One of the great things about the open-source CMS solutions we work with here at Sanmita is that they’re so easy to use. With a minimal amount of training, anyone accustomed to using a computer for word processing or email can be shown how to update content on their website. And keeping content fresh and up to date is crucial for your users and SEO.

Leaving content management all in the hands of one person is fine for a smaller organization, but when you start talking about a complex site such as for a university, the sheer amount of continual updates to personnel, publications, events, etc. can become cumbersome, if not impossible, for one person to deal with.

One way to make it easier to keep a complex website up to date is to create microsites — smaller, multi-page sites with their own dedicated navigation within the larger website.

We created microsites for faculty at the Cornell University School of Civil and Environmental Engineering when we migrated their old site to a new CMS. (Read here for the complete case history of our project with CEE). These microsites function as a resource for the faculty to share information about their individual research interests and activities, such as labs, interns, expanded publications listings, and more. This distributed ownership of updating and editing content reduces bottlenecks in the system and also enables the site to maintain relevant and up-to-date information. Take a look at one of the CEE faculty microsites here.

Microsites can be a great solution for many other organizations as well, including nonprofits, government agencies, e-commerce, and other businesses.

It may be a cute little saying for some, but at Sanmita we do believe that the little things add up to a lot.