You've decided to launch a website for your business, but you don't have the technical know how to build one. What's the first thing you do?
You probably answered that you need to hire someone to build your website. Right? Well, then you'd be wrong. Here's why.
The unfortunate problem most business owners face when they launch a website...
When you hire an expert to build your site, they need to know what you want built. Yes, you know you want a contact page, maybe a listings directory of houses you're selling, or perhaps a huge inventory of products you'd like to sell. This isn't what they need to know.
You'll need to create an itemized list of things your site should do. For the rest of the article, I'll assume that you're a high-powered real estate agent looking to launch a website that showcases your inventory. Here's an example of what you could write so your provider can properly quote your project, and so you can think things through for your business.
- Build a contact form that accepts the person's name, email address, a drop down box to determine if they're a buyer or seller, and a simple email message.
- Create a searchable directory of houses. The content of this directory should come from the MLS directly. Search features include the city, state, zip, and price range.
- The search result listings need to display the main picture of the listing, the address of the house, and selling price.
- Individual listing pages should have the same details as the search result, but also include the listing text content, and number of beds and baths.
It's quite the list, but that level of granular detail is often missing when a professional looks at your project to see if they'd like to work for you. I'm amazed at how many times I've seen clients on Upwork ask for "a 7 page site".
One page could be a contact form, about us page, or that search page that also shows listings. They're very different in terms of complexity.
You've planned your website. Now what?
Now it's time to PLAN your hire. Don't just hire the first person who comes across your desk claiming they can do the job. (Yeah, I know you wouldn't do that... Would you?)
What role are you hiring for? Do you want a web developer, web designer, or full stack developer? Is there even a difference? Yes, there's a HUGE difference in these roles, and they aren't the only professions you'll need to consider hiring. Let's go over each role.
Meet the People
- Web Developer - This is actually two roles in one, and can mean a Backend Developer or a Frontend Developer.
- Backend Developer - This is the guy/gal you hire to "make your site work". The list of houses on the MLS need to be available on your site, searchable, and so forth. A Backend Developer is the role that makes that happen, but they don't make the website look good necessarily.
- Frontend Developer - This is the role that makes the front end work. You know that search button that doesn't reload the page, but instead just makes the results appear right before your eyes? Yep! Frontend Developers are the ones who create that kind of digital wizardry. They make your site function in a nice, modern fashion.
- Web Designer - You don't want your site to look like a trainwreck. You want it to be consistent with your brand identity, be what your target audience will want to see, and have a user friendly look and feel. This is the role that makes the "looks" (UI/UX) of the site. They take your logo and put it... wait. You don't have a logo?
- Graphics Designer - Need a logo? Maybe you need some really stunning images to entire your visitors? This is the role that makes those.
- Full Stack Web Developer - This is the person who thinks they can do it all, but really they aren't focused on any one part of the site, and so you wind up with a mediocre website in the end at best. If you want to just "slap something down" and call it a day, then by all means, hire a full stack developer.
Digital Agency / Web Development Agency / Web Design Agency
Now you've planned your team. How do you know who to hire?
That's the whole reason why Black Draak exists. We don't directly provide any of these services, but instead we form close partnerships with companies who do. The industry is riddled with poor quality workmanship, such as those who don't even know what Clean Code is.
That's not a jab, actually. Clean Code Principles are a collection of things that the best in the industry came up with to make code always stay clean. Robert C. Martin popularized them, and the best engineers know the Clean Code Principles.
SOLID, DRY, and YAGNI are some acronyms for very important things that keep your code clean, maintainable, and modular, so when you need to make a change or hire someone new, you don't need to start over.
This is the difference between paying $10,000 and waiting 2 years for a "budget coder" to build your website just to have to start over, versus paying $15,000 for that same site to be built in 2 weeks by an agency.
Reviews Are Flawed
If you don't want to be scammed, you need to do more than just read the reviews. Reviews an an excellent start, but...
- How many of those clients do you think actually had the technological ability to examine the code and see if it's secure and editable? Nearly zero.
- How many of those clients left a 5 star review right after the project was finished, not knowing that when they go to hire someone to change the code, that's no longer possible? At least 75% of them.
- How many of those clients "drank the Kool-Aid" and let their coder host their site and never gave them credentials for the site, permanantly locking up their code so they can't get to it, and then went MIA on the client or shut down the hosting, or... You get the picture.
To hire the right people to launch a website, you need to know what you're up against. Black Draak makes sure that all of our service providers follow our Code of Ethics so that you can be certain that you have access to your code whenever you want it, and that code is well written.
