Unfortunately, you can't forget about website maintenance if you want a functional site. Here is your ultimate guide to keeping your site running smoothly.
In today’s world, it’s never been more important for your business to have a fully-functional website. One that uses search engine optimization to reel in new prospects and convert them to sales.
However, just as important as that is the need for proper website upkeep. Just like anything else in your business, it too can go through normal wear and tear.
For that reason, you need to be making conscious decisions to keep up with its maintenance needs to keep it in tip-top shape.
Here are several website maintenance tips that you should incorporate into your day to day. Consider the special care your site might need as you read along.
1. Test the Website Often
What better way to get a feel for how well your website is operating than to go through all of the pages yourself? You at least had a hand in designing the site, so you’d know better than anyone how it’s supposed to work.
Go through all of the pages, click on the links in your content, read through the different tabs, etc.
While you’re doing that, keep an eye on the spacing on each page. Are the words too clumpy? Is there too much space? Does the website still look simplistic and easy to navigate?
Try to have the mindset of someone that is coming across your site for the very first time. Would they be overwhelmed or would they be interested to learn more?
Is website operation not your strong suit? If so, consider teaming up with a trusted web team that can help answer any and all of your questions.
1. Test the Website Often
2. Create a Website Maintenance Schedule
Website maintenance is an all-encompassing task. It’s going to take constant monitoring in order to make sure the site is working up to its max potential.
However, different tasks require different levels of monitoring. Some aspects will need to be checked every single week, others won’t.
Because of that, it’s advantageous to create a schedulefor your website maintenance needs.
That way you can keep up with monthly tasks such as double-checking your website’s load speed, while also keeping up with weekly tasks such as updating the software.
This will also help you know when the last time was that you performed such tasks. If it’s been a while, then you know to make it a priority in the next week. This way, you won’t be scrambling to knock them all out at once.
2. Create a Website Maintenance Schedule
3. Test Your Calls to Action
You spend a valuable amount of time working on the call to action within your high-quality content. But what if, after all that work, the form you’ve directed them to doesn’t work? That customer may never return again.
Test all things such as your “join our email list” form, the process at the point of purchase, and others as well.
When you fill out the “contact us” form, are you getting that form on the backend or is there some sort of disconnect?
The problem is that most customers that undergo a setback like that on your site won’t inform you of it. You could go days, if not weeks, without knowing that the “add to cart” button on your site doesn’t work.
That’s why it’s important to go through this yourself. Make sure that nothing on your website is holding your business back from profits.
3. Test Your Calls to Action
4. Renew Your Domain Name
Regardless of whether you have one website that you’re overseeing or several, it’s vitally important that you make sure their domain names are renewed.
If not renewed in a proper amount of time, they could be taken from you entirely. That is a situation you should hope never to encounter.
As such, make sure to keep records of the last time that you renewed each and when they need to be again.
4. Renew Your Domain Name
5. Refresh Your Content
All the content on your site needs to be refreshed at one point or another. Even if you’ve posted nothing but evergreen content on your blog page, it still needs to be touched up from time to time.
Maybe you had an article titled “5 Great Marketing Tips for Your Website” that you posted last year. However, after reading through it, some of the statistics you used need to be updated.
It’s little things like that which can go a long way towards providing your site users the best information possible. Be sure to refresh your content every so often.
5. Refresh Your Content
6. Stay Up-To-Date With Security
The one aspect of your website that you want to prioritize above all else is the security features within it.
Anytime there’s an update to be made on your website, set aside time during the day or night to update it.
You owe it to your company and the clients that place personal information to purchase your products to make sure all information is protected.
There could also be things such as bug fixes, security patches, alterations to the database, etc. that need to be revised. The longer you wait to update these, the more susceptible your website and site users are to an online attack.
6. Stay Up-To-Date With Security
Use These Website Maintenance Tips to Your Advantage
Now that you’ve seen all the different ways that you should prioritize website maintenance, it’s time to reorganize your calendar to do so.
Be sure to read this article on how to optimize your website for mobile shoppers. They are the wave of the future, get adapted so that you can make a higher profit!
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