8 Reasons why your websites need web maintenance

Do you remember the time when you bought your new shin car?

It must have been the most favourite thing for you under the sun, but to maintain it in the perfect condition and to keep it up and running, you had to take it for regular web maintenance.

Just like anything that you buy and wish to use for a long period, you need to protect and maintain it regularly.

Your task is done by simply setting up and starting your website, you should secure it by regularly updating it.

Why should you maintain your website?

Security: Regularly updating your code or software on your website will help you to protect and maintain it and also secures the websites.

Retaining customers: One of the important reasons for regular maintenance is to ensure that there are no broken links (These are links to sites or pages that no longer work) on the website, so that there is good customer engagement and that they are not frustrated and go to your competitor.

In today’s scenario, a website will never be complete, and it should be constantly be maintained and updated with good and new content to attract new and better engage their audience.

What are the key benefits of Maintaining Websites?

Software Updates

Most of the websites today are complex software applications but they are very easy to edit. For performance reasons and security, your website must be regularly updated, just like the operating system on your computer.

In the case of WordPress websites, this means you should update your core software as well as all the themes and plugins. (WordPress usually has at least one official update every month) Always perform a backup of your data before you are updating your website.  By doing that, even if something goes wrong, you can retrieve the data from the place where you’ve sent it.

Security

Most of the websites that we see today are made up of thousands of lines of codes and usually depend on a specific software the is used to run your specific web hosting server.

There will be vulnerabilities in these codes and hackers will try to utilize and try to take advantage of them.

This can be prevented by keeping the software of the web hosting server and by updating the latest patches and security releases in your website’s software.

Even with all this protection and security, there is a possibility that your account can be hacked and if that happens, you should remove the virus, clean the entire website and then restore the data.

In this process, you should contact and check all the browsers and search engines that may have blacklisted your website due to the virus.

Although 100% protection is not guaranteed against evildoers and hackers, you’ll be in a much better position if you have conducted regular maintenance and constant updates and you’ll also be able to readily clean it up.

New and updated content

To attract new visitors and to engage the existing reader, you should regularly update your content.  Nobody wants to read about an event or news that happened about 6 months and wouldn’t want to read the same content every week.

By not updating your content, you’re sending the message that you don’t care about your business and that you are not giving enough attention to it or may even give the impression that you’re going out of business.

SEO

Fresh content that is well maintained and error-free is mostly preferred by search engines and will top their rankings. Every new material that you add will the basis on which your site is ranked.

If you want new people to find your business, then you must regularly update it with content that is related to your business.

Backup

Regularly backing up your site is one of the most important things and it will come in handy if you are reinstating or rebuilding it. You would need to update two elements of your website.

Any time you make an update or change or when your CMS (Content Management System) updates a new release, then you should back up the code (HTML, CSS, PHP codes, plugins, themes and other files)

Content like audio, videos, images, text, etc should be backed up at least once every quarter, if you are hosting your website, then it must be backed up every day.

Taking advantage of New Features.

The evolution of website technology is fast. Integrating your social medial with your website is important if you want to get more traffic to your website.

Another area that is evolving fast is online security and with the help of an SSL certificate that can encrypt communications that ensure that the personal data of the users are safe with you.

Improving the visitor’s experience

The true corporate image of your company is reflected in the public through your website, and it will make the first impression on a potential client, and since people often take action only after researching the website is important to have a good website.

Meeting the viewer’s expectations is important as the website is an extension of your business.

New and existing customers will view a poorly functioning website as a major problem for your company and brand.

Regularly check the feel and look of your website, so that it will be able to match the corporate image of the company.

Ensuring there are no broken links and checking the page speed is important, and it includes slow-lading pages, downtime, and broken links. Through a regular maintenance process, you correct these minute problems before they become drastic.

Page not found error (404 errors), happens when a search engine or a browser is looking for a page but is unable to find it, which translates to poor user experience.

Spelling mistake and poor grammar should be corrected before it is brought to the notice by your customers.

Reaching every client

At the inception of web design, the end-users were usually only people using a big chunky computer, then came laptops and with the introduction of Mobile browsing, the way people interacted with the internet changes, and cross-platform integration became important.

Some users access websites through tablets as well. With proper website maintenance, you can ensure that it will reach every end-user.

Conclusion

Handling your website can be a tricky business, some people are equipped to do it, some are not. Always remember that the success of your business depends on how well your website is maintained.