How do I maintain my site?

Website maintenance is an ongoing requirement and has two components:

Content maintenance of your website which can be as easy as verifying that your site is still “up” and validating that the links throughout your site are active. It can also be as demanding as daily material postings to your site that change the content, look, and/or texture of your site as well as changes the retail offerings, the prices, and the descriptions of merchandise.

Service maintenance of your site is a technical and carried out by your hosting site. It is decided when you contract website capacity and services from a hosting company. The decision or choice of a hosting site should include  maintenance and site security factors that meet your needs and allow your site services to grow. However, if you outgrow your web host, you can easily move your URL to a new host – if your URL address is not a free URL attached to the host’s base URL.

This component, which includes providing and keeping the necessary software programs that enable your site to perform the tasks your customer want, such as credit card payment, searchable database options, password protection areas and the like, will not be addressed further here. It is addressed in "How Much Will a Website Cost?" and through comparison sites such as www.avehost.com/web_hosting.htm,  home.verio.net/products/hosting/comparisonecom.cfm, and www.appliedi.net/virtualservers/.

Content maintenance: Maintaining the look and contents of your website

Simple verification of a static website by you or any employee.

Or daily/weekly maintenance carried out by an assigned and “web-trained” employee or a contracted webmaster. Over-time, in-house or dedicated employee web attention has the advantage of cost, control, and timely attention to your site in order to best serve your business needs and requirements.

For simple, promotional  “beginner” sites, use a free system host that has the software built into the host website. The web-building and maintenance is simple, and all you do is follow the directions to build, post, and maintain your website. No special training or software is required, but you cannot move your URL – it is owned by the host.

Example: http://www.smallbusinesslearning.net/default.asp link to Free Web Services - This site, by the national Association of Small Business Centers, offers a free, limited-size, small business site that is easy to build and maintain and offers a number of templates for different businesses.

For low cost and low maintenance, use hosts and business sites that provide options between using at-the-site web software or commercial software – and more importantly let you have your own unique URL address.

Example: http://www.bcentral.com/bizweb/BW_index.asp Microsoft’s Central Web Services has its own on-web software that anyone can master without training or you can use commercial web software to build the site. It too offers business templates. It cost $24.95/month (includes getting your URL and a number of online services) and the cost of your employee’s time.

  For mid-cost web maintenance, use in-house employees trained on commercial web software such as Microsoft FrontPage or Dreamweaver which allow you to have an in-house Webmaster. There are numerous quality training courses on the web, at community colleges, or through university systems that provide the training necessary. The software is available through web software stores or through your computer vender and cost from $130 to $350. FrontPage comes with MS Office Professional.

  For higher end sites, your business can contract with web design firms, some of which can also serve as your webmaster. There are thousands of companies providing this service and the costs range from a few hundred dollars a year to tens of thousands, depending upon the site your business requires.

Example: http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Networking/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/Web_Site_Designers/By_Region/U_S__States/North_Carolina/Complete_List/ - a listing of North Carolina web designers from Yahoo.com.

A combined approach incorporates hiring a web design firm that designs your website in MS FrontPage, Dreamweaver, or other web-authoring software so that your company can takeover the maintenance through an in-house, web-trained employee. Upfront costs are higher, but the long-term maintenance costs are reduced.

"Updating Your Website"

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