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It is well known, a dentist is a tooth-puller, beauticians are stupid, real estate agents are crooked, mechanics are crooks, artists are hippies, financiers are sharks. We like to “order” the professional bodies according to our own prejudices.
As with many other service providers, companies have several prejudices about web agencies. After years in the sector, I invite you to discover the 9 false prejudices that I have found most often among web agency clients.
1 – A web agency is ONLY websites
But happy iPhone owners, for example, understand that mobile devices are revolutionizing our lifestyles today! And it is not thanks to the “primary function” of the solution that the “revolution” is born – that one has already passed – but rather through the various value-added services that we are offered AROUND the telephone function.
You will find service providers who only do the industrial creation of websites.
Others will provide you with a work environment, expertise, follow-up, support, a more powerful technological solution… in short, so many value-added services that lead a web agency to “transcend” its business. Often, these agencies offer specific developments.
It is up to you to determine what type of service provider you need for your projects.
2 – Web agencies are useless: my brother-in-law is also in IT
For the ultra-neophyte, creating a website amounts to displaying HTML pages on an address such as www.masociete.com. Result? The entrepreneur thinks that with a WordPress hosted on a server connected to the fridge outlet, e-money will flow freely.
It is certain that if the only problem to solve in the E-business was the simple putting on line of a Web site, I guarantee you that the agencies would not exist.
Having a website is good. But what is better is knowing how:
- bring in visitors
- make them stay
- make them buy
- bring them back
Now, it is true that web agencies are the right contacts when your project is relatively ambitious and requires multiple skills.
In any case, one thing is almost certain:
- if you focus on putting it online,
- that you do not have the real will to invest
- and you don’t care what it can bring you…
… you can call your brother-in-law for the creation of your website!
3 – In a web agency, there are ONLY IT specialists who “hack”
It’s true, often the first thing that strikes you when entering a web agency is to see so many people glued to a computer, with a mouse as an extension of their fingers.
But the habit does not make the monk. By shaking hands with each employee, you learn that there is:
- advices,
- graphic designers,
- marketers,
- referrers,
- developers,
- back-office staff…
In a “mature” web agency, you truly find yourself in a “cocoon of experts”.
We are very far from the young distant cousin who sets up his website creation box, and painfully puts you online a set of misshapen iframes in full home page. I’m sure it still exists if you look hard!?
4 – It is easy for web agencies to develop any “topper”.
As a result of previous prejudices, business leaders tend to believe that good web agencies are those that develop sites that say “Dad, Mom” when you connect to it.
La moulinette is the super high tech , super differentiating, super “technological” functionality that the web agency will create for you for free , as soon as the site is created… In short, it’s an agency client’s fantasy!
The web being an obscure – but promising – science for most entrepreneurs, web agency clients tend to think that it is very easy to create what you want by manipulating in a few minutes the 105 keys of your keyboard … To say that things are “easy” is to think that money grows on trees.
Theoretically, “everything is possible”, it’s true! Now, what means do you intend to put in place to achieve the ideal vision of your E-commerce activity?
5 – The work of web agencies is so “banal” that you can have an e-commerce store for less than 1000 €
You learn globally that a price means nothing if it is disconnected from the value provided by the agency. You also learn that buying “a price” is the best way to direct your Internet project to a bitter failure and that you never become an e-commerce golden boy with 3 pennies…
Just like starting any business, succeeding on the Internet requires:
- time
- some efforts
- capital
Be sure that if it were so “mundane” and easy to create E-commerce projects that work, web agencies would certainly not exist.
6 – If the web agency offers an offer in the form of a subscription, it’s a scam
The blogosphere is filled with articles about website rental. It paints crooked service providers, who make you sign a one-shot contract in the form of monthly payments. The profession tends to make these service “hirers” the pet peeves of the sector.
That said, it should be noted that leasing remains a financial means for a company to “smooth” the costs of a project. What is really a scam is the fact of “abandoning” a client who signs the rental.
Indeed, I share this opinion; in VSEs/SMEs, we like to smooth out costs. Otherwise, how to explain the success with long-term vehicle rental companies? Plus it saves taxes.
But hiring a service is like romantic relationships : it’s good, it’s not “bad”, but you shouldn’t do it with just anyone!
7 – Web agencies have the power to make any site appear on the 1st page of Google
SEO is not an exact science. No one knows Google’s algorithm. Most knowledge in this discipline is based on empiricism , and the “dogma” of SEO is constantly changing.
In such a turbulent context, who will be the fool who will make you believe that all you have to do is lay down a few banknotes to put the whole internet at your feet?
We can guarantee that the site will be “referenced”, that it will appear in Google. We can also imagine that there is a strong probability that your site will appear on the 1st page.
But just as it is impossible for your web agency to give you the names and addresses of Internet users who will buy on your site, it is impossible for them to sign a paper which guarantees that your site will naturally be in 1st position on a good keyword. precise.
8 – The good web agency is the one that writes texts about my job even better than me
Under the pretext that the content is something important for your SEO, and that in any case, you do not want to be bored writing texts, entrepreneurs readily believe that the right web agency is the one who will write his texts from A to Z for his new website.
But web agencies do not have a “sector expert” every time (except agencies specializing in a specific business). Know that the best results are obtained when we respect the adage “To each his own job”:
- the client must bring his “business” expertise , and participate in the development of a first draft of content.
- Then the agency uses its webmarketing & SEO expertise to ensure that the content is relevant for search engines and persuasive for Internet users.
If you don’t want to see your site littered with “boat” texts, which are just a simple copy/paste of what we had already been able to do for a company a bit like yours, I advise you to also put your paw in the texts that will be on your site!
9 – The good web agency is the one that executes the desires of its client
Yes, absolutely… But no!
Web agencies are service providers, and work for a paying principal. Now, a good web agency works first and foremost for “the client’s client”.
Why work for “the client’s client”?
Because he will seek not to flatter your ego, but to be benevolent by focusing on the results you will obtain. So like a beautiful woman, the good web agency has a character. She prefers prosperous clients rather than flattered clients.
