Amateurs is a dirty word around here.

We aren’t perfect but we are professionals and try to do everything we do in a high-quality and professional manner.

It is an unfortunate thing that our industry, websites and online marketing, is overrun with individuals and companies pretending to be experts.  Judging by the work they turn out, they are in fact just amateurs.

You probably have experienced this. It is the most ordinary thing to purchase a website that doesn’t work right, is excessively slow, or just doesn’t look good.

There’s a saying “caveat emptor” – Latin “Let the buyer beware”.  You end up with an awful lot of business people being gun shy about the next person who is going to do their website.

Sometimes we get people asking for our staff’s resumes. Where did they go to college? If only you could go to school to learn to build websites (I know supposedly you can. It’s not really true).

How about a certificate or license? At least with Doctors or Plumbers there’s some kind of evidence they know what they are doing. Not so with the internet.

So absent that, here’s my “List of Clues” as to whether or not someone is an amateur or a professional at websites and internet marketing:

1. Do they promise you the moon? Google themselves says no one can promise specific results.
2. Do they make sense? Even though you yourself are not an expert in websites and internet marketing, the things a professional says and asks will be detailed and make sense.
3. Are they cheap. You can get a do-it-yourself website for $30 a month that’s pretty good from a company like Wix or Squarespace or GoDaddy. If you want something better than that, you aren’t going to get it for $800 from a one-man-band working out of his house. Logic!  If he’s that good why isn’t he working for some big company making big bucks?
4. Reviews! If they have a bunch of very positive reviews and a high average rating on Google Reviews, that’s a good starting point. If they don’t have a bunch of really good reviews, why not?
5. Look at their work. When I say look at their work, don’t just look at the pictures. Go to a website or a few that they built. Does it look good? Does it look polished? Pretend you’re a visitor and try it out, does everything work right? How does it look and work on a phone?

Now that may take a little bit of time but it can save a lot of time and money. If you don’t have time to do this, let’s be honest, you’re better off waiting until you do.