5 Things Every Website Owner Should Know
Oh the horror stories on web designers or developers, they seem to be in abundance, I hear them all the time. The reason for this is not always that designers or developers are bad people it’s just that most people don’t know what they are getting themselves into.
They don’t understand what’s “under the hood” of website design because let’s face it unless this is something you do for a living, learnt in school or just have a general knack for you’re not going to know this stuff, it boils down to mainly ignorance - lack of knowledge on the topic. Which is fine until it’s time to get a website built yourself.
The problem is most website providers from my experience are not taking the time to educate their prospective clients, helps to understand what to expect before and after the website design process. Often many service providers are doing this as a hustle for quick money.
So in this post I am going to share 5 Basic Things You Should Know about your website, even if you have one already. They are:
Ownership of your domain.
The platform that your site is on.
The theme or template that your site is using.
Ability to make changes
Your Log-In information
Before you roll your eyes at this silly simple list, believe it or not many people do not know these things. And if you are this person, don’t feel bad, now is your time to learn and take solace that many people out there don’t know these things.
So let’s get in to it shall we.
You MUST have ownership of your domain.
What I mean by this is, you should have purchased this domain yourself, have it registered until your name or have the domain name transferred to you to your own account on a site like namechape, go daddy, IONOS.com, etc. Purchasing your domain is as simple as as shopping on Amazon, you add your desired name to cart and pay. It’s as simple as that. If you need a step by step tutorial you can check that out here.
2. The platform is your site hosting on.
Do you know what platform your site is on. Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix? As the owner of your website you should know what platform your website is on. This will determine what kind of aftercare support you will need, as different platforms requires different things and they vary a lot. It’s kind of like owning a car and not knowing what brand of car you own, so when it’s time for maintenance you don’t know what dealership to go too. I know I use a lot of car analogies but it’s so practical and makes it the most simple to explain it that way.
3. The template your site is built with.
Knowing the template your site is built with is not crucial but it is important and good to know and is useful information when having preliminary conversations with anyone about needing help with your site or learning the ins and outs of maintaining your site yourself. Think of your template as the recipe or ingredients used for building a masterpiece. Each template functions a little differently than others and each one has different layouts to learn and understand.
4. Is your website built on a CMS application
CMS means Content Management System, it gives you the ability to manage the content of your website easily, on your own, or by a member of your staff without the need of knowing code. In other words you can make changes yourself. Which everyone wants that ability. To have the freedom to make changes without needing a developer, someone who knows how to code. You do not want your site to be hard coded so please ensure before choosing a designer or when you have chosen to work with someone that they are not hard coding your website. For most small, medium and even large businesses, you don’t need a site coded from scratch anymore.
5. Do you know the Log-In for your website
As the owner of your website you must have access to your own website, with administrative rights. When a site is built you should expect to have a hand over session where you understand how to make updates and make minor changes yourself. If your prospective service provider is not doing this, this is a major red-flag. This should come as part of the package. But back to the point, the point is part of the hand over package is access to the site and this means you should have your log-in information to your website.
So I hope if you are a website owner who has a website you have these things already and if not, you should take action steps to obtaining this information and learning the back-end of your own website, enough to know how to make updates, change text and upload photos.
If you enjoyed this post, share and comment below. If you have any questions feel free to get in touch. I would be happy to hear from you on what you would like to know about next.