As an agency is hired for developing and maintaining a website, the agency performs a number of tasks related to website maintenance. These include the task of developing the website, managing content, administering users and taking care of configuration as well. Most businesses do not understand that it is quite essential to have one long-term plan which will cater to site maintenance.
Why is website maintenance important? Website maintenance on a regular basis is necessary for a number of reasons. Here are a few of them.
Improve your Visitor Experience - Your website is a reflection of your corporate image. It is the first impression which your client gets about your business. People usually research for the company website on social media websites before taking a decision - related to hiring services or purchasing products (especially in case of new businesses) Thus, to ensure great businesses, your business should be able to meet the expectation of the viewers.
Security - Website maintenance ensures that the code or the software of any website is updated. If this is done, it ensures that web visitors are secure. Usually many websites have several lines of codes. These are dependent on the software that runs on the hosting server. Hackers tend to find vulnerabilities in the code. They take an advantage of this and troll the internet for various sites which can be exploited. This can be easily prevented if the software of the website and the web hosting server is updated. This is usually done with latest security updates. If by any chance, your website is hacked, it is possible to remove this virus, cleanup the website and also have the data restored.
Need for Fresh Content - It is essential that the content of the website is fresh. It should offer something new for the readers so that they keep returning. How would you feel if you visit a website after 10-15 days and you find nothing new for you. No one likes to look at information about an event which occurred a few months or weeks ago. If the website content is not updated on a regular basis, it simply means that you are not providing the necessary attention to your business. It can also be an indication that you might be going out of business in a few days.
Important for SEO - A website needs to be SEO compliant. Search engines prefer the sites which are well maintained, that are free from errors and are fast. Thus, each time you choose to update your website, you will be providing the search engines something new. It will give them a scope to rank your website. But remember to update your website only with material which is related to your subject and with one you need people to find you.
Unusable Features - With site updates you will be able to add new functionalities and features to your site. Who doesn’t want to have additional features for their site? The quicker you are able to implement the updates, the quicker you will get the additional functionality. Think why we love updating our phone? The reason is simple - we want it to run smoothly with all additional features and functionalities. For the best user experience, your website needs to be updated and highly functional.
Increase speed - There is a specific reason to have new releases. These are available with different performance improvements that add to the efficiency of the website. If any website takes a long time to load, users usually get impatient and tend to navigate away. Speed is important not just for SEO but is necessary to retain visitors and improve their experience. With website maintenance and new updates, the speed of the site is always optimum.
A website which functions poorly can be quite problematic for any brand. It can adversely affect the way you wish to project your business to customers and clients. You need to examine the feel and look of your website regularly. You also need to ensure that it matches the corporate image of your business.
During website maintenance here are some things which need to be closely monitored:
- Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors - Your website needs to be free from grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, before the customer mentions it.
- Errors related to Page Not Found or 404 error - If a search engine looks for a page and is not able to get it, it returns a 404-page error. This means a poor user experience and is never good for your business.
- Broken Links and Page Speed - These might be in form of pages which load slowly, excess of site downtime and broken links. With regular maintenance, it is possible to correct all these subtle changes.
If you are thinking about trying website maintenance on your own, it will be quite like trying to fix your car. There are a few tasks which can be done best by professionals. Get your website regularly maintained by professionals only who know how to do it in the right way.
Contact our experts to have you website maintained by the real professionals.
