As many of you may know, I have an office in New York and one in RI and I frequently run back and forth between the two locations. There is not a week that goes by where someone does not ask the question; "How long does that trip take you?" My answer is always the same, it depends on what time I leave. If I leave after 8pm and there is nothing major going on it takes me two hours and 20 minutes, but if I leave during a peak travel time it can take me between 3 and 3.5 hours. It is the same trip door-to-door, 142 miles, but the time it takes depends on the variables life or Interstate 95 decides to throw at me.

Editing a website is not all that different. People wonder why some web edits take longer than others to accomplish when updating a website. The answer is the same as my trips, I can give you a pretty accurate estimate but if a variable is added to the mix it may slow down the process. Let me give you an example. Frequently we are asked to make a change to a press page on someone's website. This seems simple enough but you have to take a moment to understand the ingredients that go into this request:

• How are they providing us the press update?
• Will we need to make any image touch-ups?
• Does the press page have any unique formatting items to it?
• Will we need to test the update to see if it works in multiple web browsers?
• After the client reviews the change will they want to move things around or revise it in some other way?

These items are all part of what we consider when we give someone an estimate on time. Changes can be completed more quickly if Technology Therapy was the original website designer. However what usually adds extra time to the request is when we take over someone's website and the previous company did not organize the code in an easy to understand manner. Think of it as walking into an office and looking at a group of filing boxes with no labels on them, you have to open every box and sort through the contents to see what information is stored in each box. This scenario happens to us quite often thereby increasing our estimate for updating a website.

Editing a website is not always as simple as opening a word document and finding a word and changing it. Behind everything on a web page is code and it is our job to make sure that code looks the same on every web browser. I know it is frustrating when you do not understand the components that go into the site but just compare it to traveling or the filing example; if things are organized and well laid out and the traffic fairy is on your side then changes will be quick.

Labels: building a website, updating a website, website growth