Make Recurring Webpage Items Easy to Update
Everyone could use some extra time right? One of the biggest time consuming maintenance activities on a website is having to update something on every page of your site. Depending on the change, it’s usually a cut and paste exercise but wouldn’t it be great to change it once and have that change appear across the site? It’s a life saver for large sites but even small and medium sites can benefit from that. When building or modifying a site identify every recurring feature and ensure it is up-datable from a single source.
There are several ways of doing this. The most common is a server side include. Rather than discussing the technical aspects let’s focus on common recurring elements that can benefit from includes.
- Primary Navigation – It should be on every page and is an obvious beneficiary of using includes. Further more it ensures consistent navigation
- Secondary Navigation – Secondary levels can also benefit from includes and also ensures consistency.
- Headers – If there is any advanced header that’s more than just an image (though that too can benefit from being an SSI element) it’s a good candidate. In some cases it can be combined with the primary navigation depending on the layout.
- Footer – The footer should be consistent and this is especially useful if a copyright or general notice that runs throughout the site is in the footer
- Promotional Section – Any recurring area in the layout that highlights a current promotion. This typically needs to be carefully planned as the promotion can get monotonous on every page. If the layout and content are effective though, this is a simple way to ensure attention to current offers.
Don’t waste time. Identify every recurring element in your site and set it up as a single source update. Not only does it save maintenance time, it often holds site owners accountable to consistency.
Get Your Ex Back
I noticed that this is not the first time at all that you write about this topic. Why have you chosen it again?
eMarketing Innovation
Yes there was a lot of overlap. It’s worth repeating as it can save quite a bit of time and unfortunately it’s use is more the exception than the rule for most sites.
Large Plastic Storage Boxes
Can you provide more information on this? take care
?ivljenjsko Zavarovanje
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the great work Look forward to reading more from you in the future.