If you don't have much experience with web development, you might think that Custom Web Design Services and development is a "one-and-done" experience – you approach a development shop (like us) to design you a beautiful new website that solves your business challenges, and then you're on your way (at least, that's what we hope your experience is like!) Alternatively, you could be a busy marketer on a small team who is already overburdened with responsibilities and lacks the time, expertise, or tools to maintain your website beyond basic content management and updates.

When it comes to long-term website maintenance, you deserve a web development partner who takes care of the details that you might not even be aware of. After all, having a dedicated partner who supports other aspects of your website saves you time, money, and the headache of doing it all yourself.

But, if you're not a web developer, what should a potential partner be able to keep up so you can return to your other responsibilities? Let's look at five important services that your website development partner should offer in addition to building a great website:

Constant Monitoring, Upkeep, And Improvements

Working with a partner who has a long-term maintenance and support plan in place to support your site long after it has been completed is critical. Can your website handle varying amounts of traffic and automatically scale to accommodate extra bandwidth to ensure a positive visitor experience? If you're unsure, find a Web Development Services partner who can handle cloud-based hosting, bug fixes, enhancements, and new feature development. Maintaining your website and making ongoing improvements allows you to stay ahead of the competition and attract as many customers as possible. Anyone who offers to build you a website but then fails to support it should be avoided at all costs.

Strategy For SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Many marketers strive to increase the number of potential customers who visit their website via Google searches. After all, Google accounts for 71% of search traffic clicks, while only 6% of users click on results on the second page. As a result, it's more important than ever to get your website on the first page of search results. A Custom Web Design partner who understands search engine optimization (SEO) best practises can help you maximise the potential of your site to rank higher in search results. Finding a partner who will perform an SEO assessment to review the quality of your site and its content and can assist in identifying the areas of greatest opportunity is critical. These opportunities, when combined with your digital marketing goals, can help you increase brand recognition, make your website more user-friendly, attract a higher-quality audience, and much more!

Availability

The American Community Survey (ACS) found that 12.8 percent of all users have accessibility needs that make using a non-accessible website difficult or impossible. Website accommodations for people with disabilities include text-to-speech, the ability to enlarge fonts, high contrast colours, and keyboard navigation. A prospective customer may be unable to interact with your website due to learning, vision, or mobility issues. Remember that Custom Website Development accessibility is the law, so avoiding potential legal issues and ensuring your site is compliant is critical.

Safety

Do you think your business is too small to be targeted online? Think again: hackers are now using automated scanning tools to detect and exploit vulnerabilities, with a focus on small and medium-sized businesses. It is especially critical if your website collects customer data such as email addresses, credit card information, or mailing addresses to ensure that security flaws are discovered and fixed on a quarterly basis. Unless they have a dedicated web developer on staff, most businesses do not scan their website for security risks as frequently as they should. A Custom Web Design and Development partner can alleviate this burden by performing these security scans, reporting the results (which may be as simple as installing a Web Application Firewall (WAF), and filling any gaps in your site's overall security coverage.

Marketing Automation

Is your website producing high-quality leads? Do you understand the buyer's journey from prospect to customer? Using marketing automation tools to personalise your marketing efforts allows you to not only be more efficient, but also to build valuable and lasting relationships with potential customers in order to understand their needs and, ultimately, generate sales for your business. Because many marketing automation platforms integrate with your website, your web development partner should be able to provide you with cutting-edge tools as well as assistance in developing a strategy to build your sales pipeline and generate quality leads.

Emergent Software strives to go above and beyond as your Custom Website Design Company. We want to support you, your business goals, and your website long after it has been completed because we want to develop a long-term client relationship with you.