Website Maintenance Without Tears

There is a famous play called "French Without Tears," based on a really old joke which I guess wouldn't be funny to any of us nowadays. I thought of the phrase, though, when I saw an ad last night for "web design without the torture."

Just as was once the case for "French Without Tears," I think most of us get the joke of "web design without the torture" immediately.

I was trying to explain this recently to the web designer I usually work with, Shan Pesaru of Sharp Hue, Inc. We were talking about web maintenance. Shan probably doesn't like the way I occasionally say disparaging things about webmasters, designers, web hosts, and others of that ilk.

"There's usually a reason for delays in web maintenance," he says austerely, doubtless thinking that I am an anti-tech guy bigot of some kind. After all, nearly all of his clients have the same webmaster: him. My clients have all kinds of different people looking after their websites.

"I don't think you understand," I said. "You never have to try to get someone to make changes at a website."

He stared at me uncomprehendingly.

"See, for most businesspeople, all contact with their webmasters is frustrating and difficult. For example, one of the first things I do with most clients is help them get their Google Analytics installed. This rarely takes less than a month."

More uncomprehending staring ensued.

In case you don't know what's involved in installing Google Analytics, I'll tell you. I email a snippet of code to the webmaster. The webmaster copies it, finds the place on the page of html where it says "body", and copies the snippet into that spot.

Yes, this normally takes a month.

Shan and I recently solved a problem for a client. Here's the timetable:

• Thursday: Client and I brainstorm about the problem and come up with a solution. I email Shan to ask him to save some time on his calendar for the client's little problem. Client gets to work on the data.


• Saturday evening: Client emails data to us.


• Sunday evening: Shan asks for a content fix to work with the new update. I write it and send it over.


• Monday morning: the website is fixed. Cost over the initial price of creating the website: nothing.

I'm not telling you this to brag. I'm telling you this because, if your experience is like that of many businesspeople, you had no idea that was normal. It is.

To put it bluntly, the industry standard for service in the web industry overall is terrible. Why?

• Many of the people doing this work are incompetent. If you were to do an internet search for advice to people starting up web design businesses, SEO businesses, and the like, you'd be amazed to see that many of them suggest going ahead and getting started with however little skill you have developed by playing around with open source software in your free time, and counting on improving as you go along. If you read the things written by people offering their services as web content writers, you'd be amazed at how few of them can write comprehensible paragraphs. The simple fact is that anyone at all can set up shop as a webhost, SEO, or designer. If you don't know much about this type of work, then you are at the mercy of whoever you choose.
• Many of the people doing this work are overworked. There is a lot of demand for work of this kind. There is also a fairly high level of crisis response in this industry. The stereotype of information workers toiling far into the night is based on reality. For a variety of reasons, your webmaster is likely to be very busy. If there are new projects backed up and perhaps a tech crisis or two going on, then your routine work may get put on the back burner and stay there.

What's the solution?

• Choose wisely to begin with. Before you pick a firm to do your web design or hosting, look at their portfolio. Ask about their training. Check their search rankings. Get someone who can read html to look at their code for you and make sure it's up to date. Ask for references. Make sure you understand what they plan to do for you; if they can't make themselves clear in their sales pitch, then they aren't going to be able to communicate well with you about problems or changes.


• Don't accept poor service. It's nice to stick with one firm, but if they aren't responsive to your needs, then it's not hard to change to another. Sometimes businesspeople stick with what they have just because it's so hard that they figure changing to another firm will be even more difficult. However, as long as consumers accept this sort of treatment, it will continue.


• Be as professional as you expect your web people to be. When you need changes, make every effort to get what you want done clear in your own mind, so your web professionals can do what you want done. Ask upfront what the charge will be, so you won't be shocked by the bill when it arrives. If you can't tell whether what you're asking for is a large job or a small one, ask how long it should take and when it will be finished. If your people are fully booked for months out into the future and you don't want to wait, let them know that you'd love to have them do the job but you don't have enough lead time and ask if they'll refer you to someone else. If you plan to stick with them in the future, say so and find out how far out they need advance notice of maintenance work.

If all this reminds you a bit of the classic advice for dealing with doctors and mechanics, you're not far out. After all, your web professionals are supposed to have specialized knowledge you don't, and to use that knowledge to serve you. Without tears or torture.

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