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Managing Multiple Client Websites with Webydo

Managing multiple websites can be quite frustrating and difficult if you haven’t come up early with a solid and consistent method of organizing your workflow. This becomes even more apparent as your website portfolio and its diversity grow. You have to manage the static websites through an ftp client, maybe directly from Dreamweaver or your editor of choice site manager. And you probably have to keep a solid bookmark structure for your dynamic websites, having to log in each of those separately and keep an archive with the respective usernames and passwords. The more websites you manage and the more often you have to update them the more tedious and frustrating it becomes.

Webydo gives us a solution to this problem.

For those unfamiliar with Webydo, it’s a sophisticated DMS (Design Management System) that liberates us from our dependency on handwritten code or limiting DIY template.

In this tutorial, I’ll be focusing on how you can manage and host as many websites as you like on Webydo’s subdomain, having an easy and fast way to showcase them on your client in the development phase. We’ll explore their extremely well priced premium hosting options that allow you to point your client’s website in their own domain. Finally I’ll show you how to manage the content through the integrated CMS system.

So let’s get started!

I’ll assume you already have an account and you are signed in. If not you can create your own free account now to follow along.

While in our dashboard we have an overview of every site we manage through Webydo.

From here we can create a website, edit existing ones, manage and update the content, update our plan, customize our login page / dashboard logo, and more. Let’s explore our options more thoroughly.

My account

Webydo - My Account

From the “My Account” tab we can add our own branding to the dashboard and to our login page.

Also we can get the link that takes us directly to our login page, so you might want to bookmark it!

Dashboard Overview

Webydo - Dashboard

New Website – As the name suggests this is where we can create a new website.

Edit Site – Simply click on it to edit or continue working on a website.

New CMS User – Here we can add users who will be having restricted access to this specific website. Usually your clients if they want to manage their content themselves through the integrated CMS system. They’ll only be able to see just their site and not every website you manage.

Envelope Icon – Here we can see messages people left in our forms.

Eye Icon – We can live preview a published website. This is the link we can also give our client to view our work in progress and give us feedback.

Gear Icon – From the gear icon we access the website settings.

For instance :

– We can give a title to our website.

Webydo - Site title

– Add a new domain if we have a premium plan.

Webydo - Add domain

– Give your website a password, or change and existing one.

Webydo - Password

– Add Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools and Google Apps verification codes.

Webydo - Analytics

– Finally we can add a CMS user from here as well.

Webydo - Add CMS

Pages Icon (Duplicate) – The pages icon is very neat as it allows us to duplicate a website. It is useful if we want to use an existing site as a template in the creation of a new one.

Trashcan Icon – We can irrevocably delete a website we no longer need. For instance if we used it for learning or experimentation purposes, or if our client no longer wish to have a website on the internet etc.

Wrench Icon – Through the wrench icon we can contact support and fill in a support ticket.

Updating your plan – Simply click “Update plan” to update a website’s hosting plan. That will enable you to use your own domain name along other goodies and in a very stunning price!

Webydo - Updating your plan

You can view the differences between the free and the premium hosting plan below:

Webydo - Comparison

Managing the content

So as you see, it’s extremely easy to view and manage all your websites from one place through Webydo. Managing the content itself is extremely easy and intuitive too.

To make things more interesting let’s approach it from your client’s perspective. (What we’ll do it’s the same as you clicking “Edit Website” from your dashboard and then moving to the “Content” tab)

So I am back in the dashboard but this time I am logged in as my CMS user (Client).

Webydo - Sites

As you can see, I can view only my website. I don’t have access to some of the icons the designer has, and I definitely can’t see the other sites my designer manages. Also notice that the site currently is not published.

As a CMS user I can still make edits in the content mode! This is a really great feature since you might want i.e. have an editor to review the content before you publish the website, or the client to add some texts or images you don’t currently have, or have them review it one last time before it gets published etc.

Webydo

To identify which elements are editable I can simply hover over them. If they get an orange border then my designer specified them as editable in CMS, and I can change this element. Otherwise the element can’t be altered through the CMS interface.

In order to change something, we simply click on it. The top bar changes to reflect the element properties and I can make the desired changes. Type a new text, change its font or switch an image with another etc. I can’t do any layout changes as a CMS user. Also I can’t change elements that the designer has marked as “Non Editable by CMS”.

After I finish all the changes I can save them for the designer to take over and continue working on my website or simply publish the website myself!

Final Words

With Webydo, designers can finally see their design in action and be in charge of the whole website production process, easily create and manage all their websites through a highly intuitive and powerful design management system.

Give it a try today and let me know of your impressions! Also, if you have any questions feel free to comment below and ask!

Written by Spyros Thalassinos

Spyros Thalassinos is a former Developer deeply fallen in love with Graphic arts. He has been freelancing as a professional Designer since 2007. When he is not busy designing Logos and Websites or referring to himself in the 3rd person, you can find him reading books and watching video tutorials to expand his knowledge. He is also the founder and editor of Make your ideas art . You can find him on his website, Google Plus or Twitter.

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