Don’t Let Your Web Developer Hijack Your SEO

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Here at Brick Marketing we have an in-house developer that we turn to when the time comes for implementing our SEO recommendations on a client’s site. While I know a fair amount about web development and am comfortable making minor changes to my site and to our clients’ sites, I know that I’m not an expert in web development and I leave the heavy lifting to the pros. Even though we have the capabilities in-house, sometimes clients prefer to implement the SEO recommendations themselves. Either they have an in-house web developer of their own or they are working with a 3rd party to build their site. I’m fine with any of the options.

However, I have had clients that choose to stick with their 3rd party web developer and got burned because of it! Just like in the SEO industry, there are a lot of “experts” in the world of web development. Some of them are great…and some are not so great. The hard part is being able to distinguish the good from the bad when you don’t know what you are looking for.

Here are some signs you’re working with the wrong web developer:

1. They get a bigger client and forget all about you.
It may have started out as a good relationship, but your small website just can’t pay them the big bucks they’re getting from a larger company. Suddenly your needs are pushed to the back of the to-do list, even though you are still their client. Your SEO firm can’t move on to the next step in SEO (link building) until your site is properly optimized and ready to go!

2. They don’t implement your new SEO changes
Your SEO partner hands their recommendations off to the website developer of your choice…and nothing happens. Or maybe parts of it happen but not everything. You web developer starts cherry picking what changes are being made to your website based on their experience, and not the recommendations of your SEO firm.

3. Your SEO partner makes changes and the web developer undoes them.
Once again your web developer is calling the shots. It’s your site; you’re the one in charge! Sometimes this can be accidental; your web developer may notice a few changes and think your site was hacked and so they undo the changes. (That’s why it’s so important to make sure everyone is “in the know” in regards to your SEO.) Other times, a web developer may think they know SEO better than your SEO agency does and undoes their SEO implementations!

4. It takes forever to get things done, not matter the project size.
It shouldn’t take a web developer 2 months to redirect 10 links to a new page! You shouldn’t have to chase your web developer around to get things done. When you shoot them a question or concern, you should get an answer in a timely period and feel like your needs were addressed. Customer service still counts!