The Manager’s Guide to Running a Company Website

Are you being held hostage by an over-tasked IT department or a webmaster who keeps you in the dark with high-tech mysteries?

Perhaps your situation isn’t as dire as this, but in an economic environment where websites have proven success and increasing importance, understanding website management may save you both headaches and dollars.

Overview

This white paper reviews the short history of websites and how some companies have fallen into a knowledge void on how to continue managing the website. Changes in software, Internet servers and skill levels required are discussed to reveal where the real costs are today. Finally outsourcing is compared with internal costs to reveal how a manager needs to blend both for successful website management.

Topics

Content management, webmaster skill, website cost containment, in-house webmasters, outsourcing web content, web writers, database driven websites.

SKILLS

To understand who should be contributing to the website, it is necessary to know how much of each skill set must contribute to the total. The specialized tasks are listed below for the basic site which does not include online applications.

TECHNICAL COSTS

Technical duties can vary widely in an organization. They are generally allocated to the mission-critical applications for day-to-day operations. They are expensive, and usually in short supply. The technical issues of today’s websites are largely outsourced to large, highly efficient companies called server warehouses. These facilities are far more secure, and staffed by high-level technicians focused on internet servers only. The cost for hosting an average large website is literally in the few-dollars-per-day category (a fee that would be used up by internal technicians in about five minutes!) When organizations attempt to serve general websites in-house, they spend hundreds of times the necessary costs.

CONTENT

Content is the critical issue; it is core of telling your company story. In general, this very important aspect of the website usually stays in-house. Good web companies will be open and collaborate with in-house personnel by discussing issues of web writing, SEO, and key word usage (which have become critical since Google).

INSOURCING VS OUTSOURCING

Companies have many talented people. By examining the costs of each skill required, it becomes apparent that certain skills are best outsourced, while some (notably content creation) must have strong internal involvement. Few web companies have the expertise to assist with primary content development.

ONLINE APPLICATIONS

The cost structure changes dramatically when an online application is developed or a database is used as the backend of a website. Both approaches are highly technical and require a manager’s careful study.

DATABASES

Many database applications were introduced several years ago to handle very large websites where hundreds of new “pages” were added monthly or even daily. The large scale of these huge websites (10,000 pages or more of information), caused programmers to realize that with a user interface they would no longer need to have a webmaster to flow design or post all content.

MANAGEMENT

Each website should have a key inside person who will be responsible for keeping the site current, relevant, and growing. This person needs to be a champion of the Internet, and have the ability to coordinate and motivate others to provide the content.

SUMMARY

The importance of good websites will only increase over time. Good websites require a serious look at what you do, and an explanation of how and why you do it. Websites must be current, and they should have new content continually added, so they are SEO friendly. (For more on SEO see our white paper on this issue).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ronald Burgess has been involved in computer technology since the Apple II was first used in business. Formally educated in design and business, he has been a consultant to business for twenty-five years in the area of strategic marketing. As an early adopter of the Internet, he has worked with clients to develop websites since mid-1990’s. Mr. Burgess has written over one hundred articles on business strategy, marketing, and technology. Out of frustration from working with webmasters, he started RedFusion Media in 1998 with wife Molly and son Jon. RedFusion Media currently manages over 200 websites for municipalities, non-profits, mid-sized companies and agencies, and is the leading web maintenance company in its regional market of Inland Southern California.