What Makes a Good Web Development Partner?

With the number of monthly internet users in the UK predicted to rise to 65 million by 2026 (Statista, 2022), it is critical that businesses have an effective, user-friendly website to remain credible, impactful, and generate leads/sales.

This makes having a good web development partner VITAL for achieving online success.

Web Development Partners are responsible for ensuring that your site is not only designed & built to the highest standard but can also perform on a technical level to prevent bugs, ensure that the site is up-to-date, and manage things such as hosting, speed audits, and plugin updates.

As a leading Web Development Partner, we understand how challenging it can be to not only pick the right resource but to also identify when your existing solution is simply not working for you.

With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of key factors that make a good Web Development Partner to help you make the right decision over who manages your digital assets:

Clear, Effective Communication

If there are not clear, proactive lines of communication established by the Web Partner, clients can lose control over their biggest digital assets without any way to communicate their requirements.

Whilst we find that most partners regularly communicate when projects launch, this can evaporate in a matter of months, leaving clients in the dark as to how their project is progressing, and can ultimately result in outcomes that deviate from budgets and expectations.

Slow response times can also create a significant blocker to the maintenance of a site. For example, if a client identifies a bug or glitch on their website which urgently needs addressing, they are often forced to take out a support ticket which could take weeks to be addressed.

At Netmatters, we eliminate this concern by assigning an account manager, project manager & technical lead to each client who is familiar with the project and maintains a consistent channel of communication – giving clients the peace of mind that any concerns/requests will be addressed immediately.

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Transparency

As most development work is billed on a time-based model, it is critical that the client has transparency over exactly how time is being utilised. Without transparency, how can they be sure that the time is being spent effectively to meet objectives and that they are getting value for money?

To remedy this, we provide full transparency for our clients via to-the-minute billing. Everyone involved with a project is required to log their time with a note stating exactly what they have completed within this period. Clients are then able to access time reports with a full list of these notes, meaning that you will always have full transparency over where your money is going.

Vigilant Maintenance

Every website requires ongoing maintenance, whether that be plugin updates, usability reviews, or adding PING monitoring to ensure the site does not go down and remains at optimum performance.

However, smaller development agencies that are inundated with work will not be able to get in front of these issues proactively, leaving you waiting until something goes wrong before any issues are picked up.

Alternatively, our automated task-based system means that developers are automatically alerted to complete technical reviews and update plugins on a periodic basis, meaning we can get in front of issues before they affect your site and damage your online business.

Cohesive Projects

When looking to complete web development tasks - whether that be a full website build, migration, or update – a clear, coordinated approach is essential.

By not setting out a structured plan from the offset, it becomes far more challenging to bring the client’s vision to life, with individual developers dipping in and out of the project without a complete picture of what the overall objective is.

At Netmatters, each project has a Project Manager who works collaboratively with the client to establish a concise roadmap with clear expectations and timelines, something which they will then oversee and communicate to the developers throughout the process. The PM can then coordinate the build in line with best practices and client expectations to provide a more effective outcome.

Proactive Recommendations

Technology is always evolving – with businesses constantly developing their sites with fresh functionality to offer value to their users, it is vital that your Web Development Partner is proactively looking to improve your site to stay ahead of the competition.

As smaller development outfits struggle with workloads, their specialists are often relegated to a reactive model, whereby the only work that takes place on your site will be to address issues/requests you have directly made. This then puts the emphasis on the client to guide the development of their digital assets, when it should be the other way around.

We mitigate this issue by employing over 40 full-time developers who are able to leverage their expertise proactively to review each and every site we work with to provide meaningful, results-driven recommendations based on new trends, and what competitors in the market are doing. This means that we are not just maintaining, but helping to grow your online presence, as opposed to letting you fall behind your competition.

How Netmatters Can Help?

If you are looking for a proactive, cohesive, and communicative Website Development Partner to support any upcoming projects, or even manage your existing digital assets, Netmatters are on hand to help. Take a look at the website design work we have completed for Ashcroft Partnership LLP and One Traveller.

Get in contact with our specialists in Norwich, Cambridge, or Great Yarmouth for a free consultation today.