Tag Archives: work
Risk Assessment for Web Designers
Anyone working in a design-orientated field or industry will already have a feel for how complicated it can be.
As the saying goes, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and one persons preferences can be very different to anothers.
It is often the case that differences of opinion arise, with neither party actually being wrong but having very different opinions about how something should appear.
Therefore anyone looking to go it alone in a creative field needs to have a fairly thick skin.
This is certainly true for web designers where, in a sense, the final artwork is the public domain and out there for all to see. There really is no hiding place.
If the website is the perfect blend of form and function, the client will be rewarded with lots of web traffic and potential sales. However, this very public appraisal of work, can be a double edged sword and a website that does not produce the expected results could be highly criticised.
A website designer is able to define how a website looks, how it feels, how it works and what it contains. There is a lot of pressure riding on the designer – particularly if they are operating as a freelancer, sole trader or small business.
So, because the very nature of a web designers work involves opening up their work to the great unknown, it makes sense to do some basic risk assessment with every contract. After all, every designer is only human and unintentional mistakes can happen. A good basic rule of thumb is, if I do something wrong, whats the worst case scenario for my client. And what can I do about it?
Breaking the contract down in to smaller component parts will also help with the risk assessment:
1. Who is the website for? What sort of business is my client in? How big a player is my client?
If it is possible, the designer should ask the client for examples of websites they like in general and also some examples of competitors sites before any work begins.
2. Will the website use content from third parties (like images, music, video)?
The designer should make sure they have suitable written licences from the media owners (and this should be saved somewhere for future reference.)
3. Exactly what is included in the contract for a new website?
The designer should be extremely clear about what is included, be that domain registration, hosting, design, maintenance. A client may believe that they are paying for ongoing support which can be a time consuming exercise for the designer, unless costs are calculated up front.
4. Considering the deadlines and scale of the job, will the designer need to use a subcontractor to help and if so, do they have professional indemnity insurance?
Bringing other people on board has the potential to increase risk as there is more potential for mistakes to be made.
5. What sign off procedure, if any, is in place?
Experienced designers know all too well that the closer a website gets to launch date, the more people get involved on the client side. To protect the designer, it is essential to have a well thought-out sign off procedure in place, otherwise the design by committee factor may well take its toll on the whole project with massive delays or changes in strategy.
As well as reviewing all of the above points, all web designers should ensure that they have professional indemnity insurance in place. The policy helps web designers that find themselves in dispute with a client. It covers the legal expenses involved in defending any allegations or claims made against the designer, and also covers any compensation or damages that may have to be paid.
The most common kinds of claims made against web designers are for copyright infringement and unintentional breach of contract. Unfortunately if things do start to go wrong, clients tend to sue first and ask questions later. It is not particularly pleasant thinking the potential worst of clients, but at least with a risk assessment undertaken and professional indemnity insurance in place, a web designer can be fully prepared.
Risk Assessment for Web Designers
Anyone working in a design-orientated field or industry will already have a feel for how complicated it can be.
As the saying goes, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and one persons preferences can be very different to anothers.
It is often the case that differences of opinion arise, with neither party actually being wrong but having very different opinions about how something should appear.
Therefore anyone looking to go it alone in a creative field needs to have a fairly thick skin.
This is certainly true for web designers where, in a sense, the final artwork is the public domain and out there for all to see. There really is no hiding place.
If the website is the perfect blend of form and function, the client will be rewarded with lots of web traffic and potential sales. However, this very public appraisal of work, can be a double edged sword and a website that does not produce the expected results could be highly criticised.
A website designer is able to define how a website looks, how it feels, how it works and what it contains. There is a lot of pressure riding on the designer – particularly if they are operating as a freelancer, sole trader or small business.
So, because the very nature of a web designers work involves opening up their work to the great unknown, it makes sense to do some basic risk assessment with every contract. After all, every designer is only human and unintentional mistakes can happen. A good basic rule of thumb is, if I do something wrong, whats the worst case scenario for my client. And what can I do about it?
Breaking the contract down in to smaller component parts will also help with the risk assessment:
1. Who is the website for? What sort of business is my client in? How big a player is my client?
If it is possible, the designer should ask the client for examples of websites they like in general and also some examples of competitors sites before any work begins.
2. Will the website use content from third parties (like images, music, video)?
The designer should make sure they have suitable written licences from the media owners (and this should be saved somewhere for future reference.)
3. Exactly what is included in the contract for a new website?
The designer should be extremely clear about what is included, be that domain registration, hosting, design, maintenance. A client may believe that they are paying for ongoing support which can be a time consuming exercise for the designer, unless costs are calculated up front.
4. Considering the deadlines and scale of the job, will the designer need to use a subcontractor to help and if so, do they have professional indemnity insurance?
Bringing other people on board has the potential to increase risk as there is more potential for mistakes to be made.
5. What sign off procedure, if any, is in place?
Experienced designers know all too well that the closer a website gets to launch date, the more people get involved on the client side. To protect the designer, it is essential to have a well thought-out sign off procedure in place, otherwise the design by committee factor may well take its toll on the whole project with massive delays or changes in strategy.
As well as reviewing all of the above points, all web designers should ensure that they have professional indemnity insurance in place. The policy helps web designers that find themselves in dispute with a client. It covers the legal expenses involved in defending any allegations or claims made against the designer, and also covers any compensation or damages that may have to be paid.
The most common kinds of claims made against web designers are for copyright infringement and unintentional breach of contract. Unfortunately if things do start to go wrong, clients tend to sue first and ask questions later. It is not particularly pleasant thinking the potential worst of clients, but at least with a risk assessment undertaken and professional indemnity insurance in place, a web designer can be fully prepared.
Why you should hire a professional copywriter
Finding a copywriter is an important part of managing a successful SEO campaign. A good copywriter will produce well-researched, well-written and unobtrusively optimised text, on time, every time. The good news is that the internet is awash with copywriters offering their services. The bad news is that finding a skilled and reliable one is easier said than done.
Many aspiring copywriters gravitate towards the big content-provision sites the eBay-like setups that match buyers with sellers. Unlike eBay, though, where customers bid increasing amounts for an item, these sites are designed to provide businesses with the cheapest services possible. The idea is that copywriters compete to provide the best value content in a kind of reverse auction. The copywriter who offers to do the work for the lowest price typically gets the job. A noble enterprise in theory, in practice this can be a disaster for SEO.
Complementing SEO with copy
The maxim holds for copywriters and content provision as it does in any area of life: you get what you pay for. The problem is that not all copy is created equal. Although a reasonable copywriter can produce text that will work in terms of the technical aspects of SEO, it takes something special to convince human readers. Google will weed out the content that has been stuffed with keywords or is deemed irrelevant due to their infrequency. Readers will sift what gets through the net onto the SERPS and ignore badly written copy. It doesnt matter how high your site ranks if visitors leave as soon as they hit the homepage because you saved money on a cheap copywriter. There are simply too many alternatives available on the web to put up with content that suggests a business is less than proud about its brand or organised enough to present its potential customers with what they need. On the other hand, a copywriter who can engage readers, providing accessible and useful information, is far more likely to raise your conversion rate.
Ultimately, thats what an SEO campaign is all about. A top SERPS position for different keywords and even soaring website traffic mean nothing if the number and proportion of conversions dont rise too. Thats why ROI is the ultimate metric for SEO success. A copywriter who recognises the importance of writing compelling copy and understands the principles of SEO is therefore a real asset to your marketing campaign.
How to find a good copywriter
You dont tend to find the best copywriters through one of the reverse auction sites: the danger is that these simply promote a race to the bottom. You might get cheap content, it might be optimised, but it wont produce the ROI that a skilled copywriter can contribute towards. For starters, securing high-quality backlinks generally relies on offering relevant articles to trusted third-party sites in return. If youre only submitting to a few article directories, thats one thing. If theyre the high-pagerank authority sites you should be targeting, they wont settle for second best.
But neither do you always find the best copywriters through job adverts or agencies. Copywriting is a special skill and its not enough to be educated to a particular level, or to have experience in another form of writing. A good degree in English or even a background in newspaper journalism doesnt necessarily indicate that someone will be able to provide what you need.
Ultimately, the best way to find a good copywriter is by word of mouth. Qualifications might be a minimum requirement (if they dont have GCSE English, youve got to wonder), but the only thing thats going to convince you for sure and the only thing that really counts is a portfolio of relevant work. A few links to published samples is all you need to know whether the copywriters quality of work is up to standard. Aside from that, a reference from someone who has worked with them before should provide the assurance that a copywriter will consistently deliver work to deadline not something to be compromised on, however good their work.