Now that we have WordPress, Joomla, Ghost and all the other flexible, open-source content management web systems, it’s easier than it’s ever been for relative novices to develop great looking websites. But, as we’re seeing all the time when we’re asked to provide hosting services for some of those sites here at The Consultancy, there’s more to developing a good website than just how they look. We regularly see problems with things like load speed, security, accessibility for ongoing updates and unsafe plug-ins, which ultimately come down to lack of knowledge and experience on the part of the developer who created the site. Sometimes, that’s just someone’s next door neighbour’s son who’s got a side hustle developing websites. Other times, it’s a junior person working in-house at one of the big-name marketing companies.
Obviously, we’re all in favour of businesses upping their online presence, but it’s a mistake to think that just because someone can make the front end of a website look good, that they can manage the all-important back end as well.
Just in recent weeks, we’ve had to put right plug-ins inserted for SEO which have created a security breach on one website and recode pages on another which have slowed the load speed up so much that bounce rates are sky high. These are potentially costly errors which just show up a lack of basic knowledge and experience.
As a specialist web development business, we would obviously argue that it’s either better to work with us direct, or at least choose a marketing company which outsources its web development to us. That way you will actually end up getting better long-term value than you would from either a one-man band or a company which bundles in-house web development in with a bigger marketing package, and leaves you paying for elements of the package you don’t really need, while compromising on the bits that actually matter the most.
We’ve been developing websites in this industry for more than 30 years and we’re right at the top of our game, with the likes of Brisant, Central, Door-Stop, Epwin, ODL, Selecta and Window Widgets all choosing to work with us. Most of our team have been here for 10+ years. Those that are newer have amassed huge amounts of experience elsewhere before they joined us.
We don’t pretend to be experts in advertising, e-marketing, PR or even SEO, but we know lots of people who are. Our advice is always for clients to work with us on their website and choose other genuine experts in each of the other individual fields, who together can deliver a service which is less jack of all trades and more master of one. In reality, the upfront costs are likely to be very similar and clients will have the reassurance that their website will perform just as well as it looks.
Richie Thornton
Director
The Consultancy
