Full Transcript
[0:00]
Welcome to the 805 Web Minute. And today we're talking about how asking five simple questions before you hire a web designer can save your business thousands of dollars and months of headaches right here in SLO County. That's right. This is really a shortcut to getting your biggest digital asset right the first time. We're sharing the crucial questions that separate a good investment from a disastrous one. OK, let's unpack this because the stakes here are shockingly high, especially when we talk about first impressions. I mean, our sources reveal that that window of judgment is it's closing faster than ever. It really is. We tend to think of a website as this long interaction, but your potential customers, they make a definitive judgment about your business in about 50 milliseconds. 50 milliseconds. Yeah, that is literally faster than a human can blink their eye. If your site doesn't look professional and secure in modern instantly, you are lost. Wow, faster than a blink. So if we only have that tiny bit of time, what are people judging? Is it the logo, the colors? It's all of it. But the implication is huge. Think about it. If a local auto repair shop site looks like it was designed in, say, 2005, a potential customer subconsciously assumes their tools, their techniques, their whole operation is 15 years out of date. So that instant visual cue translates directly to credibility. Exactly. 75% of people judge a company's trustworthiness solely based on their website design. 75% that's huge. It is. And if you get it wrong, if the site is dated or slow or hard to use, you pay a penalty that lasts forever. 88% of those users will not come back. You've lost that customer for good. And for a local business, say a winery up in Pesaro Blase, that's not just a statistic. No, absolutely not. For them, and the 88% traffic loss on a bad day means they just lost several critical tasting room bookings. That's hundreds of dollars in revenue gone. Just gone. Yeah. Understanding those consequences really brings us to the core issue, doesn't it?
[2:01]
It's the danger of not asking the right questions before you sign that contract. So let's start there. The first must ask question is, what happens after the website goes live? This is so critical because the initial build is just the start. A website is a living thing. You will need updates. Your business hours change, you add a new service, you want to swap out photos, you have to know when those things come up, who is handling them and how quickly? And this is where the typical design models really fail the small business owner, right? Like if you hire a freelancer, they often just disappear once the project is paid for, they move on. They do. And if your site breaks or you need a small change, suddenly your little project is at the bottom of their list, you're stuck. You can't get a call back for weeks. Okay. The agency model, which seems more stable, but it has its own problems. It presents a different but an equally painful problem. Agency's often charged these really high hourly rates for every small change. And I mean every single modification. Wait, I saw on our notes, you said updating a simple phone number could run $150. How is that even possible? They hide behind jargon. They say they have to open a new project scoop. For someone who runs a coffee shop, that's just, it's corporate nonsense. It basically means that even a five minute change is treated like a brand new billable project. That is just turning a simple task into a huge expensive process. So what should we be listening for when we ask about that post launched support? You have to demand clarity, a clear maintenance plan. First, ask about response time for simple edits. Is it 24 hours? Is it a week? And most importantly, our security updates included. Or does every little fix mean a new bill? If they're vague or just say, oh, we charge $120 an hour for updates, you know every small change is going to be a headache. Get it in writing. So to sum up that first question, you have to know who's doing the work for the long haul. But the ultimate hidden cost can happen when you realize you don't even own the keys to your own site, which leads us right into this, this terrifying legal trap.
[4:04]
Question two, who owns the website and domain? This is a high stakes legal question that far too many people just overlook. You paid for the site, but do you actually own the code, the design, and the content? That sounds like it should be obvious, but you're saying a lot of contracts are written so that you don't. They absolutely are. Many standard agency contracts legally give the designer ownership of the custom code, the site's architecture, even the text and images they might have created for you. Wow. So if you decide to leave that designer later, they can legally stop you from using those assets. You paid for it, but you don't control it. And then there's the even scarier part of this, the domain trap, your actual web address. Yes. If the designer registers your domain, like your local bakery.com, in their name instead of yours, they legally control it. I saw a case right here in Paso, where an IT guy held a popular winery's domain hostage for three months over a tiny billing dispute, three months of zero online revenue, because he controlled the digital keys. That should terrify any business owner. It speaks volumes about the level of trust you have to demand. So what's the clear answer we need to hear? The designer must state very clearly that you own everything, the content, the design, and critically the domain. The domain has to be registered in your business's name with you as the registrant. If they're vague or offered to do it for you for convenience, walk away immediately. Okay, so we've covered the legal foundation, the financial side of things. Now let's talk about how the site actually performs. This brings us to question three, which is so important for local traffic. Will the site work well on phones? For local businesses, mobile isn't just an option. It's Bitsnik. It's the main pipeline for new customers. Today, over 61% of all website traffic is coming from mobile devices. If you're a restaurant or a boutique right here in AG, most people are finding you on their phone searching for, you know, best lunch near me. And working well is so much more than just having the page show up and has to be instant,
[6:06]
readable without zooming. The button has to be easy to tap. Right. And your phone number needs to be clickable. That usability is everything because Google now prioritizes sites that are fast and functional on mobile. They call it mobile first indexing. If your site fails that test, Google will literally push you down in the search results. You won't even show up. That's a direct hit to your business. And if the site is slow or clunky once they do find you. Mobile users are five times more likely to just abandon the task if the site isn't optimized for their phone. So if your site lags, they've already gone to your competitor down the street before your menu even loads. So the immediate test for any potential partner is pretty simple then. It is. Ask them to show you examples of their work, but look at it on your own phone, not on their big deathtop monitor. Test the speed. Test the usability yourself. If they hesitate, that tells you everything you need to know. Okay, let's connect to that performance too. Well, the speed of getting it done in the first place. Question four is about lost opportunity. How long will this project actually take? Time is money. Every single day your current site is underperforming or you don't have one. You're losing customers. If you work with a traditional agency, the timeline we see is it's anywhere from two to six months. Two to six months. Why does it take so long? It's often the process. There are so many meetings, revision cycles. But the biggest bottleneck for small businesses is usually content. The designer finishes the layout and then the business owner spends three weeks trying to write the about us page. That back and forth just drains all the momentum from the project. So it's not always the designer's fault, but a good partner should help manage that, right? Absolutely. A professional should be able to deliver a simple five page site in days or weeks, not months. Freelancers can sometimes be quicker, but they also get pulled on to other emergency projects, which can leave your site just sitting there for weeks. So what's a clear metric for accountability? A specific timeline. With concrete milestones, you want a first draft date and a guaranteed launch date in writing.
[8:09]
Vade timelines like, oh, when we feel it's ready, just mean vague accountability. And that always leads to delays. Finally, let's talk about the dark side of the web. The inevitability of failure. This is question five. What happens if things go wrong? Because things will go wrong. It's not an if it's a when websites break software updates, crash the site, hosting goes down. Security issues are a constant threat. If your site goes dark at 10 p.m. on a Friday, who do you call and how fast will they actually answer? And the hidden financial costs here can be massive if you're not prepared. Well, they are website maintenance. If you pay for it separately, can cost anywhere from say 35 to $500 a month. And that's just to cover the basics, hosting security. It's on top of the thousands you already paid for the bill. And the worst case scenario is what you mentioned before. The freelancer has gone, the site is broken, and business owner has no idea what to do. Exactly. They're forced to pay a new developer to just reverse engineer the last person's work, which is often more expensive than starting over from scratch. You lose time, money, credibility, all of it. So what's the concrete answer we need to hear for question five? Ask specifically about their disaster plan. Who handles security patches? Where are backup stored? How often? Who handles hosting? You want to hear about a proactive process, not a reactive one. If they say, don't worry, we'll figure it out when it happens. Well, that's not a plan. That's a promise of a future headache. That's a quick tip for today. If you want a professional website without the agency price tag or the DIY headache, here is the better way. And you grow.pro, we build it, we manage it, and we handle every update forever for just $79 a month. There is zero setup fee, no contract lock-in, and it is strictly month to month, so there is zero risk. We're local here in AG, and we can have you live in days, not months. Want to see what your site could look like? Go to yougrow.pro right now, and we'll design three custom mock-ups for your business, completely free, no strings attached. Thanks for listening, and keep growing.