Some Guidelines Concerning Web site Maintenance

by Judith Moffitt

November 14, 1997

Web site design is a hot topic with thousands of available references. But maintenance -- that's another story. Books on web site development devote at most a chapter and often only one or two pages to maintaining the site once it has been developed. Searches of the web reveal thousands of companies and individuals willing to do site maintenance, many reviews of automated tools to do maintenance with , and very little content about how to maintain a site.

Yet site maintenance is a very important part of the development process. Sites must be purged of outdated information, mistakes must be corrected, links must be checked to ensure they still work, and new content must be added. The question then becomes, "What are some of the things you need to know to effectively maintain your site?"

Jakob Nielsen says, "the usability of a web site is more a function of how it is managed than of how good its designers are."(Neilsen, 1997) As a webmaster, I believe the first step to managing the site is the organization of files into appropriate subdirectories on your server. Web sites very quickly acquire hundreds and then thousands of files. If they are not organized in a rigid and logical directory structure, the person doing maintenance will spend countless hours looking for the files needed to make even a simple change. My personal rule of thumb is to put files which will need to be changed at the same time in the same directory. Thus, in the site I maintain, all the job files and the functional category files they link to are in the same directory. This makes it easier to add and delete jobs and to make design changes that affect all current jobs. Other possible directory structures, such as organizing jobs by the recruiting firm that submitted them or by functional categories, would be more time consuming to update and might lead to more errors by accidentally posting a job to a directory other than the one listed in the link from the category page.

Another key maintenance problem is finding and fixing broken links. These include not only links to other sites, but the links internal to your site. Links can be checked manually. But if your site is large with many internal and external links, this can be very time-consuming. "Automatic link checkers, such as Site Technologies Inc.'s SiteSweeper, can make the task much easier." (Brigman, 1977) How often you check them depends on the frequency that the material is updated. For instance, at www.nbn-jobs.com, we must check the links frequently because jobs are added several times a week. An educational site may only need to be checked for link problems each time the course is taught. You will find considerably fewer link problems if you religiously check every file you change by calling it up on the WWW after you upload the files to your site.

Other maintenance problems are finding and fixing spelling, content, grammar, and coding errors. Your users, peers, and bosses will all be very willing to point these out to you after the fact. But you want to catch these things before anyone else does, if at all possible. So proofread every line that you code as you make changes. As you finish a line or paragraph, backup word by word and check each word individually to catch typing errors, then read in the normal direction to make sure the text made sense. If your HTML editor has a spell check, use it every time you make changes. "Before you publish, a simple code walk through with 2 pairs of eyes is very helpful." Savard,1996)

Users get very annoyed when they move between pages on a site and find drastically varying designs at every turn. Consistency is the key to usable interaction design: when all interface elements look and function the same, users feel more confident using the site because they can transfer their learning from one subsite to the next rather than having to learn everything all over again for each new page.

The best way to ensure consistency is to have a single department that is responsible for the design of the entire site. If this cannot be done, at least have a central group that oversees all design work and that is chartered to enforce a single style guide. Even if the central group does not actually design any pages themselves, considerable consistency can be achieved if the various departments can turn to a single source of design advice. Even better; have the central design group maintain the templates and deliver updated and revised graphics as needed. (Neilsen, 1997)

What are the kinds of items that need consistency? Foremost is navigational consistency. "If they're not consistent throughout your site, your visitors will become confused and lost. That's very frustrating and certainly not what you want." (Brigman, 1996) This means that every page must use the same navigational controls, in the same place, and with the same graphics. You also will probably want design consistency as well. You will annoy your users if each page is a different color or a different organizational structure.

Another problem of site maintenance is turnover or absence of key personnel. "And what happens if your webmaster just doesn't show up one day? Can her replacement figure out the structure of your site with less than three months of orientation?" Brigman, 1977) Documentation will help this process. You could have an up-to-date site map, a file containing the recent changes, any progress or management reports concerning the site, phone numbers of the people the webmaster may contact for technical support or content, a web site style guide, and written directions for particular updating tasks. Any or all of these things will help someone get quickly up-to-speed on the site. It is also very important that more than one person know how to update the site. Remember everyone gets sick or goes on vacation or goes out of town on business or moves on to another job. Sooner or later you will need these materials.

"You shouldn't expect users to take the time to explore your pages if you don't take the time to make sure the pages work."(Lemay and Murphy, 1996) You can use one of many HTML verifiers, such as WebLint, to do this task. This will help you catch problems that only surface when using a browser other than Netscape or Microsoft Explorer by ensuring that all your code conforms to HTML standards.

Believe it or not, every now and then a Web site requires a major overhaul and parts are remanded to the bit bucket. It's all too easy to add and add and add until the site becomes all but unmanageable.

In truth, the Web page equivalent of a truly ugly lamp is not likely to be missed by anyone. If the Web site cleanup is combined with a regular redesign, it may be months before anyone will miss specific pieces that were omitted. Your Web audience will let you know fairly quickly if you happen to omit something they use regularly. (Brigman, 1996)

Of course, link integrity, site mapping and related technology tasks are only the tip of the iceberg in Web site management. The other 90 percent, invisible to anyone outside your organization, involves human accountability. Who has the authority to change content? Who's responsible for seeking out obsolete pages still on the server? How often is somebody indexing your site so that a search brings up only current material? (Brigman, 1997)
Of these questions, the one about content is probably most important. You don't want to find yourself revising that page you just revised this morning because someone else doesn't like the change. Another similar question which must be answered is: how do you set priorities between tasks that are needed or wanted as changes to your site? If these questions are not answered, there may be no end to the changes required and everyone will insist that his or her changes are the most important. Finally, listening to your users should be a part of your maintenance routine. They will help identify any problems you missed. When you get an e-mail noting a problem in your site, fix it immediately and thank the sender of the message letting them know that you have fixed the problem. You will also get ideas from your users on ways to improve the site. Some of these will be good and should be worked into your regular redesign schedule. Pay particular attention if you get a lot of complaints about a certain feature or the lack of a certain feature. This may mean you need to change something quickly instead of waiting for a scheduled redesign.

References

Brigman, Linda. [1997]. The Never-Ending Story. [Online]. Available: http://www.cio.com/archive/webbusiness/020197_field.html [1997, February 15]

Brigman, Linda. [1996]. Web Site Management. Que Corporation. Indianapolis, IN. 1996 pp.254, 283. Lemay, Laura and Murphy, Brian K. Creating Commercial Web Pages. Sams.net Publishing. Indianapolis, IN. 1996. p.400.

Nielsen, Jakob. [1997]. Top Ten Mistakes of Web Management. [Online]. Available: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9706b.html [1997, June15]

Savard, Joseph E. [1996] Re: Web managers biggest problem? [Online]. Available: http://www-dccs.stanford.edu/lists/www-managers/hyper95/0690.html [1996, June 28] 1