by Website management entails a number of different services that are combined together so you don’t have to worry about running your website. Essentially, when you contract out to a company like ours to manage your website, we do all of the website related work and all you need to do is tell us what you need.
Management can be broken down into three major categories: Security, content management, and website support.
- Website Security
Website security is the most important component of any good website management service. All websites are under constant attack by hackers and cyber criminals. The vast majority of these attacks are automated and are designed to use your website as a platform to infect your visitors’ computers or phish for information. Making sure your site is secure and that the architecture on which it is built is up-to-date is a vital component of any management service. It includes both passive management like setting up good firewalls and things to block potential hackers, and active management which includes things like malware scans and updating your website architecture.
- Content Management
This is the second big component of any website management service. A website should be a static object that never gets updated or improved. The single most important thing you can to do make your website successful is to regularly add content. Adding content to a website is not as simple as pasting some text and clicking publish. Content management includes things like posting blog posts, adding photographs, fixing website pages, and the like.
For example, if you run a restaurant, you will want to keep your menu up to date and add any seasonal menus or specials to the website. Chances are, you don’t want to be hassled to do these things and it is easier to outsource this to an outside company where all you have to do is send them an e-mail and they will do it for you.
An important factor to good content management is optimizing the content for the web. Properly formatting content for the web is an art and a science, and it requires understanding of both HTML but SEO as well. This is also true for posting images, which should be optimized both with tags but compressed in size so they keep your website fast.
- Website Support
I like to lump the rest of the activities into general website support. This is going to encompass a wide range of things. For example, if you want to tweak the layout of the website or change the navigation menu it would be part of your website management service. We also include some other services under this umbrella including adding email addresses, helping with forgotten passwords, and answering any questions you may have related to your website or your online business presence.
All websites require management whether it is being outsourced to a company like Taikun Inc. or it is being done by an employee in house. For many companies, it is far more cost effective to outsource these tasks to a firm that specializes in it, as it is difficult and more expensive to find an employee who is effective at all aspects of management.
Eight Easy Steps to Managing Your Website Development
Managing your website development need not cause you sleepless nights, providing you learn the secrets of successful project management. Perform the best practices in project management and give your project the best chance of success.
- Define Objectives
Objectives guide everyone on the project to your final goals. Are your objectives to sell your product online, to provide customer support, to promote investor relations? Carefully decide and clearly document your objectives.
Decide the critical success factors – the things at the end of the project which tell you if you’ve been successful. Make them measurable so you know if you’ve achieved them. For example, the website development should result in an increase in online sales of 25% by year end.
- Stakeholder Analysis
A stakeholder is someone with an interest in your project’s success (or failure). Decide who they are and whether they support your project. Perform stakeholder analysis by classifying them (high or low) according to how motivated they are in helping (or blocking) your project and how influential (high or low) they are.
Highly influential and supportive people are your allies. Gain their support whenever you can. Aim to reduce the influence of people who are both highly influential and against your project as these people could act to damage your project.
During your stakeholder analysis, draw up strategies for dealing with each group of stakeholders.
- Deliverables
Deliverables are tangible things produced during the project. Talk with key stakeholders to help define deliverables. Will your website design include web page layouts and sitemap for use by the programming team? What is the content for each page? Write all this down.
Key stakeholders must review and agree the deliverables accurately reflect what they expect to be delivered.
- Project Planning
Define how you will arrive at your objectives. This involves planning how many people, resources and budget are required. If delivering this in house, decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.
For example, you might decide a web designer will develop page layouts and navigation diagrams. You might decide the marketing team will supply all product details and photographs. You might decide the finance manager will set up merchant and payment gateway accounts to enable ecommerce transactions via your website. If outsourcing work, specify exactly what the sub-contractor should deliver.
Estimate the time and effort required for each activity and decide realistic schedules and budget. Ensure key stakeholders review and agree the plan and budget.
- Communication Planning
Hold a kick off meeting with the team and explain the plan. Ensure everyone knows exactly what the schedule is, and what is expected of them.
For example, the web designer needs to know that he is to produce page layouts and navigation diagrams based upon the marketing manager’s requirements. He needs to know his expected start and end times.
Share your project communication plan with the team. This should include details of report templates, frequency of reporting and meetings, and details of how conflicts between teams and their members will be resolved.
- Project Tracking
Constant monitoring of variations between actual and planned cost, schedule and scope is required. Report variations to key stakeholders and take corrective actions if variations occur. To get a project back on track you will need to juggle cost, scope and schedule.
Suppose your programmer hits technical problems which threaten to delay the project. You might recover time by re-organising or shortening remaining tasks. If that’s not possible, you might consider increasing the budget to employ an additional programmer, or consider reducing the scope in other areas.
Be aware that any adjustments you make to the plan might affect the quality of deliverables. If you need to increase the budget, seek approval from the project sponsor.
- Change Management
Once started, all projects change. Decide a simple change strategy with key stakeholders. This could be a committee which decides to accept or reject changes which comprises of you and one or more key stakeholders.
Assess the impact of each change on scope, cost and schedule. Decide to accept or reject the change. Be aware that the more changes you accept the less chance you have of completing the project on time and within budget unless you reduce scope in other areas.
Suppose the marketing manager wants to add a pop-up window to display full size photographs of products. Assess the impact of this change. You might need to remove some remaining tasks to include this change and stay within budget. Or, it might be impossible to include the change without increasing the budget or schedule.
Don’t blindly accept changes without assessing the impact or your project will overrun.
- Risk Management
Risks are events which can adversely affect the success of the project. Identify risks to a project early. Decide if each risk is likely or unlikely to occur. Decide if its impact on the project is high or low.
Risks that are likely to occur and have high impact are the severest risks. High impact but unlikely risks, or low impact but likely risks pose a medium threat. Unlikely and low impact risks pose the least threat.
Create a mitigation plan of the actions necessary to reduce the impact if the risk occurs. Start with the severest risks first, then deal with the medium risks. Regularly review risks. Add new ones if they occur.
Suppose the marketing manager cannot decide what he wants from the website. Without knowing what the marketing manager wants, the team cannot deliver a website to meet his expectations. You assess this risk as highly likely to occur and having high impact. Your mitigation plan might be that the web designer develops page layouts to be reviewed by the manager early in the project.
What is website management and its use?
Website management involves many activities including software updates, data backup, website hosting and content updates.
It might also include SEO work, software development, content development, visitor analysis and much more.
Most businesses should actively manage their website to get the best business benefit from it.
What does a website manager do?
A website manager is responsible for making sure a website delivers what it was designed to provide.
This might be a technical solution such as a banking website or a lead generation website used to help with business growth.
CMS on a website
CMS stands for Content Management System. It’s software that helps people with no coding expertise run and manage a website.
Examples of popular content management systems are WordPress, Joomla and Craft.
How much does a website manager cost?
A fulltime website manager in the UK would command a salary of around £30k. Web design agencies charge from about £500/month depending on the complexity of the requirements.
How much does website maintenance cost per month?
Web design agencies generally charge a monthly fee based on the likely requirements. At the lower end, this would be around £200/month rising to several thousand pounds for more demanding requirements.
What is CMS software?
CMS or Content Management Software helps non-technical website managers and editors run and manage a website without the need for any technical expertise.
What is maintenance of a website?
Maintenance of a website involves many things, including keeping the website software updated and secure. It also includes creating copies or backups of the site to safeguard against loss.
What is the average monthly cost for a website?
Monthly costs for a website depend on the size and complexity of the website.
Some costs, such as the website hosting are fixed while other costs such as adding content, vary depending on the amount of content required.
Agencies like us charge from £500/month at the lower end to around £5k/month at the higher end.
Does it cost money to run a website?
Yes. At a minimum, websites require hosting on a server that’s permanently connected to the internet. This creates a cost.
Do websites need maintenance?
Generally, yes. Most websites are built using a CMS or content management system. This needs to be periodically updated and backed up.
Why is maintaining your website important?
A website can be a valuable asset for a business or organization, and a lack of maintenance could result in the site being lost.
As a website is often the first place a person looks when they need information about an organization, keeping the site maintained is very important.
What does website maintenance include?
Website maintenance usual includes hosting, software updates and backups. It can also include content updates and SEO.
What does website maintenance mean?
Website maintenance means any work that’s carried out to ensure a website remains fit for purpose.
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