Webmentor Ireland

The short answer is that if you pay peanuts, you're going to get monkeys

Getting a web site is a lot like buying a used car. Paintwork looks good, but what's under the hood? Thorough testing is required. All 4 tyres stand up to a good kicking and I like the dewy eyed young one who's never had a day's trouble with it and can't wait to jump into this years model. I fork out my €250 knowing that at that price there won't be a warranty and hope to God the thing lives long enough not to embarrass me. Isn't that about the long and short of it?

Web sites range in price from FREE to €20000+. Your average customer inspects the paintwork, performs a thorough clicking of links and forks out the loot without further ado. Customers NEVER 'look under the hood' and you may as well face the fact - if you paid damn all for your web site, there's going to be damn all to see under there anyway.

Under the Hood - an engine or a cobweb?

Webmentor runs 50 tests to check for the presence and quality of what's under the hood - or put another way - the engine, model, wheels and paperwork.

The Engine - 'code'

The quality of code used to create a web site will affect your audience experience (a common problem is that one web page can look different depending on what browser each person is using), search engine ease/difficulty in indexing your web pages and how effectively your web site performs with assistive technology such as text readers.

You want:

The Wheels - 'keywords'

No keywords = No mileage

Keywords are what people type into search engines such as Google and Yahoo! You can use Google's Keyword Tool to find out what commonly used keywords apply to your business/product. You can even instruct Google to tell you what keywords are specifically used in Ireland (eg 'compostable nappies' - Ireland, 'organic diapers' - US).

If you haven't incorporated the most commonly used keywords for your business/product then you can rest assured that none of your web pages will ever come up when those pesky web surfers type keywords such as 'compostable nappies ireland' into Google or Yahoo!. Nobody's ever heard of Eco-engineered Infant Waste Hygiene Products. Get with the program mate! We know you're proud of your product but you'll either have to embark on a crusade to educate the great unwashed or just do the right thing and use the same keywords they do!

Keywords -

Paperwork - 'legals'

Ensure 100% ownership of your .com (or .ie)

- along with username and password to access your domain name account (this is separate to your webhosting account). Being listed as both Registrant and Admin contact for an .ie domain name is enough to ensure ownership. For a .com/.net/etc you need to be all the above, plus Billing Contact. The nomination of Contacts is akin to naming directors when you register a business. Its done when the domain name is first registered. For more details, read Webmentor's article Your Legal Position with Domain Name Registration.

Research your Webhost

Find out who your web host is, what features they offer and how much they're charging. Webmentor has a table of Irish webhosts along with prices and features . This is an annual fee (as is your domain name) - so don't get ripped off. Make sure you have access to your webhosting account - be sure to get username/password and FTP login details.

A Privacy Statement is a Legal Requirement

Under Irish and European law, almost every web site is required to have one standalone page known as a Privacy Statement. This page must be easily accessible and it must contain the details of what you do when you collect data from your web site. And that includes the odd phonecall or email that you get as a result of having your phone no/email printed on your web site. (You can read Webmentor's 10 point checklist for a Privacy Policy/Statement here.)

Analysis and Statistics

You need to access monthly statistics of how many visitors you have and which web pages they're visiting (or not) - and you shouldn't have to pay extra for this, as nearly all web hosting companies will provide this information for free. If they don't provide it, then don't sign up. You must have a way of analysing performance and making future decisions.

Model - Vintage, Classic or State of the Art?

One thing that constantly amazes me is that most people think that when a web site is done, its done! Wrong! Google just stops paying attention to web sites that don't update content and the simplest way to update a web site is to put in a state of the art Content Management System (CMS). Why? Because with some basic training you'll be able to update most of the web site yourself, add new pages when the need arises and best of all - you're saving on updating costs. Is it hard to use? No. If you can use MS Word, you'll find CMS a snap.

All Open Source Content Management Systems are free - BUT the free part ends there. You will need to hire an expert to wire it up, secure it against hacking, insert templates and add any custom functionality, such as forums, blogs, newsletters, shopping carts, livehelp, photogalleries and so on. The joy of CMS systems is that you can add extra functionality whenever you like, and the cost of install and wiring up a basic system starts around €1200. That compares very favourably to traditional web sites where you end up having to pay for new pages and updates, and you're totally dependent on a third party.

Note: A few people, including some web design companies have asked me to clarify this price. €1200 would be the cost of an EMPTY install for a CMS - design and menus, but no content. At this price you get to add the content yourself :-)

Webmentor uses a CMS called Joomla! We also program custom components for our Joomla clients. Joomla has won the Open Source CMS awards for the last 3 years running, closely followed by Drupal - another very fine CMS. We chose Joomla! because of its vibrant community - new functionality is constantly being added. What you don't want to end up with is a CMS that's no better than a Honda50 with a flat tyre. Find out what your CMS is capable of before forking out. The more it can potentially do, the more you can expand as your web site grows up.

So - How much should a Website cost?

To put together a good 'average' web site, be it vintage, classic or state of the art CMS - that complies with modern standards of coding, design, accessibility, navigation, security and is keyword-ready (read: roadworthy) will take 1 person about 2.5 - 3 weeks. At the national average wage of €25000pa €36800pa in Ireland (taken from CSO business services wages , based on data as way back as 2005!!) - that translates to an absolute minimum of €1200 - 1500 €1900 - €2100 per simple brochure website. (Believe me, most of us are grossly undercharging for our services in order to compete with the cowboys.)

But back to what matters to you, the client - it does take time to get everything right - and if you've paid €250 for a web site, as a friend of mine recently did, then you can expect to fail 50 out of 50 of Webmentor's tests for Engine, Model, Wheels and Paperwork. So just out of curiosity, what does €250 buy you anyway?

Well, in my friend's case, the 'designer' scanned a page of his catalogue and resized the image in Photoshop so that it would fit on a web page. He then 'slooped' the image into Dreamweaver and hit the button that said 'Make Webpage'. That must've taken a full hour, I'd warrant. The web page was then sent up to the web host's computer (1 minute?) where it resides to this day in shame and ignominy.

It's a 1 page web site, with no readable text (its an image after all) and my friend is as proud as punch. Google has already 'sandboxed' his website (read: hall of shame) and it will take 9 months to a year to get Google to reconsider them - and that's only after he's paid someone to put everything right.

The Moral of the Story