Although appropriate with Halloween coming up, unfortunately I hear horror stories from friends and clients throughout the year. Like a great urban myth, everyone either has their own experiences with a web designer / agency to draw from, or they know someone who has.

I’m going to share a few that I’ve encountered, and also pass along a few tips to help you avoid your very own website horror story.

Website Horror Story #1

A client had their Squarespace website designed with an agency. They were happy with the design and the features, and didn’t have any issues…..until 8 months later when they wanted to update their home page to feature specific blogs posts and a newsletter sign up option. They went back to their website design agency only to find that the designer had moved on, and no-one within the agency knew how to work with Squarespace!

Website Horror Story #2

Another client hired a freelance designer via an online job platform, and thought they had secured a bargain with a cheap rate to complete their Squarespace website. Unfortunately that web designer didn’t understand how to use the Squarespace in-built tools to design a site that followed ‘best practice’, and so they coded the site to try and achieve the same effect. The client ended up with a site that didn’t display properly, was not mobile responsive, and was severely limited with any updates they could do – all due to the poor coding skills and lack of Squarespace expertise of the original developer.

Website Horror Story #3

Having found a local web designer, a client hired them to create their website feeling confident that they had someone local to deal with for any queries and issues. The client admitted that a small red flag was raised at the time when they looked at the designer’s website and portfolio, as the designer’s website didn’t look too professional. The designer explained that they had been too busy to update their own site, which the client took as a good sign. Unfortunately this was not the case. The client received a dated site template - one that looked just like a lot of the other sites the designer had worked on.

Perhaps the scariest story of all would be to find out that the website you have paid for isn’t actually yours…….?

A client had been quoted an astronomically high figure to update his current website – by the agency who originally designed his site just a few years previously! Naturally the client wanted to have their site designed elsewhere, and that’s when the horror story begins. The domain name and website hosting account was registered under the website agency’s name, not the client’s name. Even though the client was paying for the service, they were unable to validate ownership. Knowing that the client was taking their business elsewhere, the agency dragged their heels and drip-fed the information. The transfer process took over 3 weeks to finally get everything registered under the client’s name.