On one hand, it often makes sense for a client who is not very technically savvy or who simply doesn’t have much time to be able to maintain a couple of pages independent of the web developer/maintainer. They can’t break the site, they can’t get confused and overwhelmed by all of the available options.

On the other, a plan like this seems inherently inflexible and well, static. They may tell you they only want to change their About Us page, but please remember what Dilbert has to say on the subject: http://dilbert.com/2009-12-07

With a Drupal site (hehe), they can fire me or I can get hit by a truck (I hope not) and they can easily find another developer or maintainer to make changes to their site because it’s all pretty standard. Also, I can train them or a member of their staff to do most of the obvious stuff like editing and adding nodes, add/remove/change menu items, even create their own webforms and analyze the stats collected. I’ve had great feedback regarding the manuals I provide for each site.

-Lindsay

On one hand, it often makes sense for a client who is not very technically savvy or who simply doesn’t have much time to be able to maintain a couple of pages independent of the web developer/maintainer. They can’t break the site, they can’t get confused and overwhelmed by all of the available options.

On the other, a plan like this seems inherently inflexible and well, static. They may tell you they only want to change their About Us page, but please remember what Dilbert has to say on the subject: http://dilbert.com/2009-12-07

With a Drupal site (hehe), they can fire me or I can get hit by a truck (I hope not) and they can easily find another developer or maintainer to make changes to their site because it’s all pretty standard. Also, I can train them or a member of their staff to do most of the obvious stuff like editing and adding nodes, add/remove/change menu items, even create their own webforms and analyze the stats collected. I’ve had great feedback regarding the manuals I provide for each site.

-Lindsay

I don’t want to give the impression that I’m advocating the use of more than one CMS on the same site build – if we have a client that would like to blog with WordPress and also edit their own content, we will definitely set them up with WordPress as their only CMS solution. On the other hand, if we have a client that has no need for a blog, and only wants to edit their “About Us” page, we may use a mini-CMS. More specifically, we will use a customized mini-CMS most often when the client wants to manage a more complex aspect of their site, like a photo gallery. This allows us to control all the finer points of the gallery search engine optimization, and keeps things simple for the client.

I can understand how you would advocate WordPress as a package for the independent website owner, but we find more often than not our clients are thrilled to have a developer who not only offers to provide ongoing development support, but recommends it. I think there’s an important distinction to make between a search engine friendly website (which WordPress provides), and a search engine optimized website – SEO isn’t a one-time project, and if we are building search optimized websites, we like to stay involved in the project, and help maintain that optimization. Whether clients realize it or not, there is definitely a difference between having your developer add/update/optimize content, and handling it yourself, and most clients would rather not invest the time required to get it right themselves.

Also, I think it’s interesting to note that most of our clients don’t opt for the full CMS, and a majority of those that do end up not utilising it at all – if (our) statistics show that our clients don’t use WordPress, is it worth the development time to implement it?

I don’t want to give the impression that I’m advocating the use of more than one CMS on the same site build – if we have a client that would like to blog with WordPress and also edit their own content, we will definitely set them up with WordPress as their only CMS solution. On the other hand, if we have a client that has no need for a blog, and only wants to edit their “About Us” page, we may use a mini-CMS. More specifically, we will use a customized mini-CMS most often when the client wants to manage a more complex aspect of their site, like a photo gallery. This allows us to control all the finer points of the gallery search engine optimization, and keeps things simple for the client.

I can understand how you would advocate WordPress as a package for the independent website owner, but we find more often than not our clients are thrilled to have a developer who not only offers to provide ongoing development support, but recommends it. I think there’s an important distinction to make between a search engine friendly website (which WordPress provides), and a search engine optimized website – SEO isn’t a one-time project, and if we are building search optimized websites, we like to stay involved in the project, and help maintain that optimization. Whether clients realize it or not, there is definitely a difference between having your developer add/update/optimize content, and handling it yourself, and most clients would rather not invest the time required to get it right themselves.

Also, I think it’s interesting to note that most of our clients don’t opt for the full CMS, and a majority of those that do end up not utilising it at all – if (our) statistics show that our clients don’t use WordPress, is it worth the development time to implement it?

Mini-CMS options have their place, but the “overhead” you’re talking about inherent in WordPress is just good common-sense web design. I know I beat the WordPress drum – a lot – but I really do believe that a half-and-half solution brings about more problems than a 100% dedicated CMS solution.

Especially when you integrate both. Now, instead of one set of log-ins, you have two. Not to mention the extra programs needed to edit two sources of content (ie, HTML/Dreamweaver and WYSIWYG in WordPress or another CMS).

I push WordPress almost exclusively because it’s secure, the SEO is built in, and the client isn’t stuck with me to make their changes, update the software, perform SEO, or any other task. They can do it themselves, or there’s a myriad of other developers out there who can help them. In addition, plug-ins almost always exist to do exactly what you want, and if they don’t, modification or creation is just as easy as building out a micro-widget elsewhere.

Is WordPress right for every project? Maybe not – but I’ve yet to see a situation where using it has led to more problems than its worth (beyond bad theming or bad web design practices inherent to any web project, WordPress or no).

Anyway, definitely a thought provoking subject – thanks for writing!

-Nick

Mini-CMS options have their place, but the “overhead” you’re talking about inherent in WordPress is just good common-sense web design. I know I beat the WordPress drum – a lot – but I really do believe that a half-and-half solution brings about more problems than a 100% dedicated CMS solution.

Especially when you integrate both. Now, instead of one set of log-ins, you have two. Not to mention the extra programs needed to edit two sources of content (ie, HTML/Dreamweaver and WYSIWYG in WordPress or another CMS).

I push WordPress almost exclusively because it’s secure, the SEO is built in, and the client isn’t stuck with me to make their changes, update the software, perform SEO, or any other task. They can do it themselves, or there’s a myriad of other developers out there who can help them. In addition, plug-ins almost always exist to do exactly what you want, and if they don’t, modification or creation is just as easy as building out a micro-widget elsewhere.

Is WordPress right for every project? Maybe not – but I’ve yet to see a situation where using it has led to more problems than its worth (beyond bad theming or bad web design practices inherent to any web project, WordPress or no).

Anyway, definitely a thought provoking subject – thanks for writing!

-Nick