Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on January 20, 2009

This advice holds true pretty much universally, but when selecting a web developer the choice you make can impact your business for literally years to come.  Think about the number of interviews that you would put a new salesperson through.  Then consider the fact that your website is the only salesperson you have that works 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  The care you put into the people responsible for it should be vetted as carefully as anyone that you are considering to represent your company.

What criteria should you use?  Well, the same criteria you would use when interviewing a person.  Let’s look at some factors you should consider:

• Do they have references?  By this, we do NOT necessarily mean links on their site to their projects.  Do they have clients that would pick up a phone and tell you how they feel about the services they receive?
• Do they have experience?  Remember that in today’s world, distance is not nearly the factor that it used to be.  You could be working with a vendor on the other side of the country and get better service than someone else down the street.  The amount of time the company you choose to deal with has been in business matters because it will show that they have been able to grow and evolve just as the industry has.
• Do they understand your business?  There are great web design firms out there.  But if you are dealing with a company that does not understand what you do, then you run the risk of having your picture cut to fit their frame.  Make sure that your partner is working to make your website successful and not just ‘cool’.
• Are they more than a web developer?  You are hiring a team of professionals, which means that they should be able to bring more to the table when it comes to marketing your business.  Find out what other services the company offers before you decide.  Why send yourself in 5 different directions when you can find one company to handle your online needs.

The list could be much longer, but what we are trying to let you know is that hiring a web developer is not the same as hiring a plumber or a water delivery service.  Your website is not a commodity, it is the one place that anyone at any time can find out who you are.  Your website is the first impression you make.  Find a web developer who understands what a serious responsibility that is.  Of course our recommendation, sightly biased of course would be to choose Industrial Web Solutions, Inc. (www.industrialwebsolutions.com) as your web developer.  But that’s just us…

And since we practice what we preach (regarding looking for ways to market your business) we are working on a new way to help you get noticed on the web.  Scheduled for a launch in April of 2009, our Web 2.0 Search Engine for Industrial Manufacturers (www.industrialwebsearch.com) will be the only .tel based Industrial Search Engine on the web.  We look forward to seeing you.

Categories: industrial marketing
Tags: marketing, web developers, web development