Understanding the distinction can help ensure an outcome that satisfies your company decision makers and your company goals.

Ever noticed how everyone in the office turns to you for your technical expertise? It’s not in your job title, but somehow it has become part of the many hats you wear. It’s actually a badge of honor, so you take great pride in being savvy and resourceful.

But now it’s time to evaluate and make a recommendation on extended resources that can support company growth and plans – a new website build.  To make an informed decision, especially one that you can easily sell to your boss – gather the facts, then focus on which option you would recommend for your company.

Here are a few questions to answer before moving forward with your evaluation:

1. How much has been invested in your existing website in the past five years?
2. When was the last major website update?
3. Has your brand changed?
4. Are your brand guidelines written and locked down?
5. What are the goals of your website? Branding? Leads? Referrals? Sales? All of the above?

As you answer these questions, you will be able to better articulate what you need. For example, if your brand identity is a little fluid (you know, presentations all look different) then working with a freelancer may require more of your time managing the brand which in the long run will cost more time and dollars.

Strategy is the overarching factor that sets the stage for driving results in the creation of a website. Eye-catching images and unflinching content are important for sure, but strategy is a major part of the engine needed to stimulate leads that transition into new clients. You must decide who will be driving the strategy. It could be you. It could be the agency you hire. It’s less likely to be someone working on a freelance or contract basis. Allow for this in your process.

You have options when you embark on the design and development of a website – a limited engagement vs a long-term partnership. While a limited engagement, sometimes referred to as one-off collaboration, can be a good choice for specific situations, long-term partnerships offer a strategic advantage for building websites that deliver enduring results, offering a more collaborative experience over time. Both of these options can also be achieved working with freelancers or agencies, but with slightly less assurance.

Working with Freelancers or Individual Contractors 

• Limited engagements are often specialized in one area (e.g., design or development), but may run the risk of straying from the larger business strategy.
• Managing multiple contractors for different aspects of a web build (design, development, SEO) can be a time-consuming, project management struggle.
• Contractors usually prioritize completing the project as the main objective and may not be engaged beyond that point.
• There are cases when a freelancer/individual contractor remains an integral part of a client’s team functioning as part of a long-term partnership.
• After your web project is complete, it’s important that valuable, sustained knowledge gained during the website build be kept and archived for future reference.

Benefits of the Long-Term Partnerships

• A long-term, strategic partnership performs as an extension of your team, understanding your company's strategic goals, brand, and position within the industry, developing an aligned, holistic website.
• Web agencies have a team with diverse expertise (design, development, coding, SEO, content, project management, accessibility / ADA compliance, ecommerce, onboarding, and user experience / UX strategy) ensuring a well-rounded, universally positioned website.
• With long-term vision, Web Partners look beyond project completion, focusing on continuing growth and consistent optimization for results that will live on.
• A dedicated Web Partner team builds institutional knowledge, adding to knowledge gained with each step of development, saving time and effort in future website projects.
• Having a dedicated Web Partner provides long term cost-efficiency due to streamlined communication and reduced project overhead.

Website Development Skills Checklist

Web development requires a range of skills, and not all of them are technical. Use this quick bulleted list to evaluate potential partners.

• Coding skills
• How is User Interface (UI) defined?
• What Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services are included? What are extra?
• Programming languages
• Ecommerce
• Onboarding
• User Experience (UX) design approach
• Accessibility / ADA Compliance / WCAG Conformance
• Long term web strategy experience
• Platform capabilities (version control, approval process, etc)
• Testing process
• Communication and project management

How Does Dialogs Fit?

Dialogs has decades of web development experience with businesses of every size, serving as long-term web partners. Dialogs is the expert in applied web development, ready to provide what your company needs in an effective website build.

We’ve been building websites since the internet was in its infancy, for small shops, huge corporations, and everything in between. Microsites. Landing pages. Portals. Ecommerce. If it can be done on the internet, Dialogs can build it.

We know that your website must provide more value than just being a pretty face online. That’s why we ask you to bring your business goals, short and long term, to the table, share your insights about your brand, and then let Dialogs guide you to build a powerful online strategy. 

Our team of expert web application developers will deliver enduring, measurable value. And because we’re in this together, that simply means if changes need to be made along the way, that’s an easy fix. If a new gizmo comes along and you need to add or replace something on your site, that’s not an issue. Dialogs is on it.

Final Thoughts

When you’re ready to engage with a web development partner, look for the right fit. Ideally a balance of fair price, quality service, and great communication should be at the top of your list. At Dialogs we provide you with exactly what works best for you and – fits your brand and your budget like a glove. We will work with you and for you every step of the way until you have realized the objectives you stated from the start.

Contact a Dialogs expert today. We’re ready to get started when you are!