WEBSITE STORIES

Horrible Website Stories

I’m sure everyone has heard some horrible stories about dealing with website design companies. Shopping around for a website and finding the right website design company is one of the hardest things a business has to do. Most people searching for a website design company don’t have much knowledge about the web and websites which can be dangerous because you are relying on website companies to be honest with you. Unfortunately most web design companies out there take advantage of people that don’t know much about the web which can lead to some horrifying experiences. Many website design companies when talking with perspective clients use what we call “bullying tactics” and lots of internet “buzz words” to confuse the client and trick them into buying a website that is not right for their company. It is because of these website design companies that all website design companies have a negative connotation.

In hopes that we can help people avoid a horrible experience with a website design company, the staff at WebDuck Designs has put together a list of some of the most common issues businesses have when dealing with a website company and some of the horrifying website stories we have heard over the years.

As you may know WebDuck Designs is a website design company that specializes in Search Engine Optimization, which many companies claim to do. Unfortunately not all of these web design companies really know how to search engine optimize a website like WebDuck Designs does. We have received countless phone calls and e-mails from people who have paid for a SEO website and don’t understand why their website is not getting a lot of traffic or even showing up in the search engines. After analyzing these so called SEO websites most of the time we can quickly conclude they are actually far from search engine optimized.

One client of WebDuck Designs paid another web design company to build a search engine optimized website for their loan company. After analyzing his website we found some pretty interesting things that showed the other web company’s carelessness and lack of SEO skills including finding the alternate text on an image on their loan website said “dental implants”. Another client called asking if their website which was built by another website design company was SEO and after reviewing it we noticed that no images had alternate text, there was no content on their website and much more, needless to say it was definitely not search engine optimized. We would love to say that these are isolated incidences, but unfortunately many of the so called SEO websites we see are built by different web design companies with the same carelessness and lack of SEO knowledge.

For those that are not familiar with search engine optimization it is hard to determine if your site is SEO, but reviewing your site’s analytics can help you see how your website is doing. While it does take time for a new website to rank to its fullest potential if your website is supposed to be search engine optimized you should see at least some results after 6 months. If after reviewing your site statistics you are still not sure if your website is search engine optimized Contact the SEO experts at WebDuck Designs.

Most companies rely on the search engines to get traffic and business to their website, which is why when dealing with new clients WebDuck Designs always asks if that is important to their company. If a web design company doesn’t ask and the client doesn’t tell them that search engine traffic is vital to their site than the web design company is not going to build a SEO website. One year passes and the business asks the web design company why they are not getting any business from their website and the web company says “I didn’t know you wanted a SEO website. We can build you a new website that is SEO or make changes to your website to make it SEO for more money”. This situation happens very often because most businesses in need of a website don’t know about SEO and usually think all websites will show up in search engines. This is why WebDuck Designs takes the time to ask and explain SEO to all clients when planning new websites. But unfortunately not all web design companies work like WebDuck Designs and just leave the questions and planning up to clients which can lead to a horrible website.

One important thing to keep in mind when shopping for a website is that cheaper is usually not better. We have come across many businesses that have paid another web design company very little for their website and come to us wanting to know why it doesn’t work properly and doesn’t show up in search engines. 9 times out of 10 these inexpensive websites are not built properly and are not SEO at all, so essentially they got what they paid for. In these instances it is very hard if not impossible to work on their existing website and they usually have to pay for a whole new website. Visit our page on “why some web design companies are cheaper” to learn more about cheap websites.

We have established that cheaper websites usually mean poor quality; but expensive websites don’t always mean better websites. WebDuck Designs has talked with a few people that have spent lots of money to have another web design company develop a website that has issues because it was not planned or built properly and is not search engine optimized. One company we spoke with paid $5000 per year to Yellow Book for a simple website that is not customized for their company and is not search engine optimized. The same website if built by WebDuck Designs would be search engine optimized and only cost a onetime fee of about $3500. So as you can see expensive websites do not always mean better websites.

If you work with a web design company that didn’t give you a perfect website the first time, would you go back to the same company again for more work? Sounds like a no brainer. If they didn’t do it right the first time than how are they going to do the second time around. Unfortunately WebDuck Designs has worked with businesses that choose to go back to their initial web design company because they try and fix their existing website for less money than it would cost to get a new site. And in every case the business has had to spend more money to fix their website and has still not received the results they want causing them to have to buy a new website anyways.

When WebDuck Designs comes across new clients we spend lots of time with the client to discuss their needs and if they already have a website, any issues they may have with the current site. Our extensive process with new clients allows us to properly plan and develop a custom website that fits each businesses individual needs. Unfortunately many other web design companies do not take the time necessary to understand a client’s needs which can lead to a dysfunctional website and an unhappy client.

The best way for a business to avoid a horrible experience with a web design company is to try and gain some knowledge about websites by reading up and asking web companies questions. Asking a web design company as many questions as possible before getting into a contract allows you to get a good feel for the companies knowledge, experience and customer service skills and hopefully avoid being taken advantage of and getting a horrible website.