Setting up a website, exciting as it is, is only the beginning of an even more exciting journey that will take you to online success. The journey is not without certain due diligence. You don’t begin a trek without first conditioning your body, equipping yourself, and taking all the necessary safety precautions. Similarly, this online journey via your website demands that you take care of your website.
Website maintenance is best done by those who know what it entails and also consider your inputs. However, as the site owner, you need to know about the steps involved. Website maintenance is the difference between a website climbing up the search engine ranking charts and totally tanking.
If you have a cool idea and wish to set up a website, it is imperative that you also maintain the site. The interwebs are littered with the graves of websites that were great ideas and could’ve really raked in serious money had the website owners paid attention to website maintenance.
A maintained website ensures a smooth user experience. Links work properly, page redirects happen as they are meant to. Search engine spiders can index the site properly. Security updates enable the site to stave off malicious attacks. Commercial transactions happen smoothly.
Keep your content management system updated. WordPress is easy to update and installs happen smoothly.
Updating content is one single task that needs to be executed with regularity for website maintenance. There is no going around this task; you have to do it, and if you enjoy coming up with content then that’s great. If not, then we can help you with content and ensure that visitors to your website always have a compelling reason to come back. The absence of content disheartens visitors and search engines are quick to downgrade a site with obsolete content.
E-commerce sites need to upgrade product pages, ensure that the descriptions are SEO compliant and have all the necessary keywords. Every time, new products are added, the site navigation should be updated. If a product is discontinued or unavailable, the information should show on the relevant page. Announcements regarding price changes, discounts, and sales have to be made in time.
Contests, press releases, social media mentions and sundry other activities that fall under the category of marketing need to be done regularly and on time.
Are you in the process of adding a new feature to your website, like more payment options for customers, a free download, gated content…it could be anything. But it’s true worth will be realized only when people come to know about it. That calls for some marketing. Adding the feature calls for technical skill, you may or may not have it. Adding a new feature can lead to immense benefits but there may be some teething troubles, you need to take care that these early bumps do not distract users from the benefits and do not put them off. We can help you with adding new usability features from time to time and make sure that these work right all the time.
Backing up your website may seem like a chore, but we advise our clients to back their sites up so that in the event the site gets hacked, they can have it restored with no fuss.
Test website speed, ensure WHOIS records are updated, track website analytics, and based on the results you may need to tweak your website layout, content type, posting frequency, and anything else that you may feel could help your website do better.
Whether you’re an established opinion influencer or a rookie blogger, you need to guard against unauthorized use of your content. Google Alerts can help you with this. Managing your brand is crucial to success online, and the activity forms an essential part of website maintenance.