Things can go horribly wrong if you’re not constantly vigilant. Here’s what happened to me recently.
I was asked to do a Search Engine Optimisation review of a local business’s website. The initial arrangement was that I’d sub-contract to the IT house that handled all the IT requirements of the business in question, including their website.
However, for reasons that I never fully understood, I ended up contracting directly with the business itself.
Which was a good thing, as it turned out.
I did the review, came up with 17 recommendations and forwarded them to the IT house to implement.
And after a month nothing had happened.
I was getting hassled (quite rightly) by my client who, in turn, was being pressured by their shareholders.
So earlier this week I sent an email to the IT house pointing out that I’d had no questions from them on any of my recommendations and asking if I could help in any way.
And in return I got a phone call saying that everything had been done and the updated site had been uploaded a few days earlier.
Being a busy lad, I thanked them for the information and got on with other stuff that was sitting on my plate.
Then, a day or so later, I decided to take a quick look at the revised site – and received a shock.
Of my 17 recommendations less than 50% had been implemented. Further, the way some of the implementations had been done made things worse rather than better.
Recalling the details of the telephone conversation I’d had a couple of days earlier, I realized that picking up the phone was not going to help. They simply didn’t have the expertise to do what needed to be done.
But now I was faced with a situation where I’d been contracted by a client to do the review but the implementation, which was out of my hands, was going to make things worse, not better.
And it was my reputation that was going to take the hit.
I pondered for a while on the best way of handling this.
My first duty was clearly to my client, but I also saw an opportunity to do a lot more work for the IT house in a way which would benefit both them and me. So this needed careful handling.
In the end I decided to re-create the entire site from scratch and offer the revised site files for free to the IT house, so all they had to do was upload them.
I took the view that if they accepted my revised files and uploaded them there would be no need to mention anything to my client, since they would have their optimized site.
I also hoped that this approach would be appreciated by the IT house and may enable me to pick up more website work from them in the future.
On the other hand, if the IT house refused to upload my revised files then I’d have no option but to raise the problem with my client.
As I write this, the revised site is up and the IT house has the link that it’s on. I’m awaiting their response.
The moral of the story?
If you’re asked to do a site review (or any project) make sure you have control of the final deliverable.
Because if you don’t, it won’t matter how good a job you do, you risk being the one to take the hit.
Cheers,
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