Too many people believe that a website, once built, requires nothing more than an occasional blog post or update to keep it functioning properly and attracting customers, clients, or sales. Whether you run a small business site with a niche audience group, a large corporate site with limited audience interaction, or something as complex as a community gaming platform, you need regular professional website maintenance if you want to succeed.
Proper design and development go a long way toward creating a site that does not need too much maintenance. If you build it well, a website pretty much takes care of itself, right? This is the attitude that unfortunately gets people in trouble. Site visitors stop showing up, search engines stop ranking your pages, and you find warning notices in your email about pages taken over by phishing scams.
An ignored website runs into trouble quickly. Hire professionals with the knowledge and experience to perform regular site maintenance and you will not have to worry about these and other problems.
Signs you need website maintenance
Technical issues may be one of the first signs you need to get help quickly. Slow loads, broken links, and glitchy media files all make for an unpleasant user experience. This gradual descent into failure is akin to an old truck rusting in a field. It started out as a powerful example of modern technology but, without appropriate maintenance, transforms into an eyesore and a headache that no one wants to look at or deal with.
No one can drive the truck anymore, and no one can use your website as intended if it fails to load or elements do not function properly. Worse still, the site visitors who do show up will get a bad impression of you or your company and will just leave again and never come back.
The worst possible outcome when it comes to neglected website maintenance has to do with security. Fail to update properly and you leave your webpages open to attack from nefarious programs or hackers that seek to infiltrate your private information, databases, and the visible site itself.
If you own or operate a website, it needs maintenance. It’s as simple as that.
A closer look at what regular maintenance does for a website
The last line above is true and all you really need to know to hire a highly-skilled professional team like ours here at Creative Goldfish to handle maintenance for you. However, understanding the whys and hows of the ongoing process helps you to understand your online presence better and makes sure your site visitors always have the best possible experience.
Audience Engagement and Conversion
If a visitor clicks through to your website and it fails to load in two or three seconds, they will go elsewhere. If they do stay and the site does not display properly, fails to play a video they click on, links take them to a 404 page, or anything else glitches, they will write your company off as a bad idea and never take a second look. Getting attention and keeping it is about more than having an error-free site, however. First impressions matter in business online. Eyes go first to “Latest News” or “Recent Posts” or “Current Deals.” If the date on any of these things is more than a week old, interest dwindles instantly.
Boost Search Engine Optimisation
Fresh content and smooth functioning go hand in hand when it comes to making the search engine spiders happy. Frequent updates boost rankings, but only if the base website behind the new content works. Regular website maintenance may not be about content creation, but it is about keeping things fresh and current. Of course, the more happy visitors you have, the better your chances of SEO success is anyway. People who find your site comfortable to use and full of fresh, high-quality changes on a regular basis are much more likely to share your link on social media and their own pages.
Keep Up With the Latest Technology and Best Practices
WordPress, to use the most popular CMS in the world as an example, launched in 2003. At the time, it was undoubtedly top-of-the-line technology for building websites. If your site still used the 15 year old version, it would be laughed off the internet. A considerable part of website maintenance is not only keeping existing technology properly updated but also seeking out the best new options to include. So many new apps, elements, and features exist these days to create online powerhouse websites. Experts in site maintenance make it their business to know.
Update Site Security to Ensure Secure User Data
Hand-in-hand with advancing technology comes advancing methods to circumvent it, infiltrate private databases and file folders, and wreak havoc. When bad things happen to your website, it can be a huge headache to fix it again. If you let bad things happen to your customers or clients’ private information, it might be business suicide. Proper website maintenance addresses security concerns by providing appropriate backups, updates, upgrades, and scans to make sure everything is sealed up tightly. If nothing else, you need professional to handle this part of running a successful business.
