Just like your computer or cell phone, regular maintenance is required for site security, performance, design, traffic flow, and more. After launching your website you need to secure regular updates. We’ll highlight some of the main reason and benefits on why you should update your site regularly.
- Benefits of Website Maintenance
Core Updates
Websites are complex platforms and codes. Similar to your phone, websites need to be kept up to date for security and performance reasons. In WordPress, this means regularly updating the core software as well as any plugins and theme you are using. WordPress generally updates their program once a month. Always make sure to backup your data before performing an update just in case something goes wrong.
SEO
Search engines rank sites higher if they are fast, well structured and well maintained. Every time you update the website, search engines detect the update and can give you a higher rank, which will result in your site showing higher on the search results page. You must ensure your website is properly and regularly updated with related content so your target audience finds your business. Some of the best SEO strategies is having fresh content consistently and keeping your site working at optimal performance.
Content Marketing
The content on your website should engage and grow your target audience. You want your site visitors to see new content that is relevant to your business and will help them choose you over your competitiors. If you’re not updating your website, you may be sending the impression you are not paying attention to your business or that you are no longer in business. Depending on your site, business, and target audience, the content of your website doesn’t always have to be articles, you can keep your website updated with new content such as galleries, portfolio, testimonials, or even a website redesign.
Security
Hackers and virus programs often discover vulnerabilities in code through weak website security and will attempt to take advantage of this by trying to steal your data or spam your website. You can help prevent this by keeping your website’s security plugins updated with the latest patches and security releases. You can’t be 100% protected against attacks, even with all the security measures in place to prevent this, but you can always have adequate security to prevent that. Regularly updating your plugins and programs that protect against spamming, hackings, and brute force attacks will prevent your site from being compromised.
New Features
Website themes and plugins evolve fast, with constant development of new features that can improve your site. It has become increasingly important to have the newest and best features on your site that will give your site a competitive advantage and help you grow your audience. Online security is evolving fast constantly being updated. With new viruses, come patches to protect against them. Investing in securing your site with an SSL certificate that will encrypt communications to assure customers their personal details are safe with you. This is 100% a necessity if you have an e-commerce site. SSL Certificates protects transactions and your customer’s personal data.
(Note: Some of our Maintenance & Care Plan, comes with SSL Certificate induced)
Website Backup
Every site should be backed up regularly for any reason in the even that your site needs to be rebuilt or reinstated. There are 3 website elements that need backup such as, code, WordPress and content. We recommend running a backup once a month. By having the right backup system, you can backup all the element at the same time, just like our backup service.
(If you host your website with us, it’s backed up every day).
Improve User-Experience
Your website is a reflection of your business and brand. It will often be the first impression a potential new client has of your business. Statistics has it that people will visit a company’s website and social media before taking further action. As an extension of your business, it’s important that your website running optimally to meet the viewer’s expectations.
A poorly functioning website is a major problem for your brand and the image you want to project to potential new clients, as well as your existing clients and customers. Routinely examining the look and feel of your website is important to detect any issues before your visitors see’s them.
Here is what needs to be monitored:
- Page speed and broken links: This includes slow-loading pages and broken links (links to pages that no longer work). Through regular website maintenance, you can fix any issues that may arise.
- Page not found errors (404 errors). A 404 error is returned when a browser or search engine goes looking for a page and is unable to find it.
- Response Design: It’s crucial to monitor your site on mobile devices to make sure your website is responsive and your site visitors an don’t encounter any issues or flaws in the design.
Conclusion
Whether you don’t have the expertise or the time, we offer maintenance and care plans that will allow you to step away and focus on running your business and while keeping your website cared for.
Our website maintenance plans, including content updates, website maintenance, technical support, and business website hosting. If you’re interested in a care plan visit Website Maintenance and Care Plans or Contact Us to learn how we can keep your site working properly
