Sales FAQ: Future Website Updates & Changes – How Does that Work?

How do future website updates and changes work on the predesigned websites that work platform?

This is one question we’ve been asked by several agents/brokers over the last week so I wanted to address it here (remember, every question you get asked more than 3 times should be a blog post).

First of all, “updates” and “changes” are two very different things. Part of what you get with your monthly hosting plan is instant access to the improvements we make on the platform – which we’ll call “updates”. When we add new home page design options, page layouts, plugins, and onsite SEO – you have instant access to those new features.

“Changes” to your website are a little different. The short answer to the how do changes work question is “it depends”. I know, not exactly the simple answer you wanted – but website changes can range anywhere from editing a single word on a single page (easy) to changing the entire design layout to support a new search box (not easy). Some changes you can do yourself, others we’ll have to do, and some cannot be done at all on the predesigned platform. Here’s a quick rundown of the most common changes and which category they fall under:

Changes Done by You:

• Adding or removing content – posts, pages, communities, associates, listings, etc
• Editing content already published on the site
• Changing the widgets on your sidebar (but remember – if a widget will not help traffic or conversion, don’t add it)
• Changing site settings from your WordPress dashboard
• Adding Google Analytics tracking
• Verification of Google Apps

Changes Done by Us (free):

• Activating one of our approved plugins
• Adding the embed code for a script widget such as Market Snapshot or Market Mapper to a page or sidebar widget
• Flipping the switch to show “featured communities” instead of your blog on the bottom of the home page. If you’re wondering what the featured communities home page component looks like, you can take a look at Marianne Whyte’s website.

Changes Done by Us (paid):

• Redesigning the header

Changes not possible on the Predesigned Platform:

• Editing CSS/PHP code
• Placing special scripts on your home page
• Changing the layout of your site outside of the framework available (such as changing from 1 to 2 sidebars, the size of the header, etc)
• Changing the search criteria included on our custom search boxes
• Adding meta tags to the home page to verify external services (with exception of Google Apps verification)

Hope that helps explain this topic. If you have specifics not covered here, leave a comment please. And if you have other questions about our Predesigned Websites that Work, let us know.