Website Buyers Guide
There are many caveats and pitfalls with websites that people need to be aware of. Having been in IT for over eight years, here are a five main things to watch out for that I have found.
Used Terms
Domain: is the name for the site you type into the address bar, such as http://thewebsiteguy.com.au. These are leased for between one and five years, and the .au domains are regulated so that only elegable people can register one.
Website: can refer to the completed product as a whole, or the files for the site that can be hosted on a server.
Hosting: the website needs to be put on a server somewhere so that people can access it. The domain is configured with some hidden information in it to tell your computer which server to talk to, so you can see the site.
1. Ownership
This is probably the most important. When you buy a website off a company you would expect that since you bought it, you own it, but think again. You probably got no written agreement regarding this, and by law a contractor who does any work, automatically owns the IP for it.
I know of a Queensland company “A” who was recently caught out with this (not a direct business contact). This certain company purchased a website off web company “B”, and changed over to a new host. When they did some changes, the old web host “B” threatened legal action for removing the old company’s details and cited that they owned the IP for the site since they made it. Company “A” promptly got a redesign of the site done, just so they could make certain changes to their own website.
Always make sure you own the design and can have very clearly what you can and can’t change on it. e.g. You may have an agreement to link to the web company etc.
2. Technology
There are many languages and methods of making a website, and even though the end result looks the same, if you ever need to change hosting companies (there are a large variety of reasons this may happen), can you do it? Open source languages such as PHP, and MySQL can run on any server, but commercial languages such ASP and .Net only run on Windows servers, and hosting tends to be more expensive.
Further to this, some websites are completely proprietary and will not work outside of their hosting, and if you change, you will need to buy a completely new website.
3. Goodwill when moving on
If you need to change web hosts, will your company help you in the process? A particular client changed over to hosting with The Website Guy, and their old host refused to transfer the files for the old site, and refused to help point the domain (which they registered and controlled) to the new server.
It is very important to find out from your web company what happens if for what ever reason you want to change companies.
4. Site Design
Do you like the look of other sites the company has made? You shouldn’t feel afraid to ask for a mock up picture of what the site will look like before they start work, so that you will be happy with how it looks. Note also that the company may not want to do this without any money changing hands or a work order being signed, since it is a large enough amount of work to do without a guarantee of income.
Also don’t reject the idea that one company can design the site, and another can host it. Either of the two, especially the last, should be able to help with setting it up.
5. On Going Costs
This isn’t just the hosting, this is other things that come up too. If you want work done to your site, what is the hourly rate, and how accessable and friendly is the service? A normal rate should be around $80-$125 / hr. Under that you should question their skill, and over is a rip off. You should be able to contact them by phone and E-mail, and they should be willing to help with these things.