How to (politely) tell a client their website is shit?

[Concept]

Hey all,

Long time no see. I’ll update my journal sometime at the beginning of next month to let you know what I’ve been up to.

In the meantime, I’m not sure how to approach a situation with a particular client. I’d like to hear how you guys would approach the following situation.

In short, I’ve been hired on to do the clients internet marketing. This includes website updates, SEO, email marketing, paid advertising – the whole deal. Eventually, I’ll help them build a team – something I’m looking forward to.

Before that bought me on, they had a local company build their website. It’s based on Wordpress, but it is a custom theme (built by the companies own framework).

My issue is this:

While the website might look nice on the front end, the back end is a load of shit. It’s a hulking mess, bloated, and not compatible with many common plugins (Yoast anyone?). The theme itself is directly reliant on certain plugins. If I delete a plugin, certain functionality in the CSS and theme just don’t work. The designer has even done workarounds on common Wordpress functionality (I can’t even choose a category when creating a new post – I get an error)

In the short term it was no big deal. I could easily add content and I found workarounds for many of the other smaller issues. However, as the client wants more functionality (such as adding an opt-in email form) it is starting to become a real problem. What the client wants, and what the website will allow, are not compatible without me coding directly into the theme (something I want to avoid).

How would you guys approach this issue with the client?

Ideally, I would love to start the website from scratch and build it from the ground up, importing the content into a new site. Eg. Get it ready on newsite.domain.com before putting it live on domain.com. But this will take time (and money) – even though in the long run it will do them a world of good and build them a solid foundation in which to expand from.

I’m a bit unsure how to approach this (without shitting all over their website). I'd like to hear, what would you guys do?

Cheers

 

[eliquid]

You need to document this so this isn't just an "opinion" of yours or a "shortcoming" where you can't code up to their needs.

Keep track of each thing you are trying to do for them, why it's an issue, how much time it should have took and how much it actually took because of their mess.

When you directly show them how much money their website is costing them being a mess versus properly done, there should be no question of what they need to do.

 

[Concept]

You need to document this so this isn't just an "opinion" of yours or a "shortcoming" where you can't code up to their needs.

Keep track of each thing you are trying to do for them, why it's an issue, how much time it should have took and how much it actually took because of their mess.

When you directly show them how much money their website is costing them being a mess versus properly done, there should be no question of what they need to do.

Brilliant! Yes, I will start doing that over the next couple of weeks before approaching them.

 

[Steve Brownlie]

You need to document this so this isn't just an "opinion" of yours or a "shortcoming" where you can't code up to their needs.

Keep track of each thing you are trying to do for them, why it's an issue, how much time it should have took and how much it actually took because of their mess.

When you directly show them how much money their website is costing them being a mess versus properly done, there should be no question of what they need to do.

This is 100% the right strategy as you're in play already so you can demonstrate it with the specific things you're actually bumping into.

I just wanted to add a quick tip for any of you facing similar issues during the proposal phase. It's largely the same solution:

Hey your last designer made this in a pretty heavily customised way and used DNN. Here are your two quotes - continuing with DNN and making the changes you want, and migrating to Wordpress then implementing the features using plug ins.

Usually just seeing the two options instantly makes them want to do the one you want since you'll definitely be pricing the one you want them to do lower .

 

[Future State]

I don't think you need to be too formal about it. I'd flat out tell the guy who makes the decisions that the current website is shit, behind the scenes and in front of the scenes, and that the past guys didn't quite know what they were doing. I'd tell him that on-page SEO is at least half the battle of SEO and since he wants results from you, he needs to not cripple your efforts, when $5,000 could solve the issue and end up saving him many multiples of that amount down the road on link building and promotion.

If you're confident in what you're saying and in your assessment of the previous team's work, you'll create trust in your knowledge, anxiety about missing out, and best of all you'll be being honest and they'll be able to tell. It's a no brainer for them really, if you phrase it right.

 

[Concept]

Hey everyone. Thanks for the feedback.

I had the conversation today and they were happy to go ahead with the changes. In fact, they are quite excited, because it’s an opportunity to update and changes things they wanted to for ages.

I took on @eliquid 's advice and tracked all the issues, and the resulting impacts on time, productivity, and effectiveness on the site. The process gave me a very clear perspective of what was happening and gave me more confidence in suggesting they rebuild the website.

This information also made the owners decision a lot easier. It was clear and concise. He came to the same conclusion that rebuilding the site was the best course of action.

Easy done. Thanks guys