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Don’t go out and hire a conventional web site designer – it is a waste of money. Static web sites are a thing of the past - with modern content management and blogging systems, conventional web site design is obsolete.
Conventional Websites
When I started my first web site in the early 1990′s, the only way to build a site was using HyperText Markup Language (HTML) codes – usually done by hand. It was painful – and difficult to update A few years later, we saw the rise of website editors that allowed you to edit a web page using a program much like a word processor, and the program would take care of converting what you see on the screen to HTML code.
The idea of a static web editor carries on today with programs like Microsoft Expression Web, Coldfusion, Dreamweaver and others. If you hire most web designers, they will likely make you a very pretty site based using one of these popular programs.
However, a pretty site will not necessarily attract traffic, and the static site will likely be difficult for you, the business owner, to update and change yourself.
Using a Content Management System
So what’s the better alternative? A content management system (CMS)/blog. What’s a CMS? Simply a piece of software that puts all of your content in a database so it can be easily updated and displayed in different ways. Most modern CMS systems can manage your articles, pictures, pages, and even multimedia files such as audio and video. Examples of CMS systems include WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and others. I personally use WordPress, as it is free and easy to customize.
Lets look at some of the advantages of a CMS over a conventional static web site:
- Easy to Update – CMS systems include an editor so you can add new pages and articles yourself
- Many People can Add to It - Since the CMS is hosted on your web host, several people can log into it and collaborate or add content simultaneously
- Easy to Change the Look and Feel – CMS systems allow you to pick templates to change the look and style of your web site in a few minutes without losing your content. Doing this on a conventional site would take many hours.
- Easy to Back up and Maintain – Since your content is stored in a database, it is very easy to make a backup copy and in many cases even migrate your whole site to another web host if needed
- Multimedia Capable - CMS systems allow you to add pictures, audio and video content easily
- Fresh Content – CMS’s support blogging so you can add new articles, videos or audio on a regular basis – which makes them much more attractive to search engines and users
- Easy to add New Features – CMS systems like WordPress support “plugins” or “add-ons” that expand the functionality of your web site allowing you to add new features all the time – items like user polls, ads, order forms, contact forms, and much more
- Easy to Syndicate - CMS systems let you publish an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) which means people can subscribe to your site and get updates as they are published
- Search Engine Friendly – With a CMS or blog, it is easy to set up your site so your fresh content gets picked up and quickly indexed by Google and other search engines. This is a huge advantage over static web sites which are visited less frequently and less likely to get you noticed
The last item is a big one – blogs and CMS systems with fresh content have a significant advantage over static web pages when it comes to competing for the top listing on Google or Bing. That is why Online Business Zen uses CMS software called WordPress to display all of our pages, as do my other major sites. I have only one remaining conventional web site and I intend to move it over to WordPress later this year.
What if I Need Help?
I will tell you that hiring someone to set WordPress or another CMS system up for you is a good thing to do if you are not tech-savy. And having someone who knows how to customize your CMS system to optimize it for search engines, add and configure plug-ins or adjust the look and feel is a very good thing. However, you should commit to learning how to add new articles and pages yourself (which is easy to do), and use your web expert to do only the heavy lifting for you.
But please don’t spend hundreds to thousands of dollars having someone build you a conventional web site. It will be obsolete the moment you open it, and is unlikely to draw anywhere near the traffic of a CMS or blog.
Thank you for joining me here at Online Business Zen, where we can help with you get started with your online business. Don’t hesitate to subscribe to my newsletter for more great tips, and upcoming tutorials on starting and using your CMS/blog.
