For the past couple of years there has been a shift towards customers using a Content Management System (CMS) to update their own web content. This is probably in response to the drastic improvement in the tools now available to the everyday user, as well as the fact that end-users themselves have become more computer savvy in general. If they can master do-it-yourself web apps such as Twitter and Facebook, why not their own website?

From a web design business perspective it also makes a lot of sense to empower the client to make the smaller, more frequent updates, since it can be difficult to effectively coordinate and price out these types of requests.

Now that people are getting used to updating their own content using a CMS, we are starting to notice other trends; and not necessarily positive ones.

The first is that self-updated page content tends to slowly degrade in layout integrity over time, manifesting itself in poor spacing, inappropriate fonts and colors, and oversized images. This can be the result of clunky HTML code, written automatically behind the scenes by the online editor, slowly accumulating on the backend and causing difficult-to-correct formatting issues. Other causes of poor layout are text that is incorrectly copy and pasted from programs like Word and other websites, as well as using other improper techniques to add and format content inside the online editor.

The second trend is that although anyone can now cut and paste text and upload images, the overall visual appeal of the arrangement will have a hard time reaching the professional standards of a trained web designer. Similar to a lawn that was landscaped by a professional, cutting the grass and trimming the hedges yourself will only retain some of that original quality.

There is no doubt that we will continue to build CMS powered websites in the future. But as a firm that prides itself in helping customers retain a professional web presence after the initial build phase is over, it is our duty to make sure that we set the correct expectations regarding the limitation of the CMS, and take actions to ensure that over time the quality of the website goes up, not down.

As we begin to focus on upgrading our web management services in 2011, we will be putting additional procedures in place to provide more value to our clients. By focusing our attention to the monitoring and management of website content, and investing additional time and resources in our existing and future web management clients, the potential value of their web presence will be realized. It is our goal to apply the mantra that the creation of a website is just the beginning; continued attention is what will grow it into an effective and valuable web presence.