The TOP 7 Mistakes Businesses Make When Buying A Website

June 30, 2008

Over the years of working with Fortune 500 companies and small businesses I have seen it all when it comes to websites. I have seen corporations spend thousands sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars more for a company website than they should. I have seen sites that don’t match brand, take forever to load, SEO that doesn’t matter ("I am number one on Marketing Strategy Experts Who Work On Venus"), and even navigation issues that you would think don’t exist this day and age. As a business owner or person in charge of buying a company website; If you remember these 7 mistakes you will save money, be more profitable, and have happier customers.

 

The TOP 7 Mistakes Businesses Make When Buying A Website

  1. Have no idea about the technology - This particular mistake drives me crazy as someone who has bridged the gap between technology and business for almost 20 years. Typically technology companies target the marketing or communications department of an organization and not the information technology department when selling website and design services. This gives the company an advantage because normally business oriented departments have no idea about asp, html, java script, flash etc. Even more troubling is they have no idea about how long it takes to write an application or what it would cost in real dollars. I sat in one meeting where the Marketing group actually cared more about the person’s shoes than the technical part of the presentation. Now, I can appreciate shoes, but in the end not paying attention and not including the Information technology department in the buying decision meant they spent 500 thousand dollars on a site that should have cost 10 thousand.
  2. No consensus on what the website is for - Some people think a website is a digital brochure. Or, some want to ’sell stuff’ on the site while others want to put up a site for people to call in so they can then ’sell stuff.’ The website can be used for both, but to be truly effective, you need to have a goal in mind. What do you want your customer to do? What is it there for? This is important because if you don’t know, you can bet that a vendor or other supplier will come along and decide for you. This may or may not work to your best benefit.
  3. Don’t know your place in the market - BestBuy and Walmart have been caught using location specific pricing, so why would you think web developers and designers are any different. Your place and status in the market determine what companies charge you for their services. If you are at the top of the market don’t expect too many people offering bargain web development and design services to you. At one company the prices they were quoted were 30-40% higher than another company of less stature and profit. A typical way they do this is by pricing the services separately (coding, visual design, meta data, and SEO strategy). You need to do the price research outside of your company structure. Be sure not to send requests from name@millionaire.com for example.
  4. Forget to shop around - You would never buy a car without shopping around? Right? Time and time again companies buy from someone they heard on the radio, or a referral from someone, or my favorite, from who their competitor used. I have heard things like "Their site looks pretty good. Who did they use?" Just because someone used a company does not mean they are a value for what you need. Maybe the company the referral came from for example paid way to much as well. If you take anything away from this point please get several quotes and stay anonymous otherwise you have to go back and read mistake number 3.
  5. Get stuck on Form VS Function - Say it isn’t so! People buy based on looks just like they pick their mates. Well, some do and some don’t. Always remember who your company is and who your customers are when building a site. Be careful to not have your preference override your customers. If you are a fashion magazine then it may be important that your site be beautiful, but if it does not function as well you will loose customers to sites that do. You need to always balance speed, function, and design for typical websites. It is worth mentioning that the more complex your form and function the more your site will cost.
  6. Don’t ask the hard questions - The more questions you ask, the better your understanding of what you are getting will be and for what costs. If you are new to technology make the vendor explain in detail anything you do not understand until you do. Be sure you ask several times what is included in the proposal and what is professional services or extra. You would never spend thousands of dollars of your own money without some detail and clarification. Right?
  7. Don’t ask for working client sites - I have seen this one more times that I care to mention. Typically it looks like this. A vendor comes in to propose developing your website and shows you all these beautiful sites. You sit there totally amazed not knowing that they are just mock-ups made by expert designers and not actual working sites. Always ask for sites that you can look at and see on your own from the Internet. If it is an intranet site ask to visit at least one of their client sites. If they offer their intranet site, press again for a client site and let the vendor know this is a requirement for the project.

If you remember these 7 mistakes and take action to address them, you can easily save thousands of dollars on your next company website. If you have more specific questions or want to know more issues that come up in web design send us an email.

P.S. We have had several people ask questions about site developers that we can recommend and what our site runs. If you need a quote on a site let us know and we can forward your email and introduce you to some great developers. To answer the second question, Our site is a base Revolution template by Brian Gardner that has been heavily modified by US for SEO and readability. It is 100% WordPress driven and published through windows live writer. Plug-ins we use are sharthis, sphere related content, askimet spam, Google analytics, Google sitemaps, wpseo (modified by us), Post Plug-in Library, Similar Posts, wordbook, WordPress automatic upgrade ,and IPHONE Auto Formatter.

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Post Words: The TOP 7 Mistakes Businesses Make When Buying A Website, Have no idea about the technology, -, No consensus on what the website is for -, you, Don't know your place in the market -, Forget to shop around -, Get stuck on Form VS Function -, Don't ask the hard questions -, Don't ask for working client sites -

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Posted by Mark F | Filed Under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG 

Comments

One Response to “The TOP 7 Mistakes Businesses Make When Buying A Website”

  1. oddpodz on July 14th, 2008 9:06 am

    We lived through buying a website and would include: Work from a Business Requirements Document (BRD) first. Avoid hourly budgets and terms. and For sizeable investments, don’t sign any contracts unless you’re a lawyer. If you’re not a lawyer, get one!

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