Refresh, update and manage your website: It's easier than ever

Nearly every one of our clients voices this one goal at some point: to make its website a vibrant, up-to-date representation of the organization's offerings, vision and brand. The good news is that it is getting easier every day to do just that, even for companies with not-so-expansive marketing budgets and limited staff time and technical know-how.

There are several increasingly popular development platforms that allow companies and organizations to be nimble and to easily take advantage of useful capabilities including generation of e-news bulletins, and creation of charts/tables, surveys, event calendars, and a whole lot more.

One of the website development platforms van Schouwen Associates increasingly uses for clients who want broad capabilities and simpler self-management of their sites is WordPress. It is an especially good choice for any website the client would like to update in-house without needing a trained Web developer for everyday changes.

Optimally, the development process itself involves using Web development pros: In our case, van Schouwen Associates builds the site (planning, design, writing, programming, installation of tools/plug-ins, and often some admin training for the client). If the client desires, we then hand over the keys – and assure the client that we're here anytime they want support or to further expand their site's capabilities and scope.

Will WordPress be a good platform option for your next website?

• As of August 2011, open-source WordPress powered 22% of all new websites. According to BuiltWith (a firm that monitors internet technology trends) WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) on the internet. It's not just for blogs anymore!

• Open source means frequent updates - so your site can stay up-to-date and browser compatible.

• WordPress provides design templates, but developers can go well beyond these, and a WordPress site can be elegant and highly customized. It does not have to scream "I am WordPress." At all.

• The site can integrate any of a multitude of custom plug-ins to expand its functionality... from events calendars, survey capabilities, table and graph development, and email/newsletter delivery to... well, you name it.

• Non-web developers will enjoy the WYSIWYG editing previews (what you see is what you get); including WordPress’ image upload and editing capabilities – scale, crop, rotate... done.

WordPress is certainly not the only such tool to facilitate ease of website management – but it is one great option to explore. If you'd like to talk with us about your website and related communication needs, we would enjoy discussing this and other development options to create a strong, dynamic and ultimately successful website.