Website Content Management and You

Web design and development have become ever more sophisticated over the past decade, as websites incorporate more and more technically complex elements. Yet conversely, more and more organizations expect the convenience of being able to access and update their own website quickly and easily, in-house. New content management systems enable you to update items on your existing, professionally created website. You can add text, photos, PDFs, and videos, even new web pages.

Is content management capability right for your organization?  Here are two questions to consider:

What content management elements would our organization be likely to use?

General Updates — Content management makes it easy for you to make quick changes to the text on your site (phone numbers, email addresses, staff changes, new services, etc.) in about the same amount of time it would take you to keyboard the change and email it to your webmaster.

Photo Galleries – Photos tell the story of your organization, and that story can be ever-changing when you can easily update your own photo gallery. 

Video Updates — After submitting your video to YouTube (which you should do for search engine optimization and for optimal viewing on multiple devices), you can easily copy the code to embed the video into your site.

Calendar and Newsletters - You can easily post an activities calendar, activities highlights, and your newsletter.

Events & Event Registration – Manage an attractive online calendar of events, and even utilize online event registration.

Is content management right for your organization?

While content management has become easier, there are still increased costs related to customization for your site and training of your team.  Asking three preliminary questions will help you understand if it’s right for you:

1. How frequently would you like to update your site?

If you are updating your site less than every other month, then you might never become truly comfortable with your content management tools and it could be easier to send your updates to an outside webmaster.  

        2. How extensive are your updates?

If you are regularly adding new pages, photos, events and calendars or newsletters, you will get good usage out of a content management solution.  You will become comfortable with the tools, and it will take you less time to do the updates yourself than to tell someone else what you would like done.  However, if you are only updating a newsletter and calendar every month, it may be just as easy to send to your webmaster, and just as cost-effective relative to the cost of your time versus theirs.

3.  Do you have someone on your team who has the time and interest to update the site?

As simple as content management tools may be, it still requires a person with the time and motivation to do the updates.  If internal time is not available, using an outside provider may be more efficient and cost-effective than a new hire or increased staff hours.

For more information on website content management solutions for your site, call 800-448-5213 or email service@illuminAge.com.