"We just revamped our website last month, but just to add a single announcement on the homepage, we already have to ask the agency again"—despite having a brand-new site, no one internally can touch it. Inquiries like this are not uncommon. Even if it looks impressive, a site that cannot be updated in-house becomes a "locked site" that costs time and money every single time you update it.
The tricky part is that this stems neither from good or bad design nor from budget size, but from the fact that the updating setup was not decided before ordering. Asking to "make it editable in-house" after building is complete is often structurally impossible. We previously covered the dangers of neglected legacy sites in Why "Build-and-Forget" Websites Are Dangerous, but this article focuses on the step right before that: what to decide before placing an order to achieve an "in-house updatable" state.
Why sites that cannot be updated in-house are created
There are several typical causes behind sites that cannot be updated.
- Built statically: Design took priority and each page was handcrafted in HTML, requiring code edits just to change a single sentence of text.
- A CMS is installed but not handed over: An admin panel exists, yet neither login credentials nor operating instructions were shared.
- No one in-house can update it: The system exists, but no one touches it because no one was trained on how to use it.
The first case is a structural issue, while the latter two are "handover" issues. The third one in particular creates a single point of failure where only one person learns the operation, and the moment that person transfers or leaves the company, updates become impossible again. The struggles of taking over a site after losing contact with the original agency are detailed in Taking Over a Website When You Can't Reach the Original Agency, and these are issues you should tackle before they happen.
First, articulate what, who, and how often you want to update
The first task before ordering is not choosing tools. It is to specifically write down what your company actually wants to update. If you simply ask them to "make it easy to update" while leaving this vague, things will not align.
| Decision Item | Specific example |
|---|---|
| What to update | Announcements, case studies, pricing, recruitment info, blog |
| How often | Weekly / Monthly / A few times a year |
| Who updates | One person in general affairs / PR team / Individual departments |
For example, if "a single person in general affairs updates announcements and case studies a few times a month," what you need is not a feature-heavy system, but a simple admin dashboard that the person can use without getting lost. Conversely, converting pages that rarely change into a CMS rarely gets used relative to the cost. A practical approach is drawing a clear line: make only high-frequency update sections editable in-house, and leave the rest to the agency.
Choose a CMS based on whether it fits the user, not its number of features
Only after your updating setup is decided does the topic turn to the mechanism to implement it (the CMS). The selection criteria should not be the sheer number of features, but whether the people actually updating it can use it comfortably.
- If the person updating it is a non-engineer, something like WordPress that allows intuitive editing directly from the admin dashboard is suitable.
- If you are regularly adding structured content like announcements or case studies, a setup where cleanly styled displays are generated simply by filling in structured fields is suitable. We also explain this concept in Building with Astro and microCMS.
- If updates are extremely rare, not forcing a CMS and instead requesting updates from an agency only when needed will result in a lower total cost.
Rather than there being a single right answer, the key point is to choose based on the "who and how often" you determined earlier. If you leave this decision entirely to the agency, they will select what is easiest for them to build, which is not necessarily what will be easiest for your company to update.
Ensuring "updatable state" through contracts and delivery
Even if the structure is decided, you cannot update the site if the handover is insufficient. Specify the following at the time of ordering and delivery.
- Receive a complete set of login credentials for the admin panel: Hold administrative privileges under your own company's name, including URLs, IDs, passwords, and management permissions for domains and servers.
- Receive a simple manual for update procedures or operational instruction: Confirm that the person in charge can actually run an update once in front of the provider and complete it.
- Document where the line is drawn between internal updates and external requests: Decide on roles in advance, such as outsourcing layout changes and new page creation while handling text and image replacements in-house.
- Ensure at least two people can perform updates from the beginning: Avoid single points of failure by not concentrating work on a single person.
Simply including these four points in your requirements at the time of ordering can largely prevent situations where "the site was delivered, but we can't touch it." For how to proceed with the redesign itself, see our Corporate Website Redesign Guide.
Picking one page you want to update before ordering
The key to getting a website that can be updated in-house is neither a high-performance system nor a large budget, but deciding "what, who, and how often to update" before ordering. If you are creating or rebuilding a website next time, first try naming "the single page you want to revise most frequently yourselves going forward." That becomes the starting point for designing your operational update framework.
How much should be updatable in-house, which CMS fits your operations, what to include in the contract—for consultations before building or rebuilding a site, please reach out through GleamHub's Website Creation & Redesign Consultation. From designing an operational update framework to configuring a setup your team can actually master, we work alongside you from the client's perspective.
