Website Maintenance: What does it
take to manage your website?
by: Donald Nelson
Every
action has a beginning phase where you launch your
activity, a middle period in which you must sustain
and develop it and a conclusion. Many people set up
a website enthusiastically but then they find that
they don’t have the skills or knowledge to maintain
and develop it. So, what are the challenges in this
middle phase of a website’s life and how can
you meet them?
Updating
the site: The beauty of a website is that it is not
static like a brochure or printed document. You can
change it to reflect new products or new developments
in your enterprise. You can launch new campaigns,
and at any time you can add more content.
The
problem for some companies and individuals is that
after they have paid a good amount of money to have
their site built, they do not have any personnel who
can make changes to the website, such as adding new
text or photos etc. One solution to this is to make
sure you have a good maintenance plan included in
the contract or agreement you make your with your
web designer, so that minor changes can be made by
your original designer
Another
solution, and one that gives you more flexibility,
is to train someone in your organization to be able
to work with an html editor (like Frontpage, Dreamweaver,
or other similar programs). While not everyone has
the skills to design a site from scratch, someone
who is able to use the normal word processing programs
can learn how to modify text and upload files to the
server.
Promoting
the site: If you just sit on your hands you cannot
expect your website to live up to its promise. Many
web designers do not have a clue about things like
search engine optimization or submission, and the
new website owner is left with a nice looking site,
but no traffic. Furthermore there are other website
related promotional tasks such as reciprocal linking,
newsletter editing and mailing list maintenance which
do not fall into the duties normally performed by
the site’s original designer.
Once
again check with your web designer or developer and
see if they can perform any of these tasks economically
or give you some help. If not, then some of these
activities may have to be outsourced. Search engine
optimization and submission, and even reciprocal linking,
the activity of finding link partners, can be contracted
from among the hundreds of companies offering such
services.
You
or a designated member of your staff can learn some
of these tasks by reading online tutorials, e-books
and newsletters (like this one!). Though this takes
time, again it gives you flexibility and an ability
to work at your own pace and within your budget.
Finally
if you can’t afford the outside services needed
to maintain and develop the site, and if you are not
sure how to train yourself or your staff, a third
solution exists in the form of Ken Evoy’s Site
Build It (http://buildit.sitesell.com/webpromote2.html).
In which powerful hosting, design, maintenance and
promotional tools are provided along with step-by-step
guidance enabling complete beginners to build, develop
and manage effective websites.
Even
before you start your website you should be thinking
one step ahead, so that you can develop the site intelligently
and vigorously, and ultimately be successful in your
web project.
About the Author:
Donald
Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker.
Hehas been working on the Internet since 1995, and
is currently the director of A1-Optimization (http://www.a1-optimization.com),
a firm providing low cost search engine optimization,
submission and web promotion services. support@a1-optimization.com
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