WordPress for your website
A while back we wrote an article “Just Because it’s Expensive – Doesn’t make it Good”
I just want to clarify some things that our customers and future customers do not understand.
In recent months I have been involved with an existing customer wishing to make their website better than it was. I gave a quote for a content managed website using WordPress totaling my hourly rate to build and set up a better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) website that would include more functionality than they already had and increase traffic to their website. Since WordPress is an Open Source software I do not feel right charging what some companies charge for a custom Content Managed Website when they are using templates they purchased at a low price to reach a high profit.
Without my knowledge my customer went to a less expensive web designer that changed the DNS (Domain Name Servers) on the website that re-directed it to another host rendering it unavailable to the internet costing them their internet rank to go down as it was not being acknowledged by any search engines.
My client then fired that person to go to someone else that doubled the quote I gave them to begin with. Results: Website is still down and stuck in limbo because the person they first hired was new in the business and didn’t know what they were doing when they transferred the DNS to a new host.
I recently was contacted by a company that paid a high dollar amount for a WordPress site that they thought was custom built to their needs. The result: The web designer paid less than $30.00 dollars for a WordPress template and added some free plugins to the website to increase functionality.
This company thought they were getting a website compatible across all platforms only to find out it didn’t work with certain browsers. They contacted their web designer and have yet to hear back from them. They called me for damage control on their existing website. When using an Open Source product such as WordPress I strictly charge by the hour and not for the technology since I did not create it.
WordPress is a great tool that many fortune 500 companies use. I highly recommend using WordPress as it is very easy to use and highly customizable to suit your needs. It takes some set up on the back end that people not in the business do not understand.
My problem is the lower end web designers that use WordPress to take advantage of customers as a Content Management solution when there are many web designers out there that will be up front with the service they are providing and not claim templates as their own creation.
If you are thinking about having a website built DO NOT go to your lowest bidder. It may end up costing you more in the long run to get it running the way you want it.
Make sure your web designer knows how to update your server to the latest versions of software available. If they have never transferred a website or MYSQL database to another server, move on.
As I have said, this is a content manage system. Your web designer should take the time to show you how to manage it so you are self sufficient.
Their are plenty of WordPress templates to choose from that may fit your companies needs and work across all browsers. Your web designer should be able to do this research and present it to you so you know exactly what you are getting.
As you can tell I’m A LOT disappointed in these new web design companies that claim these templates as their own.
