Who’s Pulling the Strings?

By Allan Emerson | February 25, 2009

To content manage or not to content manage. That is the question. Or that is essentially what’s asked every time a client wants to know how much editing ability they will have with their shiny new website. Some need a little, some need a lot and some may think they need it when in fact they don’t. The key factor in all instances is having an accurate depiction of how much editing will actually take place. So, how much control does a typical site come with?

For the standard site, the answer is generally none. A web designer writes the code, uploads it to a server, then John Q. Public’s web browser reads the code to display the page. If changes need to be made to that page, the designer changes the code, uploads it to the server and voila!, the page is updated.

Say you don’t want to call or email your webmaster every time you want to make a change to your site. What options are available to you? Before you head down this path, there are a few questions we need to address:

1. How often will you need to make changes? Be realistic here. Are we talking a couple times a month, once a week  or by the minute?
2. How many different areas of the site need to be editable? Do you have a job vacancy area, a news page and a page devoted to Crazy Larry’s Crazy Deal of the Day?
3. Will each editable area require it’s own specific functionality? 9 times out of 10, this answer is Yes.
4. How much do you want to dabble? Are you making small text edits or do you want to do complete content overhauls on a whim?
5. Who will be making the edits? Is there a plan in place for integrating this new responsibility into their workload?

Analogy time! Imagine your website is a new house. For minor changes such as painting the living room and hanging new artwork on the wall, you can probably take care of these on your own as long as you have the proper tools. For small website changes, you may need a method of localized content editing such as Adobe’s In Context Editing. Your web developer sets up everything on the back end to allow you to make simple edits to your site via your web browser. The technology is relatively new, and quite frankly, really cool.

Let’s say you’d like gigantic walk-in closets as part of your new digs. So you call in a professional to build this area to your specifications and after they’re finished, you have closets tailored to your specific needs. In terms of your website, this would be a case of custom programming. As with drawing up the blueprints to your expansive new closets, you want to make sure you work with your web programmer to decide all of the functionality you require ahead of time. Making changes mid way through the project will not only delay the delivery date, but will be costly as well.

If your inner puppet master wants to pull all of the website strings, a full content management system (CMS) is in order. Going back to our house analogy, a CMS would be like having an experienced architect give you the basic framework to build your house around. The foundation provided is quite robust, so all you need to do is start building the rooms and filling them with your stuff. This super advanced house would also have control suite from which you can add, remove and rearrange the contents of each room. Instead of needing hired help to remodel, you simply make the changes in your control panel and voila!, the rooms are changed. Ok, so maybe the house analogy gets stretched a little thin here, but you get the idea. A full CMS website allows a wide range of control based off of an initial foundation set up by your developer.

With the wide variety of options available, it may be hard to choose which suits your needs best. But before you decide, the real question to ask is not which technology to use, but how much will you actually use it. Take an honest look at how much site updating will actually occur and who will be responsible for doing it. There’s nothing more tragic than custom programming waiting anxiously for admin to put it to work, but instead it sits idly by, collecting web dust and crying binary tears alone at night…so sad.

Be sure to address your site maintenance needs internally before shopping for a new web developer. Having a solid understanding of your requirements will only expedite the bidding process, eliminate mid-build functionality changes (remember, these are costly) and ultimately deliver the best product for your business.

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