Why do I need to bother with web maintenance?

20/9/2021

 

In order for a website to work well for your business and bring you results, it needs to look and perform at its best.

 

It doesn’t matter whether you are a small or large company, the goal is the same – to engage and retain customers. This means visitors need to be able to find what they are looking for quickly and that the information, when they locate it, is up to date and useful. There should be no barriers to this goal.

 

We appreciate maintenance is not the most exciting task but by carrying out regular checks you can avoid any major problems with your website further down the line. My grandmother used to say: "A stitch in time saves nine."

 

 

 

 

12 tasks to include in web maintenance

1. Does your website load quickly? Check if all the pages load smoothly and without errors.
    
2. Check for any broken links (within your website and to external web pages) and 404 errors i.e., pages that cannot be found because they have been deleted or moved.
    
3. Make sure images are displaying properly. Sometimes people upload images that are too small so they look blurry or could have benefitted from cropping and editing.
    
4. Test and update popups, contact forms, search functionality and calls to action.
    
5. If you have a Wordpress site make sure plugins are up to date as outdated software can make your website vulnerable to hackers.
    
6. You may need to produce some new content in the form of blogs. Make sure news really is news and that the last item wasn’t posted a year ago.
    
7. Check for typos and grammatical errors that may have crept in.
    
8. It’s 2021 and you cannot ignore the fact that many people now use a mobile device to purchase or search for a product or service. If your website is not mobile responsive you could be missing out on sales and opportunities. If it’s for visitors difficult to navigate and find what the need, they will take their business elsewhere.
    
9. Make sure your website has an SSL certificate. There really is no excuse for not having one. It increases site security and provides credibility and trust for your customers. Without an SSL Google will not rank you as well and your site will display as ‘not secure’ which is a bad sign for any business.
    
10. Check your Google My Business profile is up to date.
     
11. Take a look at your Google Analytics (if you have this installed). This can help you optimise and improve paths through your website. You can view which pages are most popular, those that are not receiving traffic, where your traffic is coming from and what visitors do on your site. You may use a search engine optimisation agency to handle this for you, but if not the information will tell you if you need to make changes to the content or include clearer calls to action.
     
12. Take a backup of your website. Better safe than sorry. Some hosting companies take automatic backups but you can also do your own too.

 

We're happy to answer any questions you may have about web maintenance. Just get in touch at info@catfishwebdesign.com