managing the content of your web site
No sooner have you finished creating your new web site than you find that you
need to update it.
Ideally, once your site is designed you would probably like to be able to make
all future changes to it yourself without any outside help. And this can easily
be done. However, the more frequent and complex the changes that you want to
make, the more elaborate the system will need be to support it.
We offer three ways to manage content, each of which can be tailored to your
needs.
Web Pages with MS Word
This is the easiest way to manage content on your web site. You and your
colleagues are probably already familiar with the Microsoft Word program and
would have no problem pasting in existing text from your web page into a Word
document and then editing it there.
We provide you with a template which contains styles to match the layout of your
web site. You use these in Word, either to edit existing web pages, or to create
new pages which we will then add to the site for you.
With no new software to install and nothing to learn this is by far the easiest
option and a good choice if you are only making occasional changes to the site
content.
Directly Editable Web Pages
Not all the pages on your web site will need to change but if you can see that
there are just some pages that are will need regular updating, such as pages
containing news, forthcoming events, or contact details, then a simple option
for managing it yourself is to specify Editable Pages during the building of the
site. This will give you pages on your site which have a built-in editing
facility.
To make changes you simply log in to your site as the Administrator (using a link
that we provide) select the page you want to change, and click on Edit.
You have two choices when editing each page – you can either select the Text
Editor which lets you edit just the words on the web page, or you can choose the
Page Editor which lets you edit the entire page content, including words,
pictures, links, formatting and layout.
To make full use of the Page Editor takes a little knowledge about the way that
web pages are built, but in return you have a considerable degree of control
with very little extra site overhead.
A
demonstration is available on our web site, giving you a chance to try
editing pages for yourself.
Comprehensive Content Management
If you need more than just editable pages – for example, if you make a lot of
changes every week, or you have many people adding to and changing the content
(especially outside contributors), and these people have differing roles
(reviewers, writers, editors etc). Or if you want to be able to not just edit or
add content but also to be able to change the structure of the site itself by
adding new sections and changing the menu navigation structure, then you will
need a full Content Management System.
Compared with the previous options described above this is a heavyweight
approach.
In order to be managed effectively you need to learn how to use it and how to get
the best out of it. It is also more difficult to fix if it goes wrong and so you
need to have a grasp of how to use the maintenance tools.
It also adds overhead to the operation of the site, which may need more computing
power, and more resources such as the database to store all of the content, and
so can add to the cost.
In return it lets you manage the whole of your site yourself, almost regardless
of how much it expands or your needs change.
We recommend three different CMS products, depending on what type of site you are
creating. Once we have an idea of your needs we can set up an online
demonstration for each of them so that you get a chance to experience the
process and start the learning before the site actually goes live.