Maintaining a website is a lot like maintaining a car. When you purchase a car, the hope is that it will last for a long time. Yet, the only way it will do so is if you take care of it. The same idea can be applied to a website. When you make a website, the hope is that you can continue using the domain for the foreseeable future. But the website will only last as long as you maintain it. Therefore, it is incredibly important to keep up with the maintenance of your website to continue bringing in traffic. This article is going to provide you with all the tips and tools you need to continue having a successful website.
Table of Contents
Why is Website Maintenance so Important?
So we know that website maintenance is important but why is it so important? As mentioned before, simply having a website up and running isn’t enough to ensure traffic continues to arrive at your site. For example, say that you own a computer repair business and you have a website that displays all of the repair options that your company offers. If you don’t regularly update your website with the different repair options you offer as new technology comes out, your website will quickly become outdated.
It is imperative that you continually update your website as it relates to changes within society as well. If companies did not regularly update their websites throughout the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers would be left with no information regarding the company’s operations in this new society. Society changes every day. You can stay in front of it by regularly updating your website.
Maintenance is Necessary for Security
Security is one of the primary reasons why website maintenance is so important. Many companies utilize Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Drupal or WordPress to create their website domains. These systems regularly require software and security patches that ensure that your website continues to be safe from potential threats. Failing to do so can give hackers the chance to steal data from your website.
Search Engines Value Regularly Updated Websites
Search engines such as Google raise rankings for websites that are regularly updated. The whole reason why you have a website in the first place is to expose your business to as many people as you possibly can. The best way to do that is by improving your search engine rankings. A higher ranking website increases your site’s visibility, which increases the odds that someone will arrive at your website when looking up relevant keywords. Keeping your site updated with valuable information as it pertains to your business, fixing broken links, removing duplicate pages, and keeping your content relevant will boost your traffic significantly.
How to Maintain a Website
Now that you know why website maintenance is so important, let’s dive into how to actually go about maintaining your website.
Regularly Update Your Page with New Content
In a society that moves as fast as the one we live in, news and trends come out every single day. This means that you should be regularly updating your page with new content as it relates to these trends. Many popular websites include a news or blog section that is incredibly easy to update and quick to refresh. Ultimately, the goal is to bring as much traffic to your website as possible. So, posting refreshing yet relevant content on a consistent basis will steadily increase the number of visitors to your website.
Content Wording is Crucial
We understand the importance that creating new content has in how to maintain a website, but how do you know whether or not the content that you are creating is doing the job it’s supposed to be doing? Wording your content in a way that reads well and is appealing to your audience is incredibly important to consider in content creation. Regularly look over the content on your site and decide whether or not it is communicating what you intended. If it doesn’t, re-write your content as if you were directly speaking to a client. You’ll find your messages to be much more clear and effective this way.
Give Your Site a Facelift Every-So-Often
When a visitor lands on your homepage, it often only takes them a few seconds to decide whether or not they want to stay on it. This means that making sure the design of your site is clean and appealing to all of your visitors is incredibly important in your website’s maintenance. It is easy to tell which websites regularly undergo design changes and which ones don’t.
When visitors click on your page, they don’t want to see an outdated, obsolete site that looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2006. That’s a major turn-off. Don’t be afraid to make bold design changes every-so-often. Include images, a variety of colors, and solid headlines to grab the attention of your visitors and keep them clicking through your site. People are always more likely to buy from a website that looks professional and updated, so keep it that way!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is Key
You might have the absolute best website on the internet, your content may be excellent and your page design might be beautiful, but if no one can find it, all of your hard work will be for nothing. Quality search engine optimization is necessary for both creating and maintaining a steady flow of traffic to your website.
Step out of your own shoes and into the shoes of your target audience. Before arriving at your site, what do you think a customer would search on Google? What are some of the keywords and phrases that come to mind? Include these terms as often as you can within content and headlines on your page. Google rewards quality search engine optimization. You want your page to be the first or second result when you look up a word or phrase that pertains to your business. SEO Design Chicago offers a variety of services that can vastly improve your website ranking. Increasing visibility to your site is money and time well spent!
Integrate Social Media on Your Site
Over the last decade, social media has exploded as one of the premier marketing tools within the business world. In fact, in 2021, 91.2% of U.S. marketers in companies larger than 100 employees were expected to use social media for marketing purposes. Social media has become necessary in marketing your business and website.
Social bookmarking can allow website visitors to share information easily amongst friends on Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook. Simply having the little share button with a few different social media platforms can make all the difference in getting your website out there and maintaining a steady flow of traffic.
Add an Interactive Element To Your Site
Use your website as a platform to communicate with your customer base so that they keep coming back. Including an interactive element encourages engagement and feedback amongst visitors to your site. This could be done with a questions tab or customer support chat window. Or, a customer survey or poll can vastly improve your overall understanding of your target audience. It can also help you improve upon both your marketing and research and development efforts.
It’s important to note that customers really do appreciate interaction. When you respond to feedback, customers feel as if their input matters and that they are truly being listened to. That can make all the difference in both maintaining customers and increasing overall traffic to your website.
A Well-Maintained Website is a Successful Website
Maintaining a website can be viewed in the same light as a brick-and-mortar store. The only way that you are going to keep customers coming to your store is if it is well-maintained and offers products that continually meet the expectations of your target customer base. If the store looks outdated and dirty, the customers that you once had will shop elsewhere. The same can be said about a website.
One day, you may have the most popular website on the planet, driving in millions of page visitors every hour, and just a few months later, it could all be gone without the proper maintenance. Society moves so quickly that what was popular today might not be popular at all tomorrow. So, keeping up with the trends of the current day is crucial in keeping a steady stream of traffic to your website. As long as you keep up with the day-to-day maintenance of your website, you will continue to find success!
FAQs about Website Maintenance:
- Why is website maintenance important?
- How does website maintenance relate to security?
- How do I word the content on my website?
- Why should I integrate social media on my website?
- What interactive elements can be added to my website?
Contact Us Today!