Welcome to the Dinner Party (a.k.a. Your Website) 🍷
In my very first job as a digital marketing specialist, I was brought on board with little to no training, handed the logins to the backend of the website, and told to go ahead and do my thing.
The first time I logged in, I was completely panicked to learn it was a fully custom-coded website with a backend created by the developers. Now, for that business, it made complete sense, they were trying to achieve something completely custom, but it left me feeling lost and completely out of my depth.
Working on the agency side, I’ve realised this isn’t an uncommon feeling among marketing managers. Most people log in to the backend of their website, whether it’s custom, WordPress, or Webflow, and have no idea where to begin. Moreover, every backend is different based on the plugins being used or the developers that built it. Every agency has its version of best practice.
There are some marketing managers and business owners who love to be able to do everything on the backend, build pages, do their own site speed optimisation, and change it regularly. There are others who are afraid that if they log in to the backend, it will immediately pull up a critical error and crash. I’ve been both, but the former is the way to go, within reason.
However, it wouldn’t be a Mint blog post without an analogy, so let’s break this down. We’re going to treat your website like a dinner party.
Seems far-fetched? Probably. But there’s nothing I love more than brute-forcing an analogy, so here we go.
Let’s pretend your website is a dinner party. There are guests that arrive to your dinner party (website traffic), there’s ensuring the table looks amazing (UX), there’s ensuring the food tastes good (EEAT content), but if there is chaos in the kitchen (or your backend), was it really a successful dinner party?
Essentially, treat the front end of your website like the dining room of your dinner party and the backend like your kitchen. The best hosts know exactly what is going on in the kitchen, it doesn’t mean they’re cooking, but they know the fundamentals.
Most Junior Marketers Stay in the Dining Room 🫠
Whilst setting off into university, many young people tend to choose marketing as a career after watching movies like ‘The Internship’ and think, “Yeah, I want to work for Google.” Or they see an aesthetic brand like Ralph Lauren and say, “Yep, that’s what I want to do.”
They like the glamour side of marketing, the part where we take great photos, shoot fun content, and write exciting blogs. However, the reality is that what sets experienced, seasoned, and successful digital marketers apart are those who can dive into the backend of analytics and platforms and understand them.
Anyone can walk into a dining room of a show home and say, “Yes, wow, I live here, look what I’ve created, here is this fantastic meal I’ve ordered out and had waitstaff serve for me.” Absolutely, you can do that.
However, Martha Stewart was always deeply involved in every aspect of her dinner parties, a seasoned pro.
There’s nothing wrong with having a fear of technology or even imposter syndrome when someone finally trusts you with the administration level access to your own website. It’s a normal part of getting stuck into the backend.
I’ll never forget the first time I logged into the backend of a website, made a word change, pressed publish, and was convinced the entire business was going to stop functioning because I had probably done it wrong. It’s a normal process, but you’ll never get better without getting into the kitchen and giving the small things a go.
On the working agency side, I see it all the time. We have lots of individuals asking us to change singular words, and whilst we’re always happy to help, it is empowering to be able to do these simple things yourself. You then have control of the marketing work you need to accomplish.
Generally speaking, Australia’s marketing industry is pretty small (some might say incestuous) and if you’re looking for an agency, over a freelancer, then there are probably some key standouts in your local area. The one that everyone tries to get a job at, the second they’ve graduated from university.
What you’ll find is people are proud to say they’ve worked at their agencies when they do good work and you’ll notice long tenures at agencies that invest in their people. And then the dominoes fall… Typically, clients will stay longer at those agencies where they know the people and get good results. All I’m saying is that a little LinkedIn stalk of their staff isn’t going to do any harm.
That being said, natural attrition does happen. And for what it’s worth, if you have heard of a bad experience somewhere and it’s been a few years, there’s no harm in still checking them out with some cautious optimism. We all deserve a chance to change.
The Kitchen is Where the Real Power Lives 🍝
Here’s the thing, the dining room might be where your guests are impressed, but the kitchen is where the magic actually happens. You can have the fanciest cutlery, the best playlist, and a stunning centrepiece, but if what’s coming out of the oven is raw chicken, you’ve got a problem.
It’s the same with your website. You can have beautifully written copy, stunning visuals, and a brand tone that could charm even the grumpiest SEO specialist, but if your backend is chaotic, your campaigns will crumble faster than a crispy pavlova.
The truth is, backend knowledge is marketing power. When you understand how your website functions behind the scenes, you don’t just use marketing tools, you wield them. You spot issues before they become disasters, you can talk to your developers without feeling like you’re reading from a foreign script, and you gain real autonomy.
Here’s what happens when the kitchen gets ignored:
- Campaigns launch with tracking set up wrong, so your conversions vanish into the void.
- Your website is taking longer to load than a group chat deciding where to eat.
- You’re sending traffic to a form that, plot twist, doesn’t actually submit anywhere.
Meanwhile, the marketers who’ve taken time to learn what’s happening behind the scenes can open the fridge, find the missing ingredients, and keep the dinner party running smoothly.
The best part? Once you start understanding your backend, you’ll make faster fixes, interpret data more accurately, and stop having that heart-stopping moment when someone says, “Can you just publish that now?” because you’ll know exactly what you’re doing.
You don’t need to be a developer, just a marketer who knows where the knives are kept.
What's Actually in the Kitchen? (A Tour of the Backend) 🔪
Alright, wash your hands, it’s time to step into the kitchen. This is where things might look a bit intimidating at first: flashing notifications, strange plugins, and a media library that’s somehow 80% outdated logos and blurry staff photos of Janet who no longer works here. But once you know what’s what, you’ll see it’s less like an idiot sandwich meltdown and more like organised chaos, hopefully.
Let’s go on a quick tour of your digital kitchen.
The CMS (Your Kitchen Layout) 🥖
Your Content Management System (CMS), whether that’s WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, or something else entirely, is basically your kitchen layout. It determines where everything goes, how you move around, and how easy it is to get things done. A good CMS is like the kitchen triangle, everything’s within reach, intuitive, and designed to make life easier. A bad one is like trying to cook in a galley kitchen with no bench space and a faulty oven. You can make it work, but you’ll swear a lot along the way.
In terms of what CMS is the best one for you, it depends on your needs. WordPress is flexible and is a fantastic blog, but having too many plugins on it can make it a security nightmare. Webflow is a great managed service, but you’ll need to be able to get stuck into some basic coding to edit it fully. Squarespace can be wonderful if you need a basic site, but it can be slow and difficult for developers to edit. The reality is, you need to do the research and put in the hard yards to really understand your needs and choose a CMS to match them.
Plugins (Your Spice Rack) 🌶️
Plugins are your spices, a little here and there can take your dish from bland to brilliant. Need an easy SEO optimisation tool? Add a dash of Yoast or Rank Math. Want to improve site speed? Sprinkle in a caching plugin like WP Rocket. But too many plugins and you’ve just poured cumin into your apple and cinnamon pancakes, which I did once and wouldn’t recommend.
Keep your plugins minimal, relevant, and updated. Expired or unused plugins are like stale spices, they just take up space and ruin the flavour. Don’t add a plugin just because it has one little feature you like, usually you can chat to a developer and they’ll build it natively for you and save your website the bloat.
Media Library (Your Fridge) 🧀
Your media library is your fridge. It holds all your images, videos, and PDFs, the ingredients for your content feast. But just like a fridge, it can get messy fast. Outdated images, duplicate files, random assets named “final_FINAL_version3.png” sound familiar?
A clean, organised media library saves you time and keeps your site lean. Think of organising it like one of those fancy pantry unstocking videos. Get the clear containers to put that special flour you use once a year in, because then you’ll quickly realise you don’t use it and can remove it from your pantry shelf. Plus, it’s way easier to find that perfect photo when it’s not hiding behind six versions of your old logo.
Forms (Your Serving Dishes) 🍅
Your forms are how guests, aka users, actually engage with you. It’s how they tell you they loved the meal and want seconds. Broken forms are like cracked plates, they ruin the presentation and stop people coming back for more. No one wants to eat spaghetti off the table.
Make sure forms are set up properly, tested regularly, and feeding into whatever CRM or inbox you actually check. There’s nothing worse than realising six months later that no one’s RSVP’d because the submit button didn’t work.
SEO Foundations & Tracking (Your Secret Seasoning) 🧂
This is your salt, butter, and olive oil, the stuff you might not see but absolutely feel when it’s missing. Metadata, schema, and tracking pixels help search engines, social media platforms, and analytics tools understand what’s happening on your site.
Without them, your SEO suffers, your ad data gets patchy, and you’re basically serving unseasoned content to Google. Nobody wants that.
Navigation & Structure (Your Menu Setup) 🍽️
This is how your guests experience the dinner party. Is everything easy to find, or are people bumping into chairs trying to reach the dessert table?
Good navigation equals happy guests. Logical structure equals faster loading times and better UX. Think of it as the flow of your home, if the kitchen’s too far from the dining room, you’re going to spill something eventually.
At the end of the day, knowing what’s in your kitchen isn’t about becoming a master chef, it’s about understanding how the space works so you can confidently direct the chaos. When you know what every drawer and cupboard does, you can finally start cooking with confidence.
Common Marketing Emergencies That Happen in the Kitchen 😰
Every marketer has had that moment. Everything looks perfect on the front end, the boss loves the new landing page, the campaign’s about to go live, and suddenly the kitchen catches fire.
Don’t panic, it happens to all of us. But the difference between a total meltdown and a smooth recovery usually comes down to how well you know your way around the backend.
What are some things you should know how to do? First, ensure your reaction is measured. Don’t take a typo to your developer and freak out that it’s the end of the world (unless it’s a legal issue, then you can always panic).
Don’t start mucking about if you don’t know the answer. This is especially important if you’ve already asked a developer to take a look. You don’t want two people in there trying to fix the same thing, as you could overlap each other and make the problem worse, or miss the fix because something else was happening. However, don’t start deleting things you aren’t sure of.
Knowing how to clear your cache and force refresh is one of the biggest tips I can give you. The number of website issues that are actually just cache problems is astounding. Learn how to do that on your website, and 60 percent of your issues will magically disappear overnight. That goes for your website and your browser cache.
Finally, if you don’t know how to fix it, that’s absolutely okay. Give your developer all the context. Tell them what’s broken, what page, what device and browser you’re on, when it happens, send screenshots and video recordings, and let them know what you tried to fix the issue. Trust me, they’ll be grateful.
Actually, finally, finally, have a backup. If you aren’t taking regular backups on your website now, stop reading this blog and go get that set up. Then if anything goes wrong, there is always a plan B. Takeout is always the perfect plan B to any kitchen disaster.
You Don’t Have to Be a Michelin Star Chef (But You Do Need Basic Knife Skills) 🧼
Here’s the good news: you don’t need to be a developer to confidently navigate your website. You’re not expected to code a custom checkout system or rebuild your website from scratch. What you do need are a few essential skills, the digital equivalent of knowing how to chop onions without losing a finger.
At a minimum, you should be able to edit pages, update content, upload images, and check that forms and CTAs are working correctly. These are the basic knife skills of digital marketing. They might seem small, but they’re what keep everything running smoothly.
You should also have a working knowledge of basic SEO, such as updating metadata, adding alt text, and ensuring headings make sense. This isn’t about mastering schema or an authority-building strategy; it’s about making sure every page has the essentials covered so search engines and users know exactly what’s on the menu.
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of testing. Preview pages before they go live, check links, and make sure tracking pixels or integrations are firing correctly. Think of it like tasting a dish before serving it. A little extra effort at the front end saves a lot of embarrassment later.
With these basic fundamentals, you’ll be able to handle most day-to-day marketing tasks confidently, troubleshoot small issues without panicking, and free up your developers for the bigger, more complex work. You don’t need to be a Michelin star chef, but mastering the basics makes you an indispensable part of the kitchen.
How to Start Learning the Backend Without Burning Down the Kitchen 🍽️
Diving into the backend can feel intimidating, but you don’t have to set off smoke alarms to get started. The trick is to take small, manageable steps and treat it like learning a recipe rather than running a full kitchen service on day one.
Start by observing. Watch a developer or a more experienced colleague navigate the backend. See how they update pages, check forms, or troubleshoot errors. Ask questions and take notes. Even five minutes of shadowing can teach you shortcuts and workflows that make your life a lot easier.
Next, take advantage of tutorials and guides. YouTube, CMS documentation, and agency blog posts are full of bite-sized lessons that let you learn at your own pace. Start with one small task, maybe updating a page, uploading a few images, or checking a form, and gradually build confidence from there.
A staging site is your best friend. It’s a safe place to experiment without worrying about breaking the live site. Try new layouts, test plugins, or make content edits there first. Think of it like trying a new recipe at home before serving it at a dinner party. Mistakes are okay, and it’s much less stressful.
That said, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Stay well away from theme files, PHP, JavaScript, or anything that could break the site with one wrong move. Trust me, your developers will thank you, and your relationship with them will remain intact. Focus on the areas where your marketing skills and backend confidence intersect: content, forms, tracking, and basic site upkeep.
Finally, create your own cheat sheet. Note down where things are in your CMS, the steps for common tasks, and tips you pick up along the way. Over time, it becomes a personalised reference guide that helps you move faster and more confidently.
With these steps, learning the backend becomes less like facing a ticking time bomb and more like discovering a well-stocked kitchen. You’ll quickly realise it’s not as scary as it seems, and the control it gives you over your marketing work is invaluable.
Becoming a Confident Host = Becoming a Standout Marketer 💡
Once you’re comfortable navigating the backend, something interesting happens. You stop feeling like a guest on your own website and start feeling like the person in charge of the kitchen. That confidence shows up everywhere, in meetings, campaign planning, and when you’re troubleshooting last-minute issues.
Marketers who understand the backend can make faster decisions, provide clearer briefs to developers, and spot problems before they become crises. It doesn’t make you a developer, but it makes you a more strategic, self-reliant marketer. You’ll start standing out as someone who can not only plan and create campaigns, but also understand the mechanics behind them.
This confidence isn’t just about skill, it’s about mindset. By taking small steps, learning consistently, and owning your part of the backend, you’re showing your team that you’re dependable and capable. Your campaigns will run smoother, your boss will notice, and you’ll feel more in control of your marketing efforts overall.
The Backend is Your Secret Sauce 🧁
The backend of your website isn’t some scary, off-limits room in your own house. It’s where control, understanding, and efficiency live. You don’t need to be a developer, but knowing your way around the essentials, pages, forms, tracking, and basic maintenance, gives you confidence and independence.
So like I said, your website is kind of like a dinner party. The front end is the dining room, the part your guests see and enjoy, but the backend is the kitchen, where the real work happens. You don’t need to be the head chef whipping up every dish, but knowing how the kitchen works, where the ingredients are, and how to fix small problems ensures the party runs smoothly and people will actually want to come back for more.