You Must Be Able to Change Your Web Site Yourself by Gihan Perera

Many Web site owners fall into the trap of thinking that creating their Web site is the end of the journey. It's not - it's only the beginning. So they build their Web site and then leave it there, hoping it will turn into a money-making machine. Not likely! If you don't do anything about it, it's more likely to turn into a virtual millstone around your neck.

You MUST be able to change your site yourself.

When I first started my Web design company in 1997, we gave all our clients the ability to update their site themselves. At the time that was rare and a big point of difference. More recently, though, the sort of software we provided has become cheaper and more powerful. And yet so many Web site owners were still struggling with this feature!

It's vital that you, the site owner, can change your site regularly to reflect changes in your business. If you don't have the ability to do this, or it's too expensive, then you might as well take down your site and forget about marketing your services on the Internet.

You're probably losing most of your potential clients simply by not keeping your site up-to-date. For many businesses - particularly in financial services, law, real estate, and other regulated industries - you could even be breaking the law by providing inaccurate information!

This is even more important now!

Don't think you can get by with keeping your Web site static, and just making changes on Twitter, Facebook and your blog. It doesn't work that way. In fact, these tools mean it's even more important now that you have control over your site.

For example, you want to be able to:

Announce a time-limited offer on your blog, and link to it on your site;
Ask your Facebook friends to pass on a new article you've added to your site;
Post a Twitter "tweet" about a free event you're running as a promotion.

Your Web site is the place people keep coming back to, so you must have control over it.

A few years ago, it was sufficient to pay a Web developer to make each and every change, under some sort of retainer arrangement (so it didn't end up costing you too much). But the world has got so much faster since then, and that option is feasible any more. It's not the cost, it's the turnaround time. You need to be able to update your site instantly, whenever you feel like it.

This means you need what's known as a "content management system" (CMS) for your site. Typically, this means you log in to a private Web page, and then you update the Web site immediately. You can do it from any Web browser, from any computer on the Internet.

Typically, you can change the text and pictures on each page, and you can add new pages. You won't necessarily be able to change the overall look of the site (color scheme, menu buttons, header and footer of each page, and so on). But you generally wouldn't change this anyway, unless you're an experienced graphic designer.

Why is this so important? Because it means you can change your site at any time, from any Web browser, at no cost.

Would you like to advertise a new event that's happening next week? No problem - you can add it to the front page of your Web site. The same goes for new client testimonials, new products, media releases, new staff profiles, and anything else on the site.

It doesn't cost you anything, and it shouldn't require a degree in Computer Science. The key is that you need simple tools to update your site.


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