What may seem like an efficient idea could end up costing your organization an unnecessary spend.

It’s a familiar phrase. You get what you pay for an age-old adage, though slightly less ambiguous when described as:

The level of investment or commitment mirrors the quality of the results received.

When it comes to the level of investment or commitment you make in your organization’s website, what you’re articulating in a proud voice is the value and confidence of your brand.

Ideally, your website is a highly visible, informative, and authoritative statement of what your business and its distinctive offerings bring to the world. Developing your website is a decision best made by taking a detailed look at the expertise required to develop, design, and execute a custom-built, top-tier website that delivers measurable, ongoing business growth.

You seek excellence balanced with reasonable cost. Can you achieve this without compromising quality? What are the potential pitfalls of cutting corners? Which areas can be trimmed without sacrificing performance? How can you avoid hidden costs that may arise from seemingly efficient shortcuts? What strategies are essential for building a website that meets your specific needs and budget?

Common Choices Made to Cut Corners

While it might seem like a good idea at the time, cutting corners when developing a new, high-end website can lead to much bigger issues down the road. Here are some common choices that are made to cut corners, only to create major issues that show up later. 

Deprioritizing security and accessibility

If your website is marked as a security risk, you will have a reputation as a risk for customers and a risk for other websites. Web browsers will start issuing warnings to potential customers that your site is unsafe, encouraging those users to go elsewhere.

Accessibility provides increased website traffic, improves SEO and brand reputation, and reaches a broader audience

Outsourcing to cheaper, less experienced teams 

This option may work for some projects; however, the risk is much greater for long-term success. Less experienced coders and technical teams can be shaky. Communication break-down can slow the workflow. Time and cultural differences can also contribute to less productivity. Also, if it needs additional development after a project is finished, you will often have to start over with a new team, which takes valuable time and money.

Viewing it as a one-time project instead of an ongoing partnership

It’s a mistake to think just building a website is a one-time project rather than an evolving, ongoing partnership. Think of your web team as an extension of your organization. They are in it for the long haul. From the start, there is really no finish because as your company scales your website needs will change. To manage these changes requires a partner, not a single project solution.

Not prioritizing team experience and strategic vision

A professional web development team will have the track record to support the value they bring to your project. Strategic goals should be a collaborative effort between your decision makers and the web team experts. Sharing goals, assessing best practices, and clarifying direction is vital in this process. A good web partner will guide you to apply the right technology to achieve those goals.

Skipping strategy conversations and just implementing stated requirements

This course of action is a setup for failure. Only by understanding what’s needed to implement stated requirements, discussing and agreeing to what technology works best, and having a clear, agreed-upon path for reaching the stated goals will your web project succeed.

Ways to Ensure Top Quality Web Development

• Value the technical team’s experience and find a long-term partner for successful projects.
• Involve technical experts early in strategic planning which leads to better, more efficient solutions. Including technical teams early can help bring up technologies that the "higher ups" may not be aware of, that would solve problems even more efficiently.
• Place an importance on the team's knowledge of various technologies with business problems, as well as design and development.
• Ask technical partners to provide guidance on business solutions and efficient paths based on their experience.
• Always ask the development partner to translate requirements into broader business value.
• Ask the tech teams to identify potential pitfalls and opportunities you might miss.
• Ask for clarification on the process for iteration and optimization post launch.

The Dialogs Differentiator

In a word, the difference is trust. In a long-term partnership with Dialogs, clients can feel confident that when their site is launched and we have met everything they identified as their minimum viable product, they can trust that as they implement, scale, and evolve – Dialogs will still be there.

The difference between "cutting corners" and "choosing efficient paths" is a matter of being able to foresee the implications of that decision and determine if the pros outweigh the cons. Throughout the project, Dialogs is mindful of your budget, looking for efficient paths without diminishing quality.  

Because of our many years of experience, we recognize that taking time to understand the development work requires a partner – the kind with trustworthy, proven experience building websites at your scale.

Make the decision to ensure your organization’s website mirrors the same level of quality, confidence, and value as your products and services. Contact a Dialogs expert today.