We build with WordPress. And we’ll teach you how to manage your own site!
One of our key goals at RLC Design, beyond creating compelling and easy to use websites, is to create websites you can manage on your own. Since we started working with website clients across the country we have trained every business that we’ve worked with on managing their own website.
Why would we do this? Keeping a website in a “black box,” and not educating clients on how to manage their own site helps create a captive audience. We could charge monthly and yearly for website updates, page updates, and standard maintenance. But we don’t, because we want clients, not IT hostages. Instead we actually sit down with our clients and train them how to use their own site, cutting ourselves out of a lot of additional maintenance revenue.
Why?
It’s simple. Our goal is to design websites that get the word out to your potential customers. And we want you to be included in the creative process as well as future site management. Educated customers are the best customers. Yes we offer maintenance packages as well. We didn’t at first because we thought every client would want total power over their own site. But as we received client feedback we often heard, “I want the website working, but I have no interest in working on it.” Fair enough. Even with clients who want a “set it and forget it,” we still train them on how to access their site, and everything that goes with it.
What do we train on?
- Basic WordPress usage
- Post Creation (newsletters)
- Page Creation (actual site pages)
- Adding media to the site
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how the client can manage their own SEO
- X Theme usage, for easy re-styling of their site
- Viewing site usage statistics
- Creating events calendars (for our RV Resort destination clients)
- Reaching a wider audience through social media tie ins to the websites we build
- Training videos from start to finish are left with each client so they can refer to the training material whenever they like
RLC Design also caters to individual requests. Bulletin boards, on site messaging systems, reservation systems, and E-Commerce are a few examples of the extras we do. It all depends on the clients’ needs first and foremost. And before we start on their sites we sit down face to face to hash out what it is the client really needs.
Over complicated sites are unnecessary
Built with Dreamweaver, you’re going to have a learning curve if you want to edit the site yourself!
Today’s post comes in response to seeing an attempt by another web design group to mirror the latest WordPress sites out there. Not long ago we contacted a chain of RV Resorts to offer our services. Their websites were severely out of date, copyrights from the last decade, no traffic to speak of, and a hosting group that nickle and dimes for every extra. Clearly the chain received our inquiries, as the design group they work with started working on updates for one of their websites.
Unfortunately the newly designed site built for them is still looking like a black box. Hosted on IIS (Internet Information Server), built with Dreamweaver (requiring quite a learning curve to be sure), and using .asp as well (a programming language few folks are going to pick up over night), the new site doesn’t address items that are important to our clients. If clients want to update their prices, it’s a call to the designer. If they want to fix typos, it’s a call to the designer. Maybe add some new content to their page to improve their SEO? Call to the designer. Daily simple management tasks become “complicated issues” that may take days or weeks based on the designer’s time.
Who needs that?
We promise, we’ll train you every time
RLC Design will never go down the path of making daily actives difficult for our customers. We will continue building websites you can manage on your own. And when you run up against a tougher problem we’ll be there to help you. We’re over 3 decades into computer tech being available to everyone, and there shouldn’t be mysteries that only your specialist can solve when you’re just trying to update your business pricing sheets!