Help: My Web Developer Disappeared! We’ve seen this happen hundreds of times. If you’ve never had a web developer or designer just disappear on you, consider yourself lucky.
A strong partnership with your web developer is important. But what happens if that relationship breaks down? Or if your developer retires, or changes career? Or, to use an extreme and unfortunate example, passes away while your site is still in development? There could be many reasons why your website designer has stopped communicating with you – ill health, gone bust or you’ve had a falling out. Whatever the reason may be, it’s a situation that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It’s stressful, frustrating and has the potential to destroy a business if the website is the main source of enquiries and sales.
Has your website designer disappeared? Leaving you with a broken site or even worse no website at all? You’re not alone.
The disappearing web developer magic trick happens more often that you might think. All too often, a developer is contracted to build or enhance a site, but ends up disappearing somewhere during the project.
Looking at things from a more technical angle, what happens if, over the years, the code your website uses is no longer supported? Or, if you’ve tried to design your own site and got in over your head? Or, if you simply don’t have the time or expertise to make your own site do what you need it to do? Unfortunately, this can happen on just about any project, big or small; high dollar or not.
Our job as developers is to break and fix stuff every day. Sometimes, some of us even do it on production servers. These things happen. But when they do, we can we address these issues with confidence and in the best way possible.
Here I offer you six tips to help you avoid this horrific problem.
1. Follow the steps above if you don’t already have ownership of your domain and hosting.
2. Hire a dependable company or web developer you can actually reach.
Don’t work with a company or individual who is hard to get in touch with and who doesn’t work with you to help you understand the process. You have a right to know what’s going on when it comes to your website!
3. Take a look at their work
If you’re going to hire a company to manage your website, you need some proof that they know what they’re talking about. Have them send 3-5 website they currently manage and 3-5 they have built.
4. Request backups of your website
Assuming you do hire a web developer, I recommend making sure they backup your website frequently. Make sure you have access to these backups in case you need them somewhere down the road.
5. Hire a company that knows marketing (not just web design)
Making a pretty website is great, but a pretty website won’t get you customers in the door. You need a website that people can find and easily use so be sure to hire a web developer who understands digital marketing best practices. As they build your site, they should be conscious of SEO, local search, and social media opportunities.
6. Get a specific timeline
Don’t settle for “about a month or so.” Get specific information about how long the project will take and request a game plan for how they plan to do it. It works both ways, though, so make sure you do your part providing content and feedback so the project can proceed as planned.
If your web developer disappears, all is not lost.
If you find your website has disappeared, your website designer gone bust, or you have fallen out we want to help. We have been lucky enough to win some great clients this way.
If all that sounds overwhelming and out with your abilities, you can hire someone like me to help guide you through the entire process.
If you’d like to find out more about my services and how I can help get you back online, quickly and efficiently, feel free to get in touch.
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