Let’s have a look at website maintenance and see why it is so important to maintain your website on a regular basis and to get it right. Get it wrong and your business will suffer!
What Is Website Maintenance and Why It Is Important
Website maintenance is the process of keeping a website running efficiently and smoothly, as well as keeping it fully updated. This involves checking for problems and issues, correcting them and updating the website's software regularly.
It is important to maintain your website to keep it at optimum performance and to help stop unwanted intrusions by unauthorised persons.
1. Corporate Brand & Image
Your corporate image or brand depends upon your website performing properly. If information is out-of-date or simply wrong, you will end up losing both reputation and business. If your hyperlinks do not work you will miss out on customers being able to contact you or they will not be able to buy your products. Checking these on a regular basis should be a standard task.
2. Security
All websites are open to attack from hackers and other malicious internet users. Attacks may come in all guises. Keeping your website’s core software, as well as any themes and plugins, fully patched is of vital importance to keep your website as well protected as possible. But how do you go about this? What happens if an update causes your website to crash? How do you deal with this scenario? Taking back-ups is, of course, something which should be done as standard before any work is done on your website. If you are competent with keeping your website updated, it is easy enough to do yourself. However, why not let Cotswold Websites handle this for you. It only takes one thing to go wrong to cause an even bigger problem!
3. Business Continuity
Are you sure that your contact forms and call-to-action buttons are working as expected? If any of them lead to off-site destinations, you are vulnerable to third-party changes. Regular checks on these forms and buttons should be made, or you could find that your customers are not able to contact you, or are unable to enter your sales funnel.
4. Payments & eCommerce
You must make sure your shopping cart and checkout processes are working correctly. If one of these steps fails, you could be losing out on important business and income. The simplest method to check this is to purchase one of your own products through your own online shop. This will show you the exact route your clients will be going through and will thus enable you to spot any problems if they exist.
5. Content
Your website will be partially ranked on how up-to-date its content is. If no new content is added, you will almost certainly see your website slipping down the Google rankings. Adding in new pages or posts will help you keep current and therefore hold on to your top search rankings.
Summary
Website maintenance is not rocket science, but it can be time-consuming and boring – never mind expensive to rectify if it goes wrong. If website maintenance is not for you, ask Cotswold Websites how we can support you. You can rest easy in the knowledge that we can provide you with different levels of support, dependent on your needs.
Contact us today for more information.
Get Our Digital Marketing Tips
Receive tips, tricks and ideas for your digital marketing straight to your Inbox. Just add your email address below.
Get In Contact
About The Author
Christopher White
Christopher White is the founder of Cotswold Websites. An accredited digital marketer and website designer, he has over 18 years of experience in creating bespoke websites.
With a background in international logistics and business analysis, Christopher uses his business experience to advise organisations how their website can and should work for them, along with helping them implement business strategies to use Digital Marketing techniques to boost their public exposure.