...UK Business Forums and Free Business Directory...

Business Forum | Press Releases | Contact | Login | Register   2,000+ Small Business Members

Updating your Business Website

It is natural to focus on what you need right now - and that's your web site built with the functionality you require on the site.

However once the website is built and live, you'll quickly realise that you want to make constant changes to the site (or you should want to do this anyway for a successful site). And when that time comes, you need to have a clear idea of how you want to do this.

Typically this could mean that you:

• Make updates yourself
• Have a web designer make changes for you

The first option itself splits into a few methods and possibilities:

• The process is fully manual and requires you to access the FTP account for your site, view the HTML, save the changes and re-upload to the server
• Semi-content managed: you can update limited elements on a page through a content management system
• Widely/fully content managed: the majority of areas on a page and content on a page can be amended through a content management system. You can also add/delete/reorder pages etc through the content management facility

Now depending on how much work will be required on your site, then different options will be required. If you have a very small site that you don't anticipate will need any new content or changes for several months, then the process whereby you make changes yourself may suffice (to make the most of any website remember it needs to be kept fresh and relevant, irrespective of size!)

A content management system is the name given to a back-end system that lets you manage and amend the content on your pages. These can range from the very simple - effectively an online interface to a database of pages where you can edit the text and HTML directly - through to the very sophisticated that integrate a whole what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor where you can update the page content without any knowledge of HTML.

Similarly the process flows of the CMS can enable automatic image upload and inclusion, the ability to have audits and log every change that is made and who by, add process flows whereby certain people can make changes and others can authorise changes, the ability to create and amend your menus and much, much more.

Requirements for the ability to update a site yourself are more and more common, which is why many people choose to have their website built using an existing content managed system (for instance down the open source route Joomla or Drupal), and often the web designer will have their own favourite system they are familiar with and recommend one. At other times it may be more suitable to use another tool or have a bespoke system built, or an existing system heavily optimised.

Ultimately what you need and what you go with will come down to your requirements, together with the thoughts and steer of your web designer - their knowledge and preferences with regard the various projects together with the most acceptable cost for you. It may be you need to compromise on some features to keep the cost down.

It's also when it comes to more sophisticated content management that costs vary greatly so do shop around. Partly this comes down to which route the designer steers you down, e.g. using an off the shelf open source CMS with a template built, or a custom build. And if it's a custom build, many companies have sophisticated content management systems already built so the cost may well be lower in this instance than if one is being built from scratch just for your project.

If you are going to have low volume but regular changes, but really don't want to get 'your hands dirty' in any shape or form, or simply don't have the time to make updates, then consider setting up a monthly retainer with your designer - for instance a set fee for half a days work a month. Ensure that you have the option to decrease/increase this retainer regularly as it may be you are not using it, or if you are using it more than anticipated you will need to either increase the retainer or re-consider making changes yourself.

Now that everything is defined, think about filling those pages with something! To do that, you'll need to create content for your business website.

Advertise here