Choosing a way to update your content

Chapter 6 discusses the importance of updating content regularly and the type of information that should be updated. To make changes cost‐effectively, you need a method of changing content that doesn't require knowing HTML or paying your Web designer every time you need a small change.

Updates are critical to your customers' perceptions of your company, as well as to search engine ranking. Decide how you will update your site before you start developing it. You have several choices, none of which require technical knowledge beyond word processing:

• Have your developer handle the updates. On a small, HTML‐only site, updates are fairly easy. Ask your developer to quote a price for development and/or hosting that includes an hour of support per month.

• Do the updates yourself. Template‐based sites allow you to update content at any time, without any special knowledge.

• Use Macromedia Contribute. Macromedia Contribute software (www.adobe.com/products/contribute) allows you and/or other content experts to update an HTML site without knowing any HTML. Let your developer know in advance if you plan to use this software, which starts at $149 for a single site license.

• Use your developer's CMS. Many developers have written their own password‐protected, inhouse, content management systems (CMSs). They might call this capability their admin pages or backroom. Some customize CMS software that they purchase to offer all their clients. The complexity and flexibility of a proprietary CMS depends totally on the developer, but it rarely requires technical knowledge. However, a proprietary CMS is generally tied to a particular developer or host. If the company goes out of business or you switch to another provider or host, you might lose this access.

• Use an open source CMS. Open source (software whose source code is available to developers to use, modify, and redistribute without charge) CMSs are free, with many customizable options. They're generally designed for fairly large sites with many pages, a product database, or a structured approval process. Of the dozens of alternatives, your developer will select one based on the type of Web site you have, the language it's written in, the features you need, the skills of your staff, and what they themselves are familiar with. Most online store packages (see Chapter 5) already incorporate the ability for ordinary staff members to manage the product catalog and store; you need a separate CMS for nonstore pages.

• Buy a commercial CMS. Paid CMSs exist at all prices and levels of sophistication. They're often built in to high‐end, enterprise‐level, Web development systems. In large, corporate environments, many content experts need different levels of access to specific pages. Some such Web development packages are designed for certain environments, such as colleges or publications.