If you have your own website, you will know there is more to it than just setting the page up. Website maintenance is an important aspect of providing a good website. To have a fully functioning site, some upkeep can be required.
Not only this, but trends are constantly changing. Software is updated, styles are adapted, the demands from your audience can change. Keeping up with your website maintenance will allow you to stay on top of it.
In this article, we will look at what you need to do for website maintenance.
What is Website Maintenance?
You might be new to managing a website. If that is the case, no one expects you to know all the ins and outs. It can seem quite daunting and complex at times.
For a simple understanding, let’s look at what website maintenance is:
Website maintenance is the practice of checking your website for any sort of problem.
What can website maintenance include:
-Software updates
-Security updates
-Content checks (consistency, accuracy, if it is up to date, how relevant)
-SEO checks
-Analytics (traffic checks etc.)
Updates Are Critical To Website Maintenance
One of the key parts of website maintenance is staying on top of your updates. It can be rather tempting to put them off. The easy option is always to click “remind me later” or something similar, so you can deal with it another day.
However, updating your website can have a large impact on how smoothly the site runs. Software updates can improve the safety of your site. If you keep on delaying them, you risk facing cyber-attacks and viruses or hacks. New updates on website software are always improving cyber security.
There are so many other things that can be improved by updating your software. One useful article about the benefits of updates you can read here.
Updates are a vital part of website maintenance that can make a customer experience so much better. So next time you think about putting off another update, reconsider. Remember that it could really benefit you and your business if you do it sooner.
Content Checks
This is an obvious one but is easy to forget. Content checks should be part of a regular routine. When it comes to website maintenance, it doesn’t just include how smoothly your site runs. It is also all about your content.
Having regular checks enables you to know exactly what is on your site. Articles can become outdated, or products can become unavailable if you have discontinued selling them on your online store. When changes like this take place, your website needs to be updated. Keep your customers in the loop. Give them the correct, most up to date information.
Your website landing page is another thing to consider. Is the imagery still relevant? Is the tone of the page consistent with the rest of your site? Or is there a page on your site that doesn’t fit with your brand ethos? Is your marketing mission still engaging your audience?
Think about these questions as a check list. Or make your own. Then follow it through by sorting out your content.
SEO Checks Are Important For Maintaining Your Website
Another thing you might have heard of if you have your own website, is SEO.
If you are unfamiliar, it stands for search engine optimisation. It is the process of making your writing fit search engine standards, which can result in higher rankings. When your article or website ranks higher on search engines like Google, you will reach more people. You will gain more traction and clicks onto your site, meaning your website traffic improves.
When it comes to website maintenance, SEO is a good thing to look out for. Re-wording text on your site to fit SEO will help push your site further. You can rewrite sections of your copy for a lower reading age. The average reading age of the UK is 9 years.
If you are unsure of how to lower the reading age of your copy, read here. It goes through a few tips on what to do.
Analytics
What is analytics? This is one of the more complex parts of website maintenance. If you’re not sure what it is, or what it includes, that is fine. Analytics are the sets of data that monitor the statistics behind your website.
So that can be anything from the number of clicks your website gets, to the times of day your readers are most active.
Understanding your analytics can help you plan better. Once you know more about your audience, you can figure out what content will suit them. You can also consider scheduling posts to go out at certain times to reach peak activity levels. Or you can even consider branching out beyond your site.
If you create social media, you can link it from your website. Then your audience will have easier interactions with you. Talk about events coming up and promote them on your social media. Create better connections with your audience and build trust. This is a vital part of business that we have spoken about before on our blog.
Social media can seem daunting if you are not already on it. So, we have a couple of useful articles that could help get you started. If you want to ace your social media content game, read here. Or if you are interested in the facts and figures behind the screen, read here.
Conclusion
Website maintenance is a really important part of having an online presence. Any business can fall behind if they don’t work on their site consistently. Whether it is just a facelift through brightening your imagery, or deep diving into your software and copy’s functionality. Everything can impact your website’s success.
Website maintenance can go beyond your web-page. Impress your audience and improve your connections.