Over the years, Old Town Media has developed and launched more than a handful of websites. Every web process is a little bit different depending on client expectations, deliverables and design, however there is one common element that seems to result in the most questions and problems: timeline expectations.
Here are some helpful tips in understanding how a website project timeline works and what realistic expectations should be for your web developer.
Content Timelines:
The timeline of a project will almost always be held up by the content of the website. Often times, a client will have a hard time writing content or gathering photos and that will hold up the launch of the website. It is important if you are not good with content or just do not have the time to write it to rely on a professional to get that done for you so you can get your website project live. It is better to get your website live than to sit for months not building traffic.
Overview: Hire a copywriter and photographer to make your life easier and get the project completed on time with a quality result.
Project Timelines
Life happens, people get busy and the website usually becomes the last priority. We understand. However, if that does happen, it is important to note that once you come back and need something, it will be worked into the normal production schedule. It is important to have realistic expectations of a timeline both ways. If you do not keep up with your side of the timeline, we cannot promise to have a super fast turnaround time on our side.
Overview: If you fall behind on your timeline, you will get worked into a new production schedule.
Marking Items as Urgent in Your Email
I cannot stress this enough. Please, only mark items as “urgent” in emails if it is an emergency. That means, your website is down, your email is down or your website has been hacked. Please do not use this feature if you need a graphic updated or another minor change. Continuously marking every email as urgent will result in a ‘boy who cried wolf’ scenario.
Overview: The ‘marked as urgent’ feature in your email client shouldn’t exist 🙂
Overall
Please understand that your web and marketing company is here for you. This is why we exist, only for you. Having realistic expectations of timeline is important for both sides of the working relationship to keep it a productive process. It is a two-way street to get a project completed and both sides need to cooperate in order to achieve a successful outcome.
To make is easy for our clients, we’ve created a map of our “ideal” process:
