In our IMA Update this month, we report on several long-time IMA clients for whom we have converted Web sites to enable updates using Macromedia Contribute. For all of these organizations, doing their own updates made sense for several reasons: speed, control, and cost savings. In fact, nearly all of our newer sites are constructed to enable clients to update their own pages. We see this as a natural progression of Internet technology.
 
However, we caution our clients that there is much to consider when you decide to take maintenance in house. Today’s software tools can remove the need for HTML programming skills from site updates. But other skills are required that some clients just don’t anticipate. So, we’ve put together the following tips to remember when embarking to maintain your own site.
 

1. Establish distinct site update roles within your organization, to eliminate confusion.
   At IMA, we made it easy for our clients – they could e-mail us a change, and wouldn’t have to know who made it or checked it. When you’re doing the work yourselves, however, someone has to initiate the change, someone has to physically make it, and someone has to approve it. It may help to think of this as the initiator being the business stakeholder, the person making the change being the writer or Web developer, and the person approving it being the editor. Which leads us to the next two points....
   
   
2. Establish and adhere to a Web site style guide.
   It’s easy for a site to get out of hand quickly when a number of people are making changes to it. Here at IMA, we have a sensibility for using Web style sheets appropriately, and supply our clients with those style sheets when we hand over a converted site. But it takes discipline to employ those style sheets correctly, and people who don’t know the chaos that can occur when they aren’t used can tend to substitute style sheet elements that contain the formatting they want. But there are several problems that can occur down the line, best encapsulated in a previous article, in Issue 4, “Here’s Why They Call it Cascading.”
   
   
3. Have one person on staff to serve as Web editor.
   Editorial inconsistencies – not controlled by web style sheets but by the human beings inputting the content – can be another way your site begins to look “sloppy.” We suggest creating a Web style guide that not only captures the style sheet information mentioned above, but also addresses the spelling and formatting conventions used by the organization.  Is it “theater” or “theatre”? Do you capitalize all product names, boldface them, or leave them like the rest of the text? There are no wrong answers – except for inconsistent usage. So someone needs to serve the role of watchdog, keeping an eye out for these.
   
   
4. Make sure everyone on staff knows whom to communicate with – and reach out to them periodically as well.
   Often, sites get out of date because people who know about changes to the organization are not communicating with the Web team. Make sure everyone on staff knows that it is their responsibility to communicate when they believe an update to the site is in order. Stress the fact that no one should assume a change will be made automatically.  Then, in addition, have someone on the Web team designated to reach out to those individuals who are the movers and shakers in your organization periodically. It takes effort to keep a site up-to-date.
   
   
5. Schedule times to scan the site for outdated content.
   Getting new content online is one thing – keeping old content from cluttering the site and making your organization look disorganized and unprofessional is another. If you put a time-based item onto your site, use your desktop calendar (virtual or physical) to remind yourself when that item needs to come down. In addition, scan the site on a monthly basis to catch any stray items that might have remained on your site past its time. Set a time for this so you don’t forget to do it.
   
   
6. Allocate enough time for Web updates.
   We’ve stressed before that a well-cared-for Web site is a black hole – that it needs to change constantly to keep your organization looking vibrant and up-to-date. Make sure you allocate enough time in your schedule to continue to maintain your site. It’s not just an add-on task; done correctly, it can take considerable time and effort.
   
   

We’d like to hear from you if you agree or disagree with these comments, and would enjoy hearing about your own challenges as you go to maintain your sites. Send your comments to michelle@imediainc.com.