When contracting a web developer there are a number of things you should know. These are things that are not often realised until it is too late. Here are some handy hints to get you up to speed!
1. Design Master Files
Always request that all master files for design be delivered with final project on completion. This is very important. If you ever want to leave one designer/developer for another you will often find that you do not own your website design.
Design firms do not make this clear at the start of a project. So make sure you do!
Basically if you do not have this clause in place, any new future designer will have to start from scratch. Most web designers still think they are like photographers and that they own the source material and legally they do! That is unless you have a clause in your contract.
Summary: Always ask as part of the contract in writing that you own the Graphic Master Files for all design components of your website.
2. You Own all Stored Data
Make sure all data contained in your site is yours. Also make sure your website property data is stored in a database that is easy to import into other databases. (should you wish to leave one company/system for another)
You will find that many databases are proprietary based, such as the Microsoft Access Database – these are great at accepting other formats into their database, but often very poor at sharing it out into other databases – often trying to lock you in to their systems for life. This can be very frustrating down the track.
Summary: A good place to start is the popular MySQL/PostgreSQL Database, these are widely used and can be exported in most other databases. Nearly every web developer on the planet should be familiar with these databases. If not – they are not really a web developer!
3. Choosing the right partner.
Some web designers/developers will finish a website project exactly to the specifications set out in the design document. On the whole this is a fair thing for web developers to do. Web designers/developers are service companies just like you and get paid hourly for the work they do.
However make sure the developer you choose empathises with your position and explains and advises you on your specifications, one that does not simply tell you at the end of the project that ‘you never asked for it, so we never did it’.
At the end of your project you may not be happy with certain things that you would like changed – only to find extra costs associated with these changes. Tell your developer you do not simply want a site developed, you want them to help you develop a site successfully in partnership.
The plumbing of your website is perhaps the most important aspect. This is how your website is developed and how it works in the real world. Over 60% of your visitor potential is through search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. If your website is not being picked up correctly for your target search terms it often has a lot to do with the plumbing of your site – and this is where nearly all web development companies fall down.
This is not your fault – it is the web developers, but you are left holding the baby, so to speak. It takes me about 5 minutes to work out if an agent web site is not up to scratch.
Summary: Choose a developer that will hold your hand a little and explain things clearly to you. One that has a change clause in the contract for minor changes before the site goes live.
4. Big Claims
Steer clear of any web developer that tells you they have worked out search engine secrets or ones that will register your site on hundreds or thousands of search engines/link lists.
It is all total rubbish, all the major search engines continually change the algorithms of how their search systems work and this can have terrible consequences for any site that tries to employ tactics such as massive back linking. Get all the basics right with your sites plumbing and you should be reasonably placed.
Summary: Over 99.9% of your market uses about 5 different search engines. Google, Yahoo, MSN and Sensis are the only ones you should really be interested in. The rest are just fodder. Also make sure your website is only registered on search engines that are recognised. Many ask for your email address only to sell it to spammers.
5. Statistically Speaking
Make sure you are given a statistics engine that is easy to understand and can be accessed easily anytime (via the web). Make sure the developer takes the time to explain all the features of this system. This is a great way to work out how your site is coming along. You should – at a minimum be able to find out this information from your stats engine:
* How many visitors your site has each day, month, year.
* How many page views your site has each day, month, year
* Who has visited your site
* What countries the visitors came from
* What Search Engines your visitors accessed to get to your website
* Keywords used in those search engines to connect to your website
* What Search Engine Robots visited your site and last visit.
* What other websites are linking to your website
* How long people stay on your website
* Popularity of pages on your website
* What browsers visitors are using (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox)
* How many people bookmark your website (add to favourites)
Summary: This will give you great information about your audience. If you cannot pick it up within 10 minutes then ask for a simpler system.
6. Are they experienced developing real estate agents websites?
Many real estate agents have been advertising on the Internet for longer than most web designers have been around.
Some people you know may recommend a web designer/developer to you, make sure you check out websites they have developed, not just ones they show you. They may from the outside sound impressive but from my experience many do not have any idea what goes into making a good real estate agent website.
Speak to their customers, not just contacts they give you. Make sure they have experience in developing content driven websites.
Hint: All web good developers have portfolio’s on their websites (they should) so it should be easy to research them. Also check out their own website, often the things they tell you about the Internet are not reflected in their own developments.
Your website is one of your most important marketing tools, so choose carefully. Even though many agents websites are similar in content, the functionality varies widely.
Make sure your web developer understands and conveys these things clearly.
* Over 90% of your visitors will be looking for property listings, so make this a user friendly feature. If you have less than 50 listings at any one time, you do not need a search facility, you are just wasting visitors time. Make it clear and easy to get to the information they want. You should give site users the opportunity to refine property lists by suburb/price and type.
* Forget about Flash Introductions
If you are tempted to have a Flash movie on your site then throw away that temptation! The majority of Internet users hate Flash introductions – even though you might think it is cool. If you must use Flash, use it sparingly and make sure if the user does not have Flash installed you have backup graphics to compensate.
* Displaying Email Addresses
Try not to visibly display a link to email addresses on your website. You will find that there are programs out there that scour websites to retrieve these addresses and then add these email addresses to spam lists. Always try to have any email address go to a form to email. This way you can control what information is supplied along with the email, such as the visitors name, phone number and email address.
* Make sure your website has a system for generating meta tags – meta tags are the underlying code for each page of your site (often hundreds of pages) and is a must have if you want search engine recognition. If they do not provide this as a standard service then ask for it in your specifications.
* Browser Compatibility
Make sure the developer clearly states what browsers and versions numbers your website will work with. Your sites should work with Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 1+, Mozilla 1+ and Safari 1+ (Macintosh)
Summary: Agents websites are unique in the way they communicate. Nearly 90% of mature Internet users in Australia have visited a real estate agent website at some time and they want information as quickly as possible. Remember the potential buyer may some day become a potential vendor!
Finally
You may not know this but people make up their minds about your company very quickly when they visit your website. What image are you portraying? Is your brand represented well? Does your site work in all major browsers? Is the site well laid out and the information clean? Is your website’s information up to date?
