When you invest in a new website, you’re representing yourself as a company and crafting your biggest sales tool. But companies and teams run differently, and that plays a part in how you manage your website. Your unique needs can determine how your website is built, and how you continue using it. There are several different options when it comes to content management, and we are experienced in providing each one based on your specific needs as a business. Take a look at the different ways your website can be managed and discover which one best suits you.
Determine Your Best Fit
To help you decide, we’ve broken down the different levels of website management into a complexity scale of one to four, with one meaning no internal management, and four meaning a desire for full internal control. Review these reference guidelines to determine your need and the editing experience you can anticipate with each.
As you review these guidelines, keep these questions in mind:
- Who will ultimately manage your website?
- Does continued website support make sense with your internal resources, or with the nature of your website (i.e. ecommerce support)?
- How do your business goals reflect the next steps of your website, once it is launched?
Lastly, it’s important to remember a website is never done! It’s a living tool that requires regular software updates and continual adaptation to reflect your everchanging business.
1. Completely Hands Off: Easy Partnering for all Website Editing
You’re looking for a partner to handle one-off requests, big or small, so you or your team can focus elsewhere.
A good fit for:
- Companies with a small or limited marketing department
- Those looking for a strategic partner to work alongside you
Pros:
- Internal resources aren’t relied on to get work completed
- There’s flexibility to pay for only what you need
- Technical support is readily available
Cons:
- All website changes and general site maintenance will need to be completed by an outside partner
- There’s little internal understanding of the technical mechanics
Considerations:
Consider how often your website content may need changes, or what’s next after launch. This is a good case for an ongoing support agreement, where website maintenance and ongoing requests can be completed by your partner. They keep your website up-to-date and provide support when you need it.
2. Explicit Guard Rails: Simplified and Easy Content Editing
This is a good option for when you want your team to update copy or images, and add new case studies or news content from time to time. There are strict guard rails in place to keep content editors from making significant website changes, but also the flexibility to keep content updated and relevant.
A good fit for:
- An active marketing team who may post content from time to time but will not touch much else
- Companies with strict brand guidelines that require pre-defined designs
- Websites with strict ADA Compliance, where guardrails and semi-regular reviews may be required
- Small teams looking to bring in support for larger ongoing website projects
Pros:
- Manageable by an internal team for most day-to-day tasks
- Little risk of running into issues or breaking functionality
- Only pay for what you need, whether support or a single project
- Technical support is readily available
Cons:
- Limitations in sitewide design, technical functionality and/or editing control
- Requires a little technical knowhow around content changes and site maintenance
Considerations: What does editing look like?
Guardrails can be loose or strict, depending on your needs. For example, you can set controls like:
- Only certain sections or pages are editable
- User roles can define who’s able to touch what
- Only specific page types allow content editing
- Content can be pre-defined text fields with no flexibility (see example below)
Source: Advanced Custom Fields
3. Flexible with Support: Page-level Editing Without Touching Global Settings
You want to internally handle copy or image changes and build out new content when desired. Your changes are on a page-level, as opposed to sitewide, and anything larger or more complex will be assisted by a developer.
A good fit for:
- An active marketing team looking to make frequent website changes
- Teams with a little technical savvy and/or well-versed in design
Pros:
- Greater flexibility to control content
- Maintain internal knowledge of the innerworkings of your website
Cons:
- Limitations in some sitewide design, certain technical functionality, and/or editing control
- Requires a little technical knowhow around updates and maintenance
- Presents fewer guardrails to protect design guidelines, ADA compliance, or technical functionality
Considerations: What does editing look like?
Flexibility can be defined by your team’s needs. This can mean strict or flexible guard rails, such as pre-defined page templates or utilizing full-page visual builders. Visual builders give granular control of font sizes, colors, layouts, and more.
Source: Avada
4. Hit the Ground Running: Complete Control Over all Site Designs, Settings and Functionality
This is the perfect choice if you and your team are technologically savvy and want control of everything. This entails full-site editing, including global elements, menus, and layout structures.
A good fit for:
- An active marketing team looking to continuously work on their website
- Teams with a lot of technical savvy and well-versed in design
- Companies looking to partner for development, and then bring management 100% internally
Pros:
- Full and complete control and agency over your website
Cons:
- Accountability, especially for specific needs like design guidelines, ADA compliance, and technical functionality, falls on your team
Considerations: What does editing look like?
In the case of an active, technically savvy content or marketing team, a robust visual builder fits the bill. The cutting edge in WordPress software offers full-site visual builders at a granular level of control. They often tie in front-end development tooling, along with the capability to build out more complex backend functionality if needed.
Source: Oxygen Builder
Start the Conversation
It’s okay to feel some blurred lines between your level of need. This 1-to-4 scale is meant to guide your internal discussions and workflow review and help to inform the conversation with your development partner. These conversations help ensure you’re investing in a website built to meet your unique processes and business goals without dreading that you may be getting in over your head with content management. If you’re upfront about your skill and time commitment to website maintenance, together we can create a website and plan you can feel confident in.