Getting the Most from Your Web Developer

Any organization making a significant investment in developing its Website will either task someone (or a committee) internally or hire an outside firm (or both) to plan, design and build the site. Whatever choice your organization makes, here are key ways to get the best value in working with your Website developer.

Be Clear on Goals. Write down your goals for the site and your goals for the developer. Agree in advance about the work you and/or your staff can and will do on your site, and the work you want your site developer to do.

Research Your Own Domain Name. Finding an appropriate domain name can take hours and hours. Go to www.networksolutions.com and read up on how to search for domain names. Get marketing and communications professionals involved in the choice. Consider doing the initial research internally. Get your site developer's input before making a final decision.

Do Your Homework on the Competition. Visit your competitors Websites and study up on what they're doing that is effective, and how they're doing it. Implement most of the best ideas you can find and you'll be off to a good start. Better yet, take advantage of what they've overlooked or don't do well with their Websites.

Get Organized. In consultation with you Website developer, map out the organizational structure of your site, page by page. Basically, draw out a Website organizational chart, including all the links you want. List and name the pages you want.

Build Internal Consensus. The best time to get people inside your organization to support and take advantage of the organization and content of your site is before the site is built, not after you have a functional site launched. Typical departments we've worked with in Website development include IS, marketing/communications, sales, customer service, investor relations, vendor relations, legal, human relations, government compliance, complaints and many more.

Assemble Your Content. Get all the content for all your pages organized in computer files. Content includes copy and images -- the words and pictures (photographs, charts, graphs and more) that will make up your site. If you have existing images that need to be scanned, talk to your site developer about the best way to get that done.

Double Check Your Content. The time to edit any of the writing you plan to launch to your Website is before you give it to your site developer, not after it becomes a Web page. The fact is that word processing files are easier to edit than are Web pages. That's why those programs are called word processing programs. Therefore, get people inside your organization to review all content that is being compiled. If a form is nine months old, don't assume everyone likes it as is. And be sure someone proof reads a printed copy instead of trying to proof read on a monitor -- you'll get better results that way.

Organize and Deliver the Files. When you get ready to deliver all the content for your site, get it organized so that anyone can easily understand what goes where – that'll speed up your site developer and help you get the results you want.

Identify Key Email Addresses. Chances are, your Website will include one or many email addresses. Plan ahead and decide whether you want generic email addresses, e.g. "Services@mycompany.com" or addresses specific to individuals, e.g. sally.struthers@alllinthefamily.com. If you decide on generic addresses, decide where that email is going to be routed, or who is going to be responsible for checking a generic email box. If you decide on using Sally's email address, put a plan in place for how you'll deal with her email when she calls in ill, goes on vacation or resigns.

Give your site developer a reasonable deadline. If your site developer is working on rush deadlines, you're probably note getting peak efficiency — to get a project completed in a hurry, steps in the process may have to get repeated or skipped and returned to.

Keep the Project Moving. On the other hand, don't get the project underway and then drag your feet or put site development on hold. When Website development gets shelved, it'll take added time for people to dig back into the project and determine what they were up to weeks earlier.

Stay Focused on Your Primary Goals. Website development can energize people and inspire tremendous creative energy and innovation. That's good, you may end up with twice the site and site features that you budgeted for. So as new ideas arise during the development process – and they should arise – be sure that implementing those ideas is in line with your goals and doable within your budget. Be flexible and open, but be ready to place ideas in a Stage II or Stage III development list.

Follow these 12 steps and you'll reduce costs, increase efficiency and get better results. Every organization should expect its Website to have a good ROI -- Return On Investment. Reduced costs, increased efficiency and better results are just that.

This article first appeared as a column written by Dave Tedlock, NetOutcomes' president, for the Inside Tucson Business and/or the New Mexico Business Weekly.

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