Dangerous Lie: “Web Design Clients Don’t Care What Stack You Use”

What’s up, everybody? So my youngest is out back playing. Her friend is over. I got to make sure that they survive. There’s a pond back there and everything.

So I’m going to take a few minutes and, well, record another AFK video.

So we’re going to talk about a topic that I came across today on Twitter. It’s a topic that comes up all the time in the line of work that we do.

And it’s this concept that clients don’t care about your stack. They don’t care what page builder you’re using.

They don’t care necessarily that you’re on WordPress. They don’t care. They don’t care. They don’t care. They don’t care.

Now, there are two angles to this. One of them is a bullshit angle and the other one is a technically correct angle, but still practically incorrect.

So that’s why we need to talk about it. That’s why we need to make this video.

So it is true that clients are naive and or ignorant to a lot of the things that we do and the decisions that we make, the reasons that we make these decisions.

It’s also technically true that a lot of them may want to just trust you and they don’t necessarily care about the details.

What they care about, especially the technical details, what they do care about that they may not even realize they care about.

They care about the work being done correctly. They care about, theoretically, they care about best practices.

If you gave them the option, hey, should you, there’s geese back here, but I told you there’s a pond.

There’s a whole ecosystem back here. Okay. You’re probably going to hear some sounds.

And that’s just how these videos go.

So, if you were to ask a client, do you care if the website, like if we follow best practices or should we just wing it?

Like if you went to a mechanic and the mechanic was like, I mean, do you want us to do this right or do you want us to just duct tape this shit back together?

Obviously, you’re going to say, we want you to do it right. Okay.

And so, the clients that you’re working for, they are going to want you to do it right.

They are going to believe and hope that you are following best practices.

Yeah. Okay.

I think we can all agree on that.

No client is going to sign up for you to do it wrong.

So, when you use this as an excuse, which is often the case, a lot of people use this as an excuse.

I see them all the time.

You know, I’ll say, hey, Divi or Elementor or Beaver, they don’t output clean code.

It’s a bit of a disaster.

You’re not using classes, which means you don’t really have global control over styling instances.

You’re not using the proper architecture with regard to custom post types and loops and logic and conditions and on and on and on.

All the stuff that we talk about.

And the response will be, the rebuttal will be, clients don’t care about any of that.

All they want is a site that looks good and that works well and it’s fast and whatever.

And again, that is, you’re making an excuse, right?

You are making an excuse for why you are cutting corners, for why you are not doing professional work to any semblance of a standard or following best practices.

It’s a very, very lazy explanation.

While technically, maybe there’s some technical truth to it.

But why I say it’s technically true, but practically incorrect.

Because what clients do care about is they do care about having a site that is maintainable and having a site that can be easily scaled.

And a site that some other competent professional could potentially take over in the future.

When I take over a website and the architecture is an absolute disaster and no maintainability principles were followed and no scalability principles were followed.

I inevitably have to tell the client, this thing is a disaster.

And in order for us to take it over and work on it in any semblance of efficiency and affordability for you, the whole thing essentially has to be rebuilt.

I mean, it was not built properly.

It was everything.

It’s just a disaster.

It’s an absolute disaster.

And that was built by somebody who invariably made the argument that clients don’t care.

Well, you know, when they do really actually care, they care when they come to someone like me and they have to be informed that their website is useless.

That the $10,000 that they invested in it, they essentially lit on fire and everything has to be rebuilt.

I can’t tell you how much.

Like, I can just look at the client’s face in that situation and tell pretty clearly that they care.

Okay.

And so you can be technically corrected.

Yeah.

At the time when, when we sold them the website, they didn’t seem to care.

I mean, did you really grill them?

Did you tell them what the potential consequences were?

Did you inform them?

Did you educate them?

Did you do anything that you were supposed to do on this project?

That’s, that’s the real question.

Because when I have had these conversations with clients in the very early stages of sales, very early stages of a project, when I have informed them of, you know, you know, this could go one of two ways.

Like we could build it really fast, really cheap, but it wouldn’t be scalable, maintainable, or we could build it the right way.

It’s going to cost what we said it was going to cost.

And it’s going to take the amount of time we said it was going to take, but it’s going to be scalable.

It’s going to be maintainable.

Somebody else who’s a competent professional could take it over and not jump off a bridge face first the next day, right?

Not come back and tell you that the entire thing has to be rebuilt when they are given the option and they are informed of the potential outcomes.

Because again, I think a lot of you are playing on the ignorance of a client.

The client doesn’t know what they don’t know.

And they don’t know that one of the potential outcomes is an absolute disaster.

They don’t realize that you might be using a tool that has a lot of limitations.

They don’t realize that you might be using a tool that outputs a lot of bad code and bad practices and that you’re not using the proper architecture of loops and logic and proper content management.

They don’t know what they don’t know.

They’re making the assumption that you are checking these boxes.

They’re making the assumption that you are crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s.

That is a professional assumption that they are making.

The same assumption that you make when you take your car to a mechanic.

You are assuming they’re not duct taping it all together.

You are assuming they were trained properly.

You are assuming that they are following best practices and that they are doing quality work.

These are assumptions that people make of a professional.

When this is this line of clients don’t care about your stack.

Clients don’t care what page builder you use.

And the people making this argument are the Elementor users, are the Divi users, are the Beaver users, are the block editor users.

When they’re using proprietary blocks perhaps.

When they’re using maybe they’re using core blocks with all of core blocks as limitations.

Right.

All of the things that we have constantly talked about.

And you’re that user is making the excuse.

Clients don’t care.

What they’re really saying.

They’re hoping that you believe the fact that clients don’t care that their site is not scalable.

That their site is not maintainable.

That their site is not built to best practices.

Right.

That is what they’re hoping you believe.

And you’re not dumb.

I’m not dumb.

They shouldn’t believe that we’re dumb.

They shouldn’t think why.

That’s kind of insulting.

That they think that we’re going to buy that from them.

That we’re going to buy that argument from them.

No.

Clients do care.

Clients do care.

They don’t want to have a 60 minute conversation about the technical details involved in the stack.

What they do care about though is that you know all of those technical details.

And that you are technical enough to do professional work.

And that you are going to build them a site that is maintainable.

And that is scalable.

And that is accessible.

And that is fast.

And that is all the things.

Right.

And we have this.

This is going to segue us into another video.

It’s going to be a video about build speed.

Because I just see over and over.

This goes hand in hand.

Everybody is trying to get to from point A to point B as fast as they possibly can.

And I use the analogy all the time.

But we’re going to go into more detail in the next video.

They use this analogy.

Or I use this analogy all the time.

Because I’m a softball coach.

And I’m a baseball fan.

Kind of.

It’s not my favorite sport.

But still.

Whatever.

I like all sports.

Okay.

It doesn’t matter.

You can’t brag about.

Well.

You know how I started at home plate.

And then I got back home.

Almost immediately.

And everybody else takes three times.

Four times as long as me to do it.

That’s what these people sound like.

When they’re saying.

Oh look how fast I built a website.

Look how fast Elementor lets me put this together.

Look how fast Divi lets me put this together.

Oh my god.

Look at what I’m doing in Beaver.

Look at what AI is doing for me.

These people.

These people.

And then you dig into the details a little bit.

And you realize.

Oh.

What happened was.

They hit the ball.

And halfway to first base.

They just cut across the pitcher’s mound.

Over the other side.

They didn’t even.

Actually.

After they went to the pitch.

They didn’t even hit third base.

They didn’t touch any of the bases.

They just.

They just did their own thing.

That’s not fast.

You can’t brag about that speed.

Speed only matters when you’ve touched all the bases.

Right?

There are rules to the game.

Okay?

There are.

Like.

Nobody would play baseball like that.

You’re going to get thrown out.

But for some reason.

In web design.

We can cut all the corners.

And then.

And then brag about how fast we were.

To build the site.

This is lunacy.

This is absolute chaos.

That people are introducing.

Into this ecosystem.

And clients are worse off for it.

It’s just.

It’s not a good situation.

That’s going to have to be another video.

But you guys get my point.

Clients absolutely care.

Don’t believe this lie.

That clients don’t care.

About the technical details.

They care whether the technical details are there.

And whether you understand them.

Or not.

Yeah.

They don’t want you to explain it to them.

Every single instance of it.

But they want a site that’s scalable.

They want a site that’s maintainable.

They want a site that follows best practices.

And has good architecture.

And has all the benefits.

That come with that.

To protect their investment.

And to protect future outcomes.

With that website.

Plain and simple.

Stop saying.

They don’t care.

Because it’s an excuse.

And it’s an excuse peddled.

By people who are cutting corners.

Peddled.

Often by people who don’t know what they are doing.

Peddled.

By the lowest common denominator.

In our industry.

And.

That should not be you.

If you want to win.

That should not be you.