Is frequent web site update really necessary?
How can it be accomplished?

Regular website improvement is a wise investment. A web site that is regularly updated is of most interest for your users, is search engine savvy and is likely to most accurately explain your offering to the world wide community.

We explain to clients that we support four approaches for updating web sites. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of update strategy the success of your web site update program is dependent on your ability to create interesting and effective content.

The first approach is to have your web pages maintained by us using traditional HTML and style sheet code. We provide quick turnaround and you will maximum freedom of design. We tailor the layout of each page to best convey the content. Graphics can be of different size and their placement can vary. You will be able to send us additions and changes and we will get them posted on the site – usually on the same day sent. We also archive any items that need to be archived. This strategy is an effective starting point and involves low startup and controllable costs. It is not necessarily the most cost effective if you expect regular content updates. It is helpful to consider how difficult or easy it was to come up with your initial content to determine reasonable expectations for your frequency of site update.

The second approach is for you to maintain the pages in the same manner. We can provide necessary training and then ongoing support. This approach also provides great flexibility and works well if you would be able to have trained staff available when needed. If you have available trained staff this approach may be lower cost than having us do the updates. This approach makes the most sense when you have constant updates and want to retain design flexibility.

The third approach requires that we create the content pages that change often so they can be easily maintained using an HTML editor. An HTML editor is usable by any staff member with appropriate training. Use of the editor requires far less training than would be necessary for full HTML and style sheet layout. This approach involves a more structured page design where we would define the pages with one or more updatable fixed areas. Rather than us providing full HTML training and support, we would train a user how to use an MSWord-like HTML editor. They could in turn train other users to maintain other pages that were similarly designed. One weakness of this approach is that you would need to impose some design limits on your users so their resulting pages would be reasonably consistent. Otherwise your site visitors would encounter a confused or jarring experience. To use this approach, we would need to add an administrative interface to your web site that would allow your users to edit the selected areas. We would also construct the pages so they would display the editable content. This approach works best with frequent updates, where staff with some reasonable training can deliver an acceptable but not unlimited design product.

The fourth approach requires that we design the content pages so they could be presented from data that was stored within a database. Users would then use an administrative interface to maintain the items within the database and the items would be presented in the proper order to the web page from the database. This approach usually renders repetitive template looking pages, but allows virtually untrained users the ability to maintain the site. Graphics, if used, would need to be uniformly placed in each presentation area. This approach is most appropriate when there is a lot of content to present and when the information should be presented in a logical order; for example, listing events that occur within a specified time period or at a specified location.

Approach 3 and 4 can be combined where the database is maintained using the HTML editor and HTML content is stored in the database.

You need not select a single approach for the whole site. You can use a different approach for each of your content areas. You can also start with one approach and then select to change to another. It is often a good idea to start by letting us maintain the pages and then evaluate the frequency and extent of changes that are necessary over time. Then we can make the best recommendation based upon actual experience.

David R. Krumholz
http://www.strandmanagement.com/