If you've arrived here knee deep in a decision making process with a limited understanding of Internet information technology there may not be an awareness of important questions to ask IT project management and development personnel before hiring them. Range of skills, technologies, costs, or level of post-development commitment can vary tremendously from one consultant or company to another. If you landed here from query results this topic begins with a brief introduction to IT project management you may want to read.
An Internet solutions developer selection process will be an extremely important aspect of establishing an online business presence. It will also be a very daunting task if not technically inclined. You're likely to be confronted by so many information technology terms and acronyms that are difficult to understand or put in context. Learning new technology skills, if not an enjoyable way to spend your day, can distract you from core activities of your business.
Discussions with a potential Internet solutions developer should include eight essential topics. I touch on them individually separately but I will also summarize it here without repeating what I've said in my full length discussions.
It might be a good idea to grab a notepad to write down these following eight headings. Design, development, hosting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, Internet marketing, copywriting, as well as domain name registration. Leave some space between each heading for list item pointers as you pick up tips here or in accompanying full topic discussions. Understanding these primary aspects of establishing an online business presence provides confidence when facing an IT project management company or developer. We won't be able to pull wool down over your eyes if you have a good foundation of understanding. If you're a good judge of character, and know which questions to ask, gauging their response will give insight enough to know if they are being open as well as honest about their capabilities.
All too often these days people think if information can be plugged into pre-designed templates it qualifies them as a designer or developer. On the surface, a presentation may indeed be visually appealing. But from an optimization point of view it may be totally non-functional. Effective Internet solutions are not simply a matter of being able to create visually appealing presentations. When meeting with a potential Internet solutions developer, first topics of conversation should not be about layout, images, or colours. Certainly we want something nice to look at but functionality is more important. A project based solely on visual appeal will be buried in obscurity. My project management philosophy is covered in the following paragraphs. The core of my philosophy is covered in my design strategies and decision analysis discussion.
Developing techniques may often be referred to as coding or programming. It involves applying hyper text markup language (html) elements to copywriting content to enable it to be presented in a browser. Advanced interactive domains also require server-side programming. It is when a page is assembled dynamically on a server to be presented to a viewer based user input. There are various developing environments available for a programmer to choose from. Typically you're going to have two choices; Windows or Linux. You should be aware of their differences as presented in my developer decision analysis discussion. I have experience with both but much prefer Linux's stream of technology.
There are three primary options when trying to decide on hosting packages. They are shared, VPS, or dedicated hosting. Most popular but least desirable of choices is a shared hosting plan. Those plans typically involve hundreds or thousands of sites sharing server resources. Shared hosting isn't a totally bad option if there are fewer than a dozen sites per IP address sharing server resources but that is unlikely in most cases. My recommendation would be to check portfolios of your potential choices to analyze them with a domain analysis research tool to determine how many domains are sharing server resources. There are no doubt many instances when clients choose their own hosting services beyond control of a developer. In these instances I would say; has this person done enough to help a client understand consequences of a potentially unreliable hosting provider? My hosting solutions analysis provides more detail to help sort through options that will be encountered.
SEO services are promotion strategies that may sometimes leave small business owners wide open to exploitation. Many developers know very little concerning what constitutes good practices to successfully apply SEO principles to IT project management from the very beginning. As a result there are companies who have evolved a separate industry out of manipulating an existing online presence. Sometimes it is accomplished using unethical practices. Many charge outrageous prices.
I was shocked when I saw prices being charged, and I'm not easily shocked. Does anyone actually pay that ridiculous amount of money for that type of service? In some cases I can create a whole optimized site for what they charge for only a consultation to provide suggestions of how to fix an existing one. Buyer beware when considering SEO services! If you think there is a need for it then consider having a redesign instead. Find someone who truly understands SEO fundamentals and incorporates it into their work.
Be weary if a conversation turns to external influences such as submitting a domain to “hundreds of directories”. Another topic of conversation may be about link building. How much extra are they going to charge for this? Fundamental IT project management processes begin with effective information architecture. I would highly recommend to download an unbiased SEO report from honestseo.com. Or continue on to read my SEO decision analysis discussion.
If a designer brings up a topic of search engine marketing, run for a nearest exit! In my opinion it is an absolute conflict of interest. Confident knowledgeable developers of SEO solutions know this is not necessary. SEM heaps a long term recurring cost onto a small business. Please also be aware that there are many online marketing affiliate programs that a potential designer may be an affiliate of. They would receive a new client referral payment. The only instance I can think of is that there are some hosting companies who provide free advertising credits to some major query portals when purchasing their services. Be aware that, typically, in order to use those credits an advertising account must be opened to make an initial deposit out of your pocket because you typically cannot use those free credits to establish that account. They always find a way to get us! If you do want to take advantage of a free advertising credit it isn't a bad thing to use during an initial three months after a domain goes live. While indexing is taking place there may be a benefit of some advertisement traffic. My SEM decision analysis provides more insight.
Internet marketing is an excellent source of small business advertising. Internet marketing refers to promoting your small business while using query results to accomplish it. This will only work is if you succeed in getting your business placed high in query results through non-paid methods. If your target audience is focused on a local level it isn't hard to accomplish high placement as long as you're not in an extremely competitive field. Even then, if companies you're sharing a market with have not leveraged and maximized the Internet as a marketing tool then an advantage can be gained over them. When discussing Internet marketing with a potential designer ask them to demonstrate what success they have had with gaining high client placement in search engine results. They should be eager to share their success stories with you. But be sure they aren't just “stories”. The key here is to get them to show page source code to point out targeted keywords. Then, perform actual queries to see where those companies place in results using those terms. My Internet marketing solutions discussion provides more detail.
Are you aware of a wealth of open source applications available for small business owners? There is a treasure trove list of free project management software at SourceForge. Another good choice is free open source project management and scheduling software at Workbench.
When it comes to content copywriting be sure to clarify who is going to be responsible to write it. A very important consideration here is that content cannot be copied from elsewhere. Beyond obvious copyright infringement there is another aspect of this practice you'll need to be aware of. Copyright infringement is very easily detected these days. Major search portals as well as companies such as Copyscape have good checks in place to route it out. A site having a more recent version of it may be penalized by placing low in search results. Worst yet, it may be at risk of being banned outright from search portal indexes. If you haven't provided original content yourself then make sure whoever has written it hasn't simply copied it from somewhere else. To learn more about it please proceed to my professional SEO copywriting decision analysis discussion.
You need to ask who is going to be responsible for registering your domain name. If a third party has agreed to do this on your behalf they will need personal or business information for registration documentation. It is very important to be sure a domain name is registered with your information or else they may become the rightful owner of your domain name. To understand potential consequences of this read my full domain name registration decision analysis discussion.
A reputable developer should realistically provide regular production phase follow up support. They should be keeping you informed of search portal progress for at least six months after a domain goes live. Six months is not an unrealistic expectation. It will typically take a new online presence three months to begin showing up in index databases.
Afterwards it will take an additional three months, but preferably six months, of traffic monitoring to determine if original content needs to be tweaked to achieve optimal performance. This is accomplished using analytics software. This level of commitment is important to ensure a successful online venture.
Forsaking standards is a time saving practice if there is pressure to get something up and running in as little time as possible. It will not be apparent on the surface because most modern browsers have built in programming to handle non-compliant source code to ensure that a page will render. In my opinion there is no question that search engine algorithms take this into consideration when rating a domain.
Someone who tells you otherwise is either uninformed or being less than truthful about the importance of it. A simple very test is to verify pages through the W3C Markup Valadation Service. For a demonstration just follow the link at the very bottom of this page named valid XHTML 1.1. If a developer's own site test returns full of errors, how much less effort is likely to put into ensuring yours is standards compliant? Decision analysis tools can help to put it all into perspective.
Surface appearance of any page is only a small fraction of importance compared to what is actually happening underneath. Comparing it to an iceberg is a good analogy. For a thirty percent portion that is seen there is seventy percent more beneath the surface, as well as behind the scenes on a server, affecting its performance and outcome.
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