You Have A New Website, But Who’s Gonna Keep It Updated?
A website isn’t like a painting, to be hung up on a wall and left there.
It’s common to think of a website as an online brochure, but that is ignoring the vast benefits of web technology. The very nature of the internet is interactive, flexible, and constantly changing.
Your website should express your business right now. And that can — and should — change often. Updating information, adding blogs, or other changes. That keeps people coming back. So your site shouldn’t be static…
It’s like a garden.
It needs to be treated with care. Elements that aren’t effective can be removed, and new ones added. WordPress themes and plugins need to be updated to keep them secure. And on the rare occasion, things stop working and need to be fixed.
Sounds like you need a gardener.
If you’re getting overwhelmed, this fortunately isn’t all that difficult. And not a daily activity for most websites (thank goodness!).
But you should keep this part in mind when building a new site…
Who’s going to add blog posts, update product info, and fix typos?
- Hire your web designer to do it for you
- Do it yourself
- Hire an assistant
Having a plan to keep your site updated is essential for ongoing success, and one of the major reasons I always recommend developing sites with WordPress. It’s simple and extremely popular. This makes it much easier to for someone to update it or for you/an assistant to learn to use it.
Have Your Designer Do It
This is the most convenient at first. They already know the ins and outs of the site, have all the login info, and are good at it.
The downside is that you’re limited by their schedule. Some updates could take a while to show up.
Even if you hire your designer to keep it updated, make sure you also have the login info and ability to do it yourself. If something happens to your designer, you don’t ever want to be locked out.
Do It Yourself
Here you have the most control over when it gets done. If you want an update on your website now… you can log in and update it now.
And if you have the time and are willing to learn the basics of WordPress, then this is a great option.
Keep in mind your time and what are the tasks you should be doing. If you’re busy and you can delegate updates: you should.
Have An Assistant Do It
This can be someone on your staff, or a virtual assistant you hire as needed to make updates that is different than your designer.
The benefit here is that none of your time is taken up. Also, with a little bit of training, nearly anyone can make simple updates in WordPress so you’ll likely spend less than having a skilled designer making updates.
However, you’ll still want to know the basics of how the website is updated. That way you know how complicated an update is, so you can delegate the task to the proper person.
If you have an existing website, take a look at it. What elements could use some updating?
Some companies tend to spend on a new website and let it be for a few years until it’s outdated and scaring away customers, then spend even more to get a new design. And repeat the process.
By keeping your website up to date and well managed, you’ll save in the long run by not needing to do a complete re-design as often.
What needs updating on your site? And who’s going to make the changes for you? Leave a comment below.