cheapest way to build a presence in the digital world. What's more, it can also help you stand out from the crowd, like an old-fashioned website with an attractive design does for physical locations.
But what about when it comes to building your site? There are so many different types of providers out there that finding one that lives up to your expectations is no small task – especially if you're not sure what you're looking for in the first place! This post aims to help small and medium size businesses find just that - one reliable web site developer capable of delivering exactly what they need at a reasonable cost.
Part 1 of this article will cover the different options available to your business when it comes to finding a web developer, from picking a service provider based on cost to choosing them based on quality.
Part 2 will focus on what you need from a web site developer and how you can judge a provider's quality.
What is the cost of developing my website?
This question is easy enough, but the answer certainly isn't. Unlike other types of businesses, web site developers don't charge you a flat fee for their services. There are a few reasons for this, but the main one is that there's just no way to know how long it will take to develop your site and what exactly is needed to get it done.
That's why instead of charging a set price in advance, most web site developers charge a fixed percentage of your total budget. After all, if the project goes over budget, they won't settle for less than their agreed-upon amount. So by using this approach both you and your potential provider are protected from financial risk.
This type of contract can be very attractive to many small and medium businesses, including yours. Not only does it help you keep your costs under control and provide you with a good incentive to stick to your budget, it also helps you avoid the unwelcome extra charges that so many companies face once they start their projects.
But even this kind of "set-price" Web development contract leaves a lot of room for confusion. The location where the website will be hosted can make a big difference in both time and cost, as can the platform on which it's built (blog, CMS, etc). These and a number of other factors can all make it hard for your business to choose a web site development company based on what they charge alone.
That’s why choosing a web site development company based on cost alone can be risky. A bargain basement price for a developer who turns out unreliable work is definitely not the best way forward.
On the other hand, finding a high-priced service provider doesn't mean you're getting the best deal either. There are plenty of companies whose over-the-top marketing makes them seem like they can do anything. But when it comes to delivering results, they might not always be capable of living up to your expectations.
No matter how you cut it, choosing based on cost alone is not an effective way to choose both a reliable and cost-effective web site developer. In other words, you have to look at more than just the price tag if you want to make the best choice for your business.
What about quality then? How can you tell which web site developers are good and which ones aren't? Unfortunately, there's no simple answer for this one either. The quality of a company's work has a lot more to do with the individual people behind it than with their approach towards creating websites.
So if you do go with a high-priced service provider – or even a low cost one – that doesn't seem to have a lot of experience in web development, don't be surprised if things don't end up going your way.
The best way to ensure good quality is to choose a web site developer primarily based on their track record and reputation, then settle for anything less only if they offer something you can't get elsewhere. Suppliers with strong reputations tend to be better at managing their developers too. That certainly doesn’t mean they never make mistakes, but it does help reduce the possibility of problems down the road. So even if you do have to spend a little more for quality, it's a reasonable price to pay for the best possible outcome.
But how can you determine which web site development companies have good reputations and which ones don't? If you’re not sure what to look for, it can be very hard to tell the difference between a reliable service provider and one that's just looking for your business.
That's why part 2 of this article will focus on the key traits any good web site developer should be able to display: transparency, reliability and speed of response. Any web site developer providing these traits should be able to build you the website you need.
Part 2:
Key Traits of a Good Web Site Developer for Small and Medium Businesses
Your business needs a website, but where do you start? The best way to find a web site developer that meets your needs is to look for one that can display the key traits highlighted in this post. Here’s what they are and how they help small businesses get the websites they want.
Transparency – Being open and honest with their clients is the main reason why many business owners choose web site developers based on quality rather than cost. This type of contractor is paid only what they can prove to have invested in the project. The problem is that without this level of transparency, you’re at risk of being overcharged or left with a website that doesn’t really meet your needs after all.
Ideally, your web site developer should be fully transparent on a number of fronts. This doesn’t just mean being open and honest about how much they charge for their services or the exact nature of the work they will do. It should also include the exact costs they will incur if additional resources are needed to complete your project and how long it will take them to complete it.
This type of transparency allows you to check your own budget beforehand and see if the project is a reasonable amount. If it is, you’re in a much better position to choose a contractor that you’ll be comfortable with. If not, your business can easily get out of that contract without pinching pennies unnecessarily.
Reliability – While it might seem obvious, many small businesses assume that reliability means low-cost. That's not always the case. Among other things, there are some companies who are very good at being cheap, but just as many who are very inexpensive but also unreliable in terms of delivering what they promise.
Conclusion
There are plenty of low-cost web site developers out there. As the internet has grown in popularity, many have turned to the microservice model in which they only focus on a single aspect of a website, leaving the rest to be handled by other service providers.
But while cheaper and more efficient, this model often leads these smaller companies to deliver a substandard end product as well. So when choosing your web site developer for your company’s website, it’s important not just to look at cost and reputation but also at their track record and past experiences as well.