Lately we have received calls from several business owners who need a new website but want to be able to make website changes themselves. One of my first questions is “Why do you want to do website maintenance yourself?”
I know from experience that this usually isn’t a good idea. Most (if not all) of these owners have no experience in website design and don’t realize making changes on a website is not like writing an email or making changes in a Word document.
Not as easy as you think
They don’t know anything about html code (nor should they) and therefore, don’t know what it entails. Some have set up a LinkedIn or Facebook page and probably think making changes on their website will be that easy.
Well, it’s not. Those systems have been designed to be easy and extremely user-friendly to use. Of course, that’s also why there are limitations on what you can do and why all pages basically look the same.
It’s great they can do that, however, making changes on your website is a much different process-even if you have a CMS (content management system). Once I start explaining how things work, I usually don’t get very far before the business owner says, “That’s more complicated than what I thought.”
Do you have extra time?
Most business owners simply don’t have the time to manage their website. The owners I talk with are already working 10‑hour days (plus weekends), so adding one more job to an overloaded schedule isn’t realistic.
They could delegate the work to an employee, but that comes with drawbacks:
- Lost productivity: Any time spent on the website is time taken away from sales, customer service, and the daily tasks that actually keep the business running.
- Skill mismatch: Employees aren’t trained in web work, and we’ve already shown that updating a website is far more complex than typing an email or posting on social media.
- Higher risk of mistakes: Without proper training, even small website changes can create bigger issues that require more time and money to fix.
That’s why most owners end up stuck—they don’t have the time, their team doesn’t have the training, and the website keeps falling further behind.
Hiring out for web maintenance
It’s all about owners being productive with their time. Business owners should focus all their energy on running their business (making sales and more money) as opposed to stressing about updating their website.
Hiring a company to do website maintenance is often the right choice. It takes the stress of their website off their plate and puts it in the hands of experts, where it belongs.
Here at Sleepy Dog Media, we offer monthly digital marketing plans, which include website maintenance and other services all aimed at increasing the online visibility in businesses to bring in more sales.
