By Jim Clanin
It’s spring- time to get clean, clear, and reorganized. If you’ve been thinking about organizing your website, this is a great time to do it.
But it can be pretty intimidating. Since you did your initial web design, you’ve probably added numerous files, and chances are you’ve changed some things about how business, message, and core offerings. You probably haven’t had time to keep those files organized and well-managed, and maybe they’ve gotten out of control. Maybe you’ve stopped working with a web design company and you’ve lost track of files.
Or, maybe you’re working with a web designer to build a brand new site and just don’t know how to organize and maintain your files from the beginning.
So where do you start? What kind of structure do you want to create?
Most of us have a good number of files, and we need to rethink our organizational structure to make maintenance easier. There are a few ways to do it, depending mostly on your personal preference.
- All your files under a single directory
- All your files except images under a single directory
- Files divided into multiple directories with imagines in their own directory
- Files divided into multiple directories with images in sub-directories branching from each parent directory
The most important thing is that it makes sense for you and your company. If you have a large network of people accessing the database, it might make most sense to use separate directories with sub-directories. However, smaller companies with only a few people handling site maintenance may find a single directory or single image directory easier to deal with. Discuss the options with your web design company.
Getting Started
You may think that starting fresh with a new web design would be easier, but we find it’s often simpler to create a new organization plan when you have an existing site. You can take a cue from your home page navigation as to how to best organize your files. For example, perhaps the navigation on your home page looks like this:
- Home
- About Us
- Services
- Careers
- Contact Us
From here, you could create four directories:
- /Home
- /About Us
- /Services
- /Careers
- /Contact Us
Your could organize your image files in a separate directory for each parent directory:
- /About Us/images
or in a single directory:
- /Images
Creating New Directories
Most hosting services have a tool for creating new directories. If they don’t, just connect your hosting server with your FTP client, select the destination of your new directory, and create it. Your web design company can help you do this.
Matching Up Your Server and Your Hard Drive
When you’re reorganizing your hosting server, remember to organize the files on your hard drive the same way. It will make maintenance much, much easier going forward. When you create a new file, you’ll know exactly where to save it, and where to find it.
These web design basics make it easier for you to maintain your site and make growth more manageable. What tips would you add?
