A cold and objective analysis of pages that do not reach their pretensions
I cannot tell if this is something in my head that always cares about people or whether it was from my professional education such a perception, but I used to absorb guilt or negative feelings when a site or work for a client did not avenge.
I was always wondering why this happened, where I went wrong and what I did wrong so that such a project would not go forward, did not get the number of visits I wanted, or could not get good search placement through the search tools.
And I began to understand that part of the problem could even be mine. But in most cases, it is not. It is not. It should not and cannot be just mine or credited to me.
I think there are at least four (4) steps that are ignored when a budget request arrives. Analyze with me:
01 – The Customer is Already Coming
By sheer lack of guidance or knowledge, many clients come to us with their “company” already created.
The person has a name for his enterprise that in no way matches or portrays its primary object. It is common to have some things like this in our email box:
“Hello! I have a company called ABC & XYZ. We offer products aimed at the agricultural market. We are starting now and want a website to advertise our products. We want good placement on Google, but do not worry about updating. When we need it, we will contact you to add one or two new products! So make a good price!”
Then we go and talk from here and talk from there, and expose the client (or at least should) two essential things to try to give success to the site. Are they:
The name of your company DOES NOT PORTRAIT WHAT YOU MARKET;
Positioning on Google is directly tied to the site update;
And then, the client thrusts the stake in his heart by saying, “But I already have the domain purchased, and I will not change”! Well, it’s time to clarify that it will be tough to do what he wants with his site.
To you: If you DO NOT make this clear to your customer and want to see only the color of the hundred notes coming into your account, 60% of the problem on the site is your fault. The other 40% are from the customer.
02 – Updating the Website for ABC & XYZ from the vision of the Customer
You then explain everything to your client and make an excellent website. It made it clear that the deal will not roll without upgrades and that this will not be your responsibility.
And the site does not avenge. It does not have a good placement because you did what you should have done: programmed it correctly, following the standards that Google requests, and have excellent and well-written texts on the site (which is rare to see today), but it is not updated already for more than six months.
And your client comes with a dazzling idea (because we did not think about it before!) Of “we want to put more MOVEMENT on the site. Add a rotating banner on it there! The homepage is very still. It’s not flashy! We need to upgrade it!”
And then we’ll talk to him about updating the page again. We can put banners, pop-ups, gear, anything on the homepage. No problem at all. But this may surprise the user rather than promote such a “call” to the site.
Investing in the upgrade is investing in your business, and the web upgrade is meant for consistency, seriousness, and concern for your user/visitor.
What could we do to update the site? Or, we could get news from the client that refers to their achievements, new customers, or information on the market and publish such content.
This is movement on the site. It is you who make it more and more attractive to search engines so that your user finds quality content on their site and, even more, what they are looking for!
For you: if, instead of explaining this to the client, you insert a banner on the site, 80% of the problem is yours; 20% of the customer.
03 – Lack of Planning + Unsupported Issues
So, your client is already Pissed off with the site that does not go forward and has the genial idea of: “Let’s build a virtual store”!
What you will sell, I already know, dear customer! But how? For whom? What is your target audience, age group, education, salary range, and location; Do you have physical and virtual stock because there must be a separation between both, among other issues that we should raise?
These are questions that many people are not accustomed to doing but should have as a mantra!
And again, just like the site, the customer store will not avenge.
For you: if you do not do this questioning and only aim to WIN YOURSELF, the problem is 70% yours and 30% of your customer!
04 – Not Accepting Suggestions by the Customer
One of the worst things the customer can do with us, web professionals, is closed-minded and inflexible.
You offer a range of solutions, many of which directly affect the “planning” that he DID NOT, and with the idea fixed in the head, “sends” you to execute what you are paying to be done.
There was an episode with me where a 64-year-old man hired me to reshape his site. The customer claimed that the site did not return. It was old and outdated and sent me a NEW LAYOUT for the site.
Imagine you have a layout for the vintage site. And no, it is not in the artistic sense of the word. I saw no difference between the already published and the new proposal.
I talked to the citizen about the inconsistencies in the layout he sent, and I explored why we did not leave on that side and sent a new proposal for the structure of the site; I used “all my knowledge” that I think is not so shallow, and I chose to improve the usability, navigability, aesthetics, and movement of the page. I used an F-layout to guide the user on what was more important to access and be aware of.
Surprisingly, the customer returned, saying, “I did not like it. Use what I told you to do.”
And there I was, in an exchange of emails where I always argued what I offered to him, trying not to contradict him but to deliver something that gave the return that he wanted. Finally, I received an email something like this:
“You know who you’re talking to? I am 64 years old, a professional ahead of my time, and …”.
Well, he questioned my professional background and called me a kid, among other things. And we stopped the service because I would not put my name on a project that was already doomed to death before its birth.
For you: If you do not argue with your client, exposing the defects and offering solutions, the blame for the non-success of the site is 100% yours.
MY CONCLUSIONS
I understand that when working with people and fiddling with their dreams and desires, hearing opposing positions is almost like roulette to close the job.
Telling the customer that choosing the name of his company was not the best thing he did, and suggesting changes, sounds almost disrespectful.
However, I also understand that by saying “amen” and hoping all is right, the business will return, and the client will certainly (and even rightly) blame you.
I am not here saying that “everything that falls into my hand becomes gold.” Quite the contrary, I have several sites produced that still fight to take their place in the sun. In compensation, I have a few others who, due to the customer relationship and mutual trust, the results came much faster!
And the most interesting about the best-positioned sites that we have here in the office are precisely the ones that are constantly updated, be they by the client himself or by us.
As I usually tell my clients, it’s a two-way street. I do my part, but if the client neglects part of it, not even the most beautiful and functional website ever produced will find its place in the sun.
