AutoCollectorsGarage.com And the Lure of Pre-Built Template Based CMS Systems

Nelson & Co., LLC (N&C) recently sat down with Ken Daugherty, a long-time client and owner of Auto Collectors Garage and his new staff member, Mike Bankston. Auto Collectors has long been known for their collector grade classic, antique and vintage automobile restorations, services, and sales throughout the industry. Their existing site had been maintained by N&C and long time partner, Rhino Marketing. However, the site had become outdated and somewhat cumbersome to maintain with fresh website content and the client’s requested functionality. Ken and Mike expressed they did not want to fund a full custom website development project, but opted for a purchased WordPress content management system (CMS) implementation. After some research, a few templates were identified and presented. One in particular was received with great excitement and N&C was given the task of installing, configuring and loading up the site’s design, features and functionality. Mike took on the responsibility of photographing the vehicles and loading them and their descriptions into the new tool. After installation and choosing colors, fonts, logo, and functionality options, the site was launched. Autocollectorsgarage.com was reborn.

Often times we cross paths with businesses who have attempted their own pre-built template implementation and when asked how it went, the response is universally “BAD.” The amount of time and knowledge that is still needed to complete one of these “pre-built” sites is staggering to someone who doesn’t do web development or work with CMS systems on a regular basis. N&C does this on a daily basis and still logs an average of forty hours for similar implementations. That hardly sounds like “pre-built” but a custom system can easily run 80-180 hours before content loading even begins. As much as we enjoy the challenge of a pre-built system implementation, it can be bitter sweet. The systems are never without their flaws, have their own learning curve, and often promote a feature that may work in theory, just now how the client wants it to work. So, client flexibility is a must. Template sites are not always the best performers either. There is a lot of extra code involved which can make the site “heavier” than is necessary. Search engine optimization (SEO) can also be a challenge as well. That said, we believe there is a place in the market for such sites and we anxiously seek the opportunities.

With several technical short-comings aside, the autocollectorsgarage.com website implementation project went well and the client is extremely happy to have the features and functionality provided by the system as well as a new look-and-feel. Check out the website and let us know what you think of it. As always, please keep Nelson & Co. in mind for any print or web design, development or web marketing projects you have or can refer. We thrive on networking referrals and are always grateful to those who facilitate us doing what we love to do … solve creative and technical business challenges through print & web mediums.

Nelson & Co. is a Sugar Land, Texas based graphic design firm serving the Greater Houston area with turn-key print and web design projects coupled with smart web marketing practices since 2002 and is proud to be listed in the Houston Business Journal’s Book of Lists as a Top 25 Graphic Design Firm serving corporate, mid-sized and even start-up businesses alike with powerful branding and marketing tools.

For more information on Nelson & Co. visit www.nelsonandco.net or contact us at (832) 532-7220.

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