It Really Does Take a Team

Team Website Development

I just worked with one of our team members and we talked about how to make sure certain pages on websites are not indexed by search engines. Yes, that's a thing... there are certain pages on website that you don't want search engines to index as results and send people to. This is nothing "black hat" or crafty but just the opposite. You're telling Google which pages are not good results so that those pages don't negatively affect your rankings. But this isn't really the point that I'm bringing up.

From 2001 Until Now

The point really is that to create a website today is 10 to 20 times more work than when we first started, back in 2001. Back then, you could have just 2-3 people and launch a website that did just fine. What has changed from then until now is that there are LOT more websites out there and there are a LOT more people accessing the Web. We're now carrying around tiny, yet powerful computers in our pockets - known as smart phones. You can access the Web from anywhere basically. To show up well on search, your website has to be built right and to do that takes a lot of little details - way more than just 2-3 people can handle.

And just in the last year or two, responsive website design has come out - where the same template / theme / design needs to work on any size screen. And yes, there are a LOT of sizes of screens now to contend with. I even saw a commercial last night for a curved television, so who knows what's coming down the pike? To get a website to work right today really does take a team.

What Does a Team Do?

For a project to go well, you need:

• Designers - they create different sets of wire frames and designs and work with programmers to make sure the designs will work.
• Coders - you need experts in HTML5 and CSS3 for the design to work right.
• Programmers - they make sure forms and databases and other functionality work. They have to know the latest happening with JavaScript (JS).
• Testers - anything that's done - be it design or coding or programming - needs to be tested in various devices and in server environments.
• Managers - with all these people, you need management like project managers.
• SEO - keyword research and search engine optimization is a necessity today.

If one of these pieces is missing, you won't have a website that works well and you'll probably realize this way too late.

What's the Most Important Thing With Website Design?

Most importantly, you need a team with experience and experience working together.

There are some website shops that have 1-2 main people and then they hire freelancers. These freelancers typically don't work together much. Also, if a mistake was done on an earlier project and you have a different team in place for a new project, that same mistake can happen because there was no system for knowledge transfer. Do you want that team working on your website?

A Brilliant Analogy

Back in the early days of flying, you really just needed a Captain. Planes were small (maybe 5-6 people in a plane) and the Captain would take their bags, load them on the plane, serve them snacks and also fly the plane. Could you imagine that today? Would you feel safe if the Captain of the plane was running around loading bags and then serving drinks and snacks and also trying to fly the plane? Of course not - it takes a team.

Conclusion

It's definitely not 2001 anymore. Back then, there were no iPhones or smart phones or tablet computers. Wi-fi and wireless coverage was spotty. People were tied down to their desktop computers to "surf the Web" (mainly at work) and there weren't nearly as many websites out there. The 1-2 man website design shops were normal and they were doing fine - we even started out that way. This simply is not the case now and it's never going to be the case going forward. They're closing down left and right because they simply cannot do what an experienced team can do.

At Webstix, we have a team. We have designers, coders, programmers, testers, manager, SEO people and more. They've worked together many times. We retain our knowledge in-house. We remember all the little things that need to go into a successful website that ranks well and works well - including which pages of a website NOT to index... small stuff like that.

Honestly, our main problem at Webstix is that we haven't done a very good job of showing all the work we do and all the value we provide. It's about time we do that. We're different than the shops in town that constantly hire freelancers, who have other jobs and priorities - we have our own staff - our own team and they do excellent work. We're constantly researching and keeping up on the latest website technology (which moves quickly) so that you don't have to worry about it. We're great and it's about time we said so. No, we're not the cheapest in town but with us, you're not going to have the Captain of the plane serving drinks.

Think about this...

Would you rather hire us or would you rather have your competition hire us?

Expect to keep hearing more things like this - we're on a roll!

-Tony