Website Woes …

Within the last month or so I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had conversations with people complaining about their website designers and maintenance. Radio stations, philanthropic organizations, and radio individuals with websites, all seem to be up in the air over what's going on with their sites.

Not The First Time...
I’ve written about this before, but it seems to be a persistent problem with a lot of people. Apparently unless you build it and learn how to do it yourself, you’re going to always be at the mercy of someone who is not as passionate about the work as they should be.

Make Sure You’re Not The Problem…
Designing the site, it’s not a problem, it’s updating and maintaining the site. Issues like; style, too much or not enough content, the pictures don’t look right, switching out web hosts, and helping the client with content management questions.

Website owners are to blame for some of the maintenance problems and not the web designer. There are somethings that are your responsibility:

• Give the web designer content and pictures in a timely fashion for updates.
• Is there wording in your contract that asks for a minimum amount of time needed to post anything?
• Are you explicit with directions? They are not mind readers, you can’t assume they will just know or figure it out.
• Edit your content and spell check because they are not your editors unless it's a part of your agreement. And you might want to use a second place to spell check, some are not as good as others. And if you are using industry jargon or slang, a spell check won’t pick that up.
• Check Yourself. If you allow them to update or fix things when they feel like it, you become the problem. Your lack of persistence means, in the web developers mind, that you don’t care, so why should they. If the relationship with the designer is not working out for maintenance and updating, stop complaining and move on to someone else.

Radio Sites...
I am not sure if there is a disconnect between departments or things are falling through the cracks. Many of the large companies share national content with all their formats and clusters. That's all fine and dandy, but too many local properties are not adding their local happenings. I know there is a pandemic, but there is local content available on social media. Just source the information and pictures to ensure accuracy before reposting on your station’s website.

What I Like Seeing On Station Websites

• Pictures with large, readable text and captions with the personalities’ names and shifts
• Pictures of local events with personalities and listeners
• Blogs with comments; consistent postings once a day or once a week
• Sites that are smartphone-friendly
• Simple to operate and workable podcasts
• Content that makes sense and is up to date
• Banners that reflect your station's and city's identity
• Cross-plugging on-air contests and promotions

Just Stay With It…
Regardless of whether a website is for a company or individual purposes, the same holds true to keep both of them looking sharp. And that is to do whatever is necessary to project the image we want the public to see.