Getting to Know Your Website

It’s amazing what you can nut out on your own when there’s no one to ask for help. I’m feeling quite proud of what I’ve achieved sans assistance, since ‘leaving the nest’ that was my (SNOBS) website development phase.

See I was very, very lucky to find a web developer who truly made me feel like a business partner – not just a client. Hi Mat Packer! When site construction first began Mat was working the same full-time job he has today but in a different role, so advice and quick fixes were on-tap most of the time.

Not only that. He is one of those rare (I think) service providers who are not just providing a service; they’re genuinely, enthusiastically interested in their job – and yours. And, er, now that I’ve given Mat a huge wrap I have to sadly report that his full-time work role has changed (and so has his role at home, since he’s recently become a dad!); therefore making him currently unavailable for full-scale hire. Sorry folks. But it’s worked out well for me…

The positive outcome is the deeper and more meaningful relationship I’ve developed with my website. Minus my IT department [Mat] I’ve been forced to search online forums for answers and take confident leaps in my ability to edit code without ‘breaking the homepage’.

I’ve also realised I owe Mat an apology (sorry Mat) for 40% of the questions I asked borne out of pure laziness, impatience and maybe a little novice fear (again, with concern of breaking something). It’s truly ridiculous how easy some of my “urgent queries” were to fix, now that I’ve worked out how to do them myself. Which brings me to…

The moral of this story:

Like I said earlier, I think genuine, honest service providers are rare. The reason I’ve spent half a column praising Mat Packer Media is because my questions – or should I say the answers – did not have a price tag attached.

When you first enter the realm of online business, the actual “online” bit is really daunting. Hands up how many of you have a business website (or a blog for business) because your area of professional expertise is web-based?
Now hands up if your profession is entirely unrelated to the Internet – besides it being the place you market your business, find new customers and help service the existing ones? I thought so.

I’m sure there are other Mat Packers out there but, if you don’t have one, I want to urge you to be… aware of the little fixes, tweaks and content changes your web developer is charging you for.

I know the last thing business owners have is ’spare time’ but my advice is that it’s really worthwhile doing a little investigating yourself before giving your developer/s a to-do list and accepting whatever price they reckon it’s gonna cost as gospel. People get stung like this all the time because “a little change here, and a small update there” are not things you can easily phone around for comparison quotes on.

Here’s my tip:

Whether you have a web developer, or you’re shopping for one, give them a list of the site changes you require and ask them to respond with some brief detail for each task. I’ll use a recent site change I made to SNOBS for example, and give answers to the three questions that I would personally ask.

TASK: Update SNOBS copyright notice, at the bottom of every page, from 2009 to 2010.

Q: Roughly what’s required to make it happen?
A: In the site’s back section [I don't know what the technical term is] I click on > Appearance > Edit Themes > footer.php in the sidebar under Templates. Then scroll through the html to find Copyright © 2009 SNOBS. Change 09 to 10 and click ‘update file’.

Q: Approximately how long will that take?
A: About 10 seconds.

Q: Is this a simple update that’s the same problem-free fix every time, or do you need to research and test some options on the site?
A: I’m literally just typing ‘10′ where it says ‘09′.

I won’t go on because I’ve just realised that was a rubbish example and my “demonstration” is starting to sound like a joke. But the benefit of asking for detail is it helps you determine what you might be able to tackle yourself in the future. Plus, getting them to name the sections of your site they need to access helps you better understand what’s going on ‘back there’. It can also help you search for an online tutorial, which will give you a much better idea of the task’s complexity, if your developer is being a little vague about it.

I’m definitely still far, far, far from being a web master but I’m a much better web manager than I was circa © 2009. And although I don’t know the answer to most questions (ha-ha) I would love to help if I can. Maybe we could even help each other. Awww.

Drop a question in the comment box if you need some help or advice. If it turns out we can help each other, I’ll start working on a new section of the site to better manage (and search) our community tech queries and replies.

[Advice on small business and website management, from myself and the SNOBSpecialists, is what you'll find in our monthly newsletter for subscribers. And there are other benefits, too! Learn more about becoming a SNOB here].