Design websites that the client can edit
I got a call from a potential client the other day and he asked me a very simple question.
“Once you’ve created the website for me will you charge me every time I want to edit one of the pages?”
And, although this is not the first time I have heard this question, it still amazes me every time I hear it. Some web agencies create websites which their client has absolutely no ability to change once completed. This isn’t standard practice in the industry but it does happen.
If you have a website, it is never a question of if you want to change it; it’s always a question of when you want to change it.
Get your website set up with a Content Management System that is easy to use
A Content Management System (CMS) is software, implemented as a web application, that manages web sites. It should have an intuitive user interface that makes navigating to the page and changing it as easy as updating a text document on your computer.
There’s many great CMSs that enable you to create, edit and delete pages at will and, there’s even better news, a lot of them are free!
WordPress
WordPress is a fantastic web publishing platform which focuses on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. And, as it is open source, it’s free. “Free and priceless at the same time”. As you can see from the screenshot below there is a WYSIWYG interface which can be mastered easily.
I have written extensively about the setting up WordPress and creating and editing web pages using the WordPress UI.
WordPress is actually blogging software that is fast being used as the most simple and robust CMS. If you just want pages, with sub-pages, and maybe even sub-sub-pages that will be created and deleted along the way then WordPress can be set up to do that for you. Your web designer will not have to be involved at all. And, if you’re interested in improving your site’s position in search engines and you’d like to publish more than just web pages, then add a blog to your site. WordPress will do that easily!
I appreciate that many of my visitors will know this already but I felt I had to state the basics of WordPress as it’s potential as a CMS is so awesome people should know about it. As does that potential client I mentioned earlier, who’s now a client!
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Or, easier but obviously less featured, you could use regular html files and make them editable using ezedit
This is a post that is very helpful especially for clients who would want to know if they can possibly have a web page that they can change. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Paul and James. I’ve never heard of EZedit but it looks good, Paul. Thanks for your comment, James.
Wordpress is an awesome platform to use for CMS. It also comes with a cool range of plugins.
Hey Tom, not only that, a huge number of users which creates a support system that can help you out when you need it. I’m a big fan of WordPress!
it is not easy that you can edit work of others without alot of experience, but still there are thousands of opensource tools and softwares that helps you alot, thats really not only helping i mean they are really great, i personally like WordPress very much.. thats for this great sharing….
Thank you, Shawn, for the comment.