A common pitfall when planning your online goals is budgeting for the initial costs but not the ongoing costs. Building a beautiful website is separate from maintaining and marketing that website.
Purchasing a website is a lot like buying a car. You spend a lot of time researching the look and style, the features you want/need, and then hunt for the best deal. However, once your car is purchased you don’t just use it for a weekend trip; you want that car to last as long as possible. That means regular maintenance, as well as associated expenses like insurance, license renewals, car washes, not to mention the unforeseen (accidents, broken parts, etc.). Much in the same way you need to maintain your website. The initial cost might get you from point A to B but eventually it breaks down and before that it starts to look old and beat up. After time your site can start to break down: links can break as pages change locations or disappear; designs can stop displaying properly as technology advances; contact info or services change as your business evolves…
Purchasing a website is a lot like buying a car. However, once your car is purchased you don’t just use it once for a weekend trip; you want that car to last as long as possible.
Websites need to stay current especially in today’s fast-paced, real-time environment. Beyond the basic updates to changes in your company, your web content needs to be updated with new information and interesting content. It’s important for your users to be able to see that there’s movement in your company and that the information is accurate and up to date (if not up to the minute). Search engines like Google give priority to sites with changing content and downgrade sites that lay stagnant.
Over the last five years the type of sites we build has changed from static to constantly evolving. Over 75% of the sites we build now are on some form of Content Management System (CMS), like WordPress, which allows users to add and modify pages on the site without any knowledge of web design, or programming, much in the way you would use a word processor. This way our clients don’t have to pay us every time they want to update or make changes to the content of the site. They only hire us to add functionality or change the design. The other popular option is our Monthly Packages where there are no initial costs to build the site but a monthly fee that includes all the maintenance and support which we handle for our clients.
Whether building, maintaining, or marketing your brand’s online presence Web by Craig can guide you through the entire process and make it painless and effective. Contact us now for your free consultation.
