pouring content

If you go down this route, rather than paying the web development a monthly fee for updates and maintenance, consider first the time implications. Is the content management system easy to use? Will I need training? Am I really going to make time for regular updates?

Depending on the answers to these questions, it may well work out cheaper and more time efficient to pay the web development company to carry out the updates. You will, of course, still have to feed them the raw material to do so.

Talk over content management with your web development company and arrive at a conclusion over which pages to update on a regular basis. Some pages, like Terms and Conditions and contact details, won’t change from month to month, so these do not need content management.

The type of pages you will wish to edit are the index page, price lists, product specifications, image galleries, etc. Once a clear picture emerges of how many pages and the type of content requiring updating, your web development company will be properly able to gauge which system will work best for you. After all, you don’t want to pay for the Ferrari of content management systems when the Reliant Robin version will fulfil your needs.

Ideally, your web development company will have some form of demo to let you try out the content management system before you buy. Best case scenario is that the content management system is easy to use and not time consuming. For small to micro-sized companies with few resources, updating the site should be as quick and easy as sending an email.

Most content management systems involve users being issued with a login ID and password to an online control panel accessed via a normal web browser. Once logged in, it’s a matter then of selecting which page you wish to update and pouring in the text by copying and pasting from Word or Notepad.

Some systems have pre-set formatting, others give a selection of options for manipulating the look and feel of the content. A click on a Submit button then fires the update directly onto the site for the entire world to see.

Here again it is horses for courses. Pre-set formatting greatly reduces the time and the temptation to fiddle about, making updating a site fast and ensuring a uniform look. The more advanced tools offer greater control over the appearance, but then you may not want the ability to waste half an hour on three paragraphs faffing with fonts or pondering point sizes.

It may seem a daft question on the surface but find out the process for deleting content you have uploaded. Some systems simply overwrite what’s there already on the page and others add the new content at the top of the page or editable region. Depending on your circumstances, you may wish to archive material rather than merely give it a short shelf life.

Among the other considerations to bring up is the pricing structure. Find out if the content management system is charged as a one-off purchase, or whether it is an annual or per page rental. Ask too if there is a charge relating to the number of people editing the site. Determine also the position regarding future version upgrades of the content management system and whether these are free.

Unless you want to pay big bucks for the Ferrari model, you should be aware that content management systems have varying degrees of limitations and are not the final answer as regards site maintenance/optimisation.

Most content management systems are user-friendly but the trade-off is in functionality. Generally, the lower end of the market systems won’t change your site’s navigational structure, or make other major changes. Some don’t allow you to add new pages but only update existing ones.

What the vast majority of content management systems do, they do well however. And for the majority of small and micro-sized businesses they are ideal tools that extend a fair degree of control and the ability to make very rapid content changes with the minimum of fuss.