To start, let me say that this post does not include every web designer or web design company.
Background
I work with a lot of web design companies and I work as a consultant for many businesses. As a consultant I am often working with web design companies on an assortment of different things.
Unfortunately, in the past year I have seen many cases of “Web Design Blackmail”. I don’t know what else to call it. Perhaps you can give me a better phrase. When a client pays a web design company to design a web site it means, in my mind, that the client owns the web site and that they have rights to do whatever it is they want to do with the web site.
I have been brought on to help many businesses who are just not doing well on the search engines. The reasons are typically terrible optimization, which almost always includes keyword stuffing, meta tag stuffing and/or duplicate content.
Now let me clarify, when I say stuffing I SERIOUSLY mean STUFFING! A comparison…Imagine two 10 year old girls- one stuffs her bra with some plums and the other stuffs her bra with cantaloupes. My clients compare to the girl with cantaloupes in her bra….
Clients pay web design companies extra for SEO and SOME (not all) web designers believe that stuffing keywords everywhere is optimization. I can safely say that many web design companies do not know a lot about SEO. They charge $20,000 for an optimized web site and the client never shows up in the SERPs.
The Blackmail Part
Let me discuss one client and their situation (however, I have several in the same position).
I know that monthly fees for maintaining web sites and optimizing web sites is a good money maker. My clients were paying $450 a month for 3 hours of SEO and nothing was ever done. Nothing was updated, changed or fixed. The only page that showed up in the SERPs was the home page (for their business name only!). So, I am brought in and they want me to take over and maintain the site and revamp the current optimization strategy.
The web design company handles the hosting for the site and created a content management system that was suppose to give the client full access to EVERYTHING! Guess what? The only access they have is to update content and add pages, but not subpages. They can’t even create or alter page titles/title-tags. Some clients have access to very little which limits them and hurts their business.
I have dealt with this situation about 6 times this year. The same thing has happened every time, with 6 different web design companies. When my clients approach the web design company and say they need access to the areas I have listed the answer is “No”. They are told they don’t need access to those areas, that if they want optimization they need to pay the web design company to do it (because they know better of course, even though there are no pages in the SERPs!)…There are a variety of excuses, but the bottom line is “no”.
So, clients pay a bloody fortune for a web site that no one can find and when they try to fix the situation they can’t! The web design companies have the site and they want to be paid to maintain it…after all it is extra, guaranteed monthly income. I will say again, this is not every web design company. There are good ones out there. Clients should have full access to everything, and I mean everything! This is how it is suppose to be.
Web designers are not supposed to hold a web site hostage to make sure they make additional monthly income off of a client.
My Suggestions If You Are Planning on Obtaining a New Web Site
- Hire and SEO consultant and let them help you understand the areas you will need access to in the future.
- Ask your consultant to help you find a trustworthy web design company. They know what to look for more than you.
- Have the SEO consultant go with you when contracts are signed and MAKE SURE the contract says you will have access to the areas your consultant listed, always!!!
- Find out who made your friend’s or your work associate’s successful web site. Ask around and take notes.
My Opinion on Consultants
There are bad consultants, no doubt. However, there are many fantastic consultants. Do you know why? Consultants are not guaranteed a monthly income. They are hungry and the only way they are going to make money is to prove that they know their stuff. Consultants have to work their butts off to create a solid reputation and if that reputation is tarnished they essentially starve. Consultants work hard and continually educate themselves to survive. Sometimes, when an individual has a job and they feel secure they lose interest in consistenly educating themselves and in this business you have to!
In Conclusion…
Well, to be perfectly honest I don’t know what the heck is wrong with some of these companies. I will say this to companies that behave in this manner:
- If you do not do the job right you don’t deserve to be paid a monthly fee.
- Your clients have already invested a lot of money to have the web site and they have a right to do whatever it is that they want.
- If you lose a client and you don’t like it you need to educate yourself.
- You also have another option; work with an SEO consultant to optimize your clients’ sites the right way. You can make money that way as well.
So there is my blurb on the irritations of “Web Design Blackmail”- If you have a better name please tell me! 🙂