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Originally Posted On: The Question to Ask Before You Sign a Web-Support Contract (ncntechnology.com)

What most companies won’t tell you when you sign up for web-support services is that they are reactive. That’s a big distinction to pay attention to if you use your site to drive business and grow brand awareness. These companies make a big deal about being there to fix errors once they’re detected. However, they don’t say much about who exactly is detecting those errors. In most cases, your potential customers see the errors long before anyone at your business knows about it. The standard web-support services setup determines that your maintenance provider is the last person to know about it. Here’s why that’s a problem:

• You’re wasting time on SEO and marketing that drive potential customers to dead links.
• 404 errors are hurting your Google ranking.
• Features that are supposed to “streamline” your conversion funnel aren’t working. Customers are frustrated, confused and “put off” by the experience.
• You’re losing page views.
• You’re losing sales.

Unfortunately, most web-support services don’t care about user experience. They are focused solely on giving you a functioning site. There’s an enormous chasm between functioning and optimized. The standard is a “helpdesk-ticket” style of service where your support provider is just addressing the issue that you are reporting. Their sole goal is to take care of that problem to get the ticket closed as quickly as possible. That means they aren’t looking at the issue holistically in terms of your site’s performance. You’re getting a “working” website instead of one that works for your business.

Yes, There’s a Better Way to Get Your Website Supported and Maintained

Demand better. It’s truly as simple as that. These are the questions to ask a web-support company before stepping into any contract:

• Can you make a site I’m happy with even better without charging me for a full redesign and relaunch?
• Can you improve my bounce rate?
• Can your services help me to spend less while doing more with SEO?
• How are you prepared to collaborate with my marketing team on web features?
• How can you improve the browsing experience for my customers?

A company with the tools to optimize your site without just “fixing errors” won’t shy away from answering these questions! That doesn’t mean that you don’t need a responsive team. Your web-support company needs to be able to fix the big errors when they pop up. However, that comes in addition to proactive service that prevents most of the unnecessary errors from occurring in the first place. At NCN, we’re both proactive and responsive. Check out our Maintenance and Enhancement (ME) program that’s going to take your site to places you didn’t know were possible without a huge overhaul.