Website management is not just about what happens to your website once you launch it.
To build a website you can manage easily and affordably, website management needs to be taken into consideration before your site is even built.
If you’ve been following along with my website planning series of posts, you’ll already have a good idea of what your website is going to do, and who it’s going to do it for, so planning your website management should be pretty easy.
Research now or pay later
When you’re about to embark on your new Internet venture, ask your web designer to answer these questions:
- Who’s going to update my website once it’s built?
- Is there a content management system with my website to let me manage the site myself?
- Is the design of the site modular? Will we be able to add new bits to it as the site evolves?
- If there is a content management system running my website, how easy is it to use? Can you show me how easy it is to add/edit/remove a page, insert content and images, or make changes to the site’s design?
- How much do you charge per hour for website maintenance and how long would it take you to insert a piece of content?
- What’s your turnaround time if I send you website updates to be done?
- Who is going to be in charge of Search Engine Optimisation when the site is built? And how long is it going to take to see decent results?
- Will you provide us with analytics reports each month? How about a report showing the number of RSS subscribers or email subscribers to the site?
- And my all-time favourite question: What happens if you get run over by a bus? Will another designer be able to manage the site? What server-side language are you planning to use? (once you know the answer to this, do a Google search for e.g. freelance PHP coder. If you get decent results, you’re OK).
At the same time, you should discuss the website with your partners, your staff or your boss to decide:
- Who is responsible for the website?
- What is our annual budget for website management?
- What is the primary objective of the website (the one thing that matters above all else)?
- Who is the primary contact person for website enquiries? And how quickly will you respond to enquiries? (quick tip: respond within an hour. You’d be amazed at how a quick response impresses potential customers).
Moral of the story: You should be spending good money on website development. A well thought out website can work for you for years to come with nothing more than a few cosmetic changes once in a while. Rather than taking your web developer’s word for it, research your requirements, speak to other web developers or speak to me. A few hours now will save you money later.
If you’ve been paying attention you’ll have seen Monday’s post about planning your micro business website around your customers’ needs. Today I’m suggesting you reel those customers in and decide exactly what your website will and won’t do for them.
You aren’t Amazon.com and you most likely have little or no budget for your website, so some of those snappy features your customers have just recommended are going to have to be thrown out.
There are a ton of features you just don’t need on your website. Of course many of these will depend on the nature of your business, but I’m assuming you’re using content to market your micro business so I’ll stick to the features that apply.
Get rid of website features that are budget sensitive
- Flash – while it’s highly unlikely your customers have asked for Flash on your site, there may be one or 2 delusional people who think it’s a good idea. It isn’t. Making Flash look good is going to cost you a lot of cash and there’s no point to it. Search engines don’t like Flash. Neither should you.
- Shopping carts – I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be using a shopping cart to sell products on your site, I’m just saying that you should be careful what you buy. There are tons of ecommerce packages that cost way too much and have limited or no SEO built-in. Don’t buy the cart with the most functional backend. You’re the only person who will ever see the backend. Instead, focus on the front-end, taking into consideration ease of integration into your website’s template and search engine friendliness.
- Web 2 point ooooh. Someone is going to suggest you use the power of technology to turn your website into the Web’s next social media marvel. Other than allowing your customers to interact with you via a blog, there’s no need to take Web 2.0 any further. If you don’t resist, it’s going to get expensive.
Get rid of features that are time sensitive
- Blogging – Obviously it’s important to market your website, but you have a business to run. If you can decide up-front exactly how much time you have available to focus on your website each week without adversely effecting your business this will help you decide whether you can find the time to blog. Tip: Use WordPress as your blog platform. It’ll save you heaps of time and works brilliantly as a content management system too.
- Bulletin boards/forums – A forum is a great tool to grow a community around a product or service, but it takes a lot of people and a lot of time to grow a forum into a worthwhile marketing tool.
- Giving away your time – Giving away a free proposal, or a free evaluation, or a free whatever using your website is a powerful way to get more business, but it takes time to prepare something that’s free. Either find the budget to build a web application to prepare the free quote/evaluation or find a way to limit the amount of information you give away, reducing the workload.
Moral of the story: The customer is always right, but there have to be boundaries. Weigh up each feature suggested for your website against the amount of time and money it will cost you to have that feature included in your website, and you should be able to scale down the list of features you’re going to include to a manageable level in a few minutes. Get to it.
On Monday we’re discussing competitors and how they fit into your micro business marketing plan. Don’t miss out. Subscribe today.
Hello, I’m Dave. I work with web design agencies, freelancers and bloggers to develop standards-compliant WordPress and Thesis themes.