In Web Design & Development, Your Best Investment is in Experience

When starting or redesigning a website you're faced with a myriad of decisions, many of which determine what level of investment you'll be making to get the project completed. One of the biggest factors is the platform, or Content Management System (CMS) that will run your website. Here's a little information to keep in mind when making your decision.

What Your CMS Should Do.

Undoubtably anyone that builds a website today will (if they have a head on their shoulders) put it on a content management system which should allow you to easily (<= emphasis here) modify your content. You've got a business to run; you don't need to trip through some major set of components that leave you stumped. Through my experience I've found that the vast majority of clients that are dropped onto Drupal or Wordpress find themselves in this situation and it shows. Outdated and missing content are the biggest indicators of this.

Lots of content management systems come with everything - form builders, advanced image gallery managers, customer polls, mapping API's, and the list goes on. Great right? You have everything you need. Well, everything you need comes at the cost of actually being able to work with your website. Let's be honest - you need to be able to update information presented to your customers, change content from time-to-time, and respond to customer requests. A good content management system will allow you to easily do those things. If you need more functionality the CMS will allow your developer to add it in, configure it for your use-case and begin using the functionality without needing to take an online course and without a massive price tag.

If your web developer wants to throw you on ANY content management system they should be able to provide you with a solid reason for doing so and should show you ahead of time how you will interact with your website. If you don't feel comfortable say something up front; getting through development and then deciding that letting someone else make all the decisions was the wrong way to go isn't a good position to be in.

'Custom' Can Mean a Lot of Things

Every website is different, and I'm not just talking about design here. Starting with a solid base and building exactly what you need both visually and functionally is vital. Some would say that this costs more money, but the oppisite is almost always the case. "Custom" has a bad name amongst some less-educated developers out there - thinking that it means building everything from scratch, but here's something to chew on:

An experienced firm has been faced with many different requests and has built up resources to allow for quick deployment of custom solutions. Experienced firms don't build 'from scratch', they utilize work they have done in the past to tailor a solution to your specific needs. Just as some "off-the-shelf" firms will install Wordpress or Joomla plugins, templates, etc and spend time tweaking it to fit your website - a firm with a solid grasp of the market will implement a solution they know works well and then customize it to fit your needs. The difference is that more experienced firm knows the solution will work, while one with a weaker handle on the market will download a plugin and spend time (yes, equalling money here) trying to learn how to make it work.

The Take-Away

Every website is custom. If you're looking for a price difference between 'custom' and 'off-the-shelf' you won't find it. You'll find it in the knowledge and experience of the people you utilize to build the best solution for you.