by Matt McGee
One World Telecommunications
posted: May 28, 2004
CMS is one of the big buzzwords (or maybe buzz-acronyms?) these
days in web development. It stands for "Content Management
System", which is basically a tool that allows web site owners
to manage some or all of the content of their web sites. That,
in theory, sounds like a wonderful idea for a business owner --
update your web site whenever you want, say whatever you want,
and never have to pay the web developer to do the work for you.
While we don't toss the phrase "content management system" around
here at OWT, this is actually what we specialize in. Many of
our clients are updating some or all of their own web sites without
having to ask us to do it. KNDU-TV,
for example, posts the local news stories, sports scores, weather,
etc., directly to their own
web site. Ditto with the Tri-City
Americans hockey team. And most
of our E-commerce clients (such as Bookwalter
Winery and Beautydoor)
oversee their own product databases and can add new items, change
prices, or
whatever, at their own convenience. Based on our experience,
this arrangement can be very successful for the business / web
site owner.
But it doesn't work for every client in every situation. If you're
thinking you'd like to manage the content of your
web site, you must be prepared to have this level
of control over and committed to following through.
Commitment
When a web site project is just starting, everyone in the company
seems to have the energy and determination to agree to anything
-- "Sure, we'll write a newsletter every week if it's that
easy to post it ourselves on the web site!" But follow-through
is rare. We've all been to web sites where the "current newsletter" is
months or (God forbid) years old. In that case, it would be better
not to have a newsletter at all than to have an outdated one showing
as your most recent work.
Personnel changes may also have a negative impact in this area.
If "Sally
the Product Manager" is your company's web site expert,
and she has great energy and commitment and is cranking out
fresh content
on a regular basis, that's great. Hopefully she likes to write
and has started producing a regular newsletter that your customers
love. But what happens when Sally gets reassigned or leaves
your company, and Fred comes in to replace her? He's a great
Product
Manager, but what if he doesn't have that same commitment to
the web site? That's a problem.
If you make a commitment to managing
your web site, the commitment must be company-wide, not just
from one individual. You, as a company, have to commit to hiring
people to manage the web site content. It's got
to be
part
of
the job
description,
and
not
one of those "we'll find someone to deal with it" projects.
Control
You may save your company some time and money by doing your
own web site content updates, but this control may also
hurt your
bottom line. Here's a theoretical example: XYZ Widgets
was smart enough
to hire a professional web development company to create
a great web site. The content of each page was written with
great
care
to help make the site search engine-friendly, and to help
convert traffic into customers. And it's working -- traffic
is up,
orders are up, and everyone's happy.
Then along comes Dave from Sales to start managing the
web site content. He's given this new responsibility
and feels
he needs
to do something. He rewrites that great copy and ...
poof! There go your high rankings in the search engines, there
go your visitors,
there go your orders, etc. Dave had too much control.
Be careful about you want to manage on your site. The more
control you
have, the more opportunities for problems.
Reality Check
It's also important to have some perspective on what
a CMS (or whatever you want to call it) can and can't
do.
It will
let you
control some or all of the content on your web site,
but it won't make you a good writer. Poorly written
copy is
a guaranteed
way
to lose potential customers. Typos, bad spelling,
and improper grammar and punctuation are all things that
will make your
web site -- and thus, your company -- look like the
work of an amateur.
It also won't get you to start writing new content.
It'll make it easier, but if you're not already
writing quality
newsletters
or other content for your web site, a new gadget
isn't likely to inspire you to start.
In the end, what's most important is to be realistic
about managing content on your web site. Be realistic
about how
high your commitment
level really is. Be realistic about how much
control you really need. And be realistic about your ability
to write
content
that feeds search engines and captivates your
site visitors. Managing
content can be a great idea for some web site
owners, but it's not for everyone.
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