http://www.sajim.co.za/editorial.main.4nr1.asp?print=1


   
  Editorial Vol.4(1) March 2002

Managing Web site content - alternatives and options 
Guest Editorial 

A while back, an organization made a huge impression on clients and potential customers if 
it had its own Web site and printed the URL on its stationery. In times when a forward slash 
and tilde separated the host's domain and the organization's name (www.host.co.za/~ 
organization), it was even more remarkable when the organization's URL consisted of its 
name followed by a 'dotcom' or 'dotcoza' (www.organization.com).  

Apart from people asking 'Have you seen their Web site?' not much attention was given to 
Web sites in terms of keeping them updated. Because the organization's history, vision, 
mission and contact numbers hardly ever changed, nobody realized the need to update the 
Web site. 

Six or seven years later things have changed drastically. An enormous amount of hype 
surrounds magnetism, stickiness and eyeballs. Without proper content, services and facilities, 
a user will not be attracted to the Web site. Companies also have to add value to the user's 
experience when accessing the Web site and using the content, services and facilities, 
otherwise he or she will not return to the Web site. 

The content challenge 

The question about how to manage Web site content and to ensure that users return to the 
Web site is often asked. When concentrating purely on updating the content and ignoring all 
other aspects such as uploading the new Web pages to the server, a couple of options exist. 
However, depending on the organization's budget, not all options would suit all 
organizations. 

The popular what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editors would allow a person with 
very little experience of Web design to update and maintain Web content. The limitations 
associated with WYSIWYG editors include their tendency to include their own formatting in 
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) by changing fonts and colours, as well as a lack of 
experience to successfully create and present professional and corporate content and images. 

Hiring an experienced Webmaster would solve the problem, but the organization is faced 
with additional expenses in terms of salary, pension and medical aid. And what happens 
when the Webmaster takes leave? Could the organization afford for the Web site to remain 
unchanged while the Webmaster visits an exotic destination for three weeks? 

The alternative to this would be to outsource the maintenance of the Web site. For a monthly 
fee, a service level agreement is drawn up and the Web site is maintained close on 365 days 
of the year. When one takes the hourly charge-out rate into consideration, which may vary 
between R100 for the one-man organization to R360 for large organizations with tremendous 
overheads, this could be an expensive alternative. 

The solution? 



A possible solution is to have the Web site developed where the content is captured into a 
database and not the Web page itself. This content is merely read from the database and 
displayed whenever a Web page is accessed, a process which is transparent to the end-user. 
An access-controlled administration Web site provides access to the database to update and 
maintain the content by means of simple input fields, something even the inexperienced 
person would be capable of performing. The organization could rest assured that the Web 
site design, layout and formatting would remain the same. 

With the advent of Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Extensible Stylesheet Language 
(XSL), the process of maintaining and updating Web site content may become even easier to 
manage within the broad scope of Web site management. 

Craig de Beer 
cdeb@rau.ac.za  

Comments on the above can be sent to: 
Pieter van Brakel 
Editor 
pavb@rau.ac.za  

Disclaimer 

Articles published in SAJIM are the opinions of the authors and do not 
necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editor, Board, Publisher, Webmaster 
or the Rand Afrikaans University. The user hereby waives any claim 
he/she/they may have or acquire against the publisher, its suppliers, 
licensees and sub licensees and indemnifies all said persons from any 
claims, lawsuits, proceedings, costs, special, incidental, consequential or 
indirect damages, including damages for loss of profits, loss of business or 
downtime arising out of or relating to the user’s use of the Website. 

 

ISSN 1560-683X

Published by InterWord Communications for the Centre for Research in Web-based Applications,
Rand Afrikaans University