Negotiating Guidelines For Your Web Development Contract

Your website is your passport and your identity card for traveling to our virtual world of the Internet. Today every business needs their website to perform like a representative of that business and generate maximum revenue. After realizing this, businesses need to enlist the services of professional web developers. But before signing any contracts there are a few aspects to be considered. Here are six guidelines to follow before signing any web development contract:

Contingency – Be sure to make contingency arrangements in case of delays over unforeseen and uncontrollable factors. This is especially true in regard to time and the budget allocated.

Corrections – It’s possible some of your links on your website may stop working after a while. It’s also possible your site might not work due to viruses. Provisions for this need to be included within your contract.

Specification Changes – Your contract needs to state all the provisions made for changes in any specifications. It’s possible that your developer might have misunderstood something or that the attitude of the buyer compelled you to make changes to the concept.

Website Maintenance – Your contract needs to include whatever provisions were made for maintenance of your website and for training of employees for making any small changes if need be.

Third Party Contents – If you desire using content that is already published on other sites on the web, you shouldn’t expect your developer to gain permission from that parent publisher. You need to always check for yourself about this aspect of permission getting. If not, you may be held liable for prosecution due to infringing on intellectual property rights held by the parent publisher.

Control – What good is a website if all the control is in the hands of the developer? If you have no control over your screens, or graphics, or content, source codes, domain names, or any underlying software then it’s highly likely you won’t be allowed to alter the site when you need to. Your contract needs to be explicit, and state that your developer will provide their services as a ‘work for hire’ and done according to the definition laid out in the Copyright Act. You should make sure it clearly states who holds all the rights to your website. Ensure that the language used bears this out.

Good professional web development companies are identified by how much transparency they have. This is true in reference to how clear their service contract is.