I asked for my small company’s WordPress log in. The web developer told asked for the changes I wanted to make and doesn’t recommend giving me the log in information.
I’ve worked with WordPress once before, I’ve added photos for a page that was already designed.
That’s what I want to do, update old photos and add in photos without actually changing any of the design of the website. I also wanted to work on SEO marketing.
Is it really not worth me doing those things..? Can I really mess up the website since I’m not a web developer? I won’t touch anything without at least looking up a YouTube video!
I can’t tell if my web developer has a point and it’s not worth me doing those things and risking the website to be destroyed.
Or does he want to remain in control and get paid for every small change we make?
Has anyone broke their website after getting control of their WordPress?
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I work with a guy who likes to make changes to the sites I made as a whitelabel partner for him. He NEVER uses the correct blocks or layouts that I have set up so I always tell him to send me the changes he wants instead
Have them create a staging environment that backs itself up. This way you can log into the staging site, make your changes and it doesn’t affect the live website. When the developer is done doing whatever it is he’s doing he can review your changes and push it to the live version.
Ask him to make a backup of your site and then give the logins so you can restore to a pre-changes version if you mess up real bad.
The main purpose of WordPress is to make it ***easy for non-technical people*** to manage their website.
While more complex changes might require a developer, simple content editing (like changing photos or SEO as you mentioned) can/should be done by you, that’s the whole point!
I’m a freelance dev and I’d always give my clients log in access to their sites, it’s odd that your dev is not letting you do that.
And with WP’s visual editing/previews, it’s very hard to seriously mess up/destroy your site; and you can always restore a backup if you do.
Of course you could break it.
But if you no longer want his maintenance services he should give you the login and walk away. It’s your website.
If you break it you will have to pay his (or another developer) hourly rate to fix it.
As a designer/developer, we always give site access to the client, it’s THEIR site after all. Now i will also caveat that i have lots of clients that want to “do it themselves” but also don’t know how to turn on their computers. But, WordPress is made to be easy to use for the non-technical person so mileage varies for the person doing the work. If they actually understand how websites work they are usually fine. Some though, they don’t know how to use a microwave but saying otherwise… those are the ones that break their sites and need help fixing it.
I’d say at worse, you’ll just do something inefficiently or in an unintended manner but the site will probably be fine.
Sounds like you need a new web developer. This is practically the point of WP, you shouldn’t need to pay a developer to make simple page edits or seo edits if your comfortable with that kind of thing.
For editing articles you could get away with an editor account which would mitigate accidental damage but for SEO you probably need an admin acount.
I come across many new clients who hire me because they feel that their current web developer has a god complex. Funny thing!! one site i took over and changed all the passwords that all related to god this and god that as passwords. lol.
I rarely saw this kind of approach: only in an old web agency and in very edge cases. Any decent web agency or freelancer should share with you a site guide on how you can manage your own website, change content, etc. If the website is well built, you will not break your website easily
>Can I really mess up the website
Sure, anything is possible. There are tons of ways to screw up a website. However, the whole point of WP is to make it easy to manage content on a website. Just editing pages is unlikely to break an entire site. Maybe screw up the layout on a page, but rarely the whole site.
>Or does he want to remain in control and get paid for every small change we make?
This is the more likely scenario. If you don’t have admin access to your site, you can’t move the site without asking. You don’t own your site, you’re paying someone to use the site.
We generally maintain most of our client’s sites, but every single one of them is given a full admin account. Many of them never use it, but they are welcome to do as much or as little as they want. It’s their site after all.
>Has anyone broke their website after getting control of their WordPress?
We give our clients basic training on WordPress. We also tell them what stuff they shouldn’t touch because it could actually break the site. Periodically, we’ll have a client break something, but it’s pretty uncommon. Even when they do, it’s never a big deal to fix.