Is your web designer being totally honest with you?

6 dental design company tricks to watch out for.

When a dentist decides to move on to a new web design company, you would hope that the process is fast and trouble-free. However, as we regularly find when welcoming new clients to Dental Media, this is often not as easy as we, or the client, might have expected. So what obstacles do we often have to overcome when bringing new clients on-board and how do some web companies actively make it difficult for clients to transfer away?

Incorrectly registered domain names

Unfortunately this one is a regular occurrence and results from the incumbent designer having registered the client’s domain name in their name and not that of the client or client’s business. Whilst this will not affect how a domain name functions, it could cause ownership issues if the original registrant decided to lay claim to it. The domain name should always be registered in the name of the business or the name of the business owner. If it is not, then a convoluted transfer process needs to take place to switch the name across to the correct registrant. This can cause delays and also relies on the original registrant being willing to undertake the process.

The “exit” fee

If not pre-agreed, a design company is at liberty to charge you a fee to release your website assets. We have seen examples of extortionate exit fees being levied by a couple of well-known companies in the dental design sector, so it pays to understand what this might be before you agree to use their services.

Ownership of your website

We have seen a couple of examples where the incumbent designer claimed to own the client’s website and would not release it. You must ensure that ownership of the website passes to you as soon as the final design fee has been paid.

The “no-switch” hosting contract

We have also seen one one case where the client had previously signed a design and hosting contract which had small print preventing transfer away at any point in the future. Whilst this was probably an unlawful contract in the first instance, it’s not the sort of thing you would want to test via a legal process. Always read the small print very carefully.

The template scam

We see this quite a lot with WordPress designs. It results from the designer buying a pre-built template from the web and simply making a few changes to make it suitably “dental”. This may only cost the design company £50 for the template and a few hours of customisation, but they charge the client several thousand pounds for the privilege. We have also seen numerous issues associated with the template scam whereby the template cannot be updated in line with the numerous WordPress security updates – and consequently the website owner is left open to hacking exploits. You need to make sure that your design is truly bespoke and can be updated, or alternatively look for a more robust solution.

The CMS scam

This happens when the web designer offers a content management system (CMS) with unlimited pages, designs the website and creates the framework, but delivers the job without any content for the internal pages. This leaves the buyer stuck trying to populate the website content themselves. Make sure that you agree just how many pages of content your designer is going to supply.

“Head to Head” marketing

This occurs when the design/marketing company undertakes website promotion in Google for more than one client in the same location. This can result in more than one dentist competing for the same new patient enquiries originating from Google searches. Some UK dental web design companies actively do this without concern and it’s usually several months down the track before their clients realise what is happening.

The onerous monthly fee

Some designers do not advertise the fact that they will charge you a monthly fee after your website is complete. The fee is levied even where there is very little work being done to the website. You may be told that it is to cover things like “maintenance” and for access to marketing knowledge but in reality you may be getting very little value. At Dental Media we only charge when we work on your website.

Summary

Before your embark on new website and marketing projects for your dental practice, please be sure to understand the finer details of what your partner is offering. There are a number of hidden “gotchas” to be aware of before you commence, so please check carefully and don’t be caught out down the track.