You've finally built a new website. The design fits your brand's story perfectly. The content is interesting and tailored to the target audience. The search engine optimization strategy is flawless.
And this is where the story usually ends.
After the creation and initial launch, many forget about their website and let it take care of itself.
And, of course, that's wrong.
Website maintenance is important for any business, regardless of size. Especially for small businesses that need their website to stand out from the competition.
After all, a website is a company's digital business card - ID.
Adding new products and services, replacing images and making minor design changes may sound trivial. But it's a long-term process that needs to be done on a daily basis to keep a website not only functional, but also well positioned on search engines.
That's why it's best to leave website maintenance to experts. After all, website maintenance also includes technical elements like testing and debugging.
In this blog post, you will learn all about website maintenance and why it is also one of the most important elements to your successful online presence.
The real work begins when the website is ready and online.
However, if you neglect the maintenance of the website, certain negative consequences can occur:
These negative consequences lead to chaos, making it difficult for users to navigate your website. And since the purpose of the website is to provide users with all relevant information about your brand, it's clear that regular website maintenance is necessary.
Think of your website as a tool. Every tool (and machine, like cars) needs to be maintained in order to function properly. A website is not all that different - without maintenance, it will not reach its full potential.
Of course, website maintenance is also done for preventative reasons. It's smarter to fix minor problems on a regular basis than to face major errors. And without maintenance, big mistakes will inevitably occur.
For example, various scripts and web browsers like Google Chrome or Internet Explorer are updated regularly, which can lead to errors and problems on the site.
Therefore, it is important to constantly check the functionality and design of the website. But this requires time and knowledge, which is why many neglects this important activity.
When a website is constantly maintained and checked, there is much less room for errors. Therefore, website maintenance tasks can be easily divided into daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly, which is yearly.
It is important to watch for potential problems and, if necessary, perform the listed daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly (yearly) tasks so that your website's functionality is not compromised.
Make sure you don't have any conflicts on your website. For example, if you have two plugins that have the same task, they could conflict and break your website. The best example of this is if you have security plugins enabled at the same time. Always choose the best plugin for you and delete the other one to ensure the functionality of your website.
Additionally, a little tip, when you update your website(s), do it in this order Plugins - Themes - WP Core. You may ask, why this order? The answer is very simple: plugins usually cause the least problems and WP core can cause the most problems, especially if you don't update regularly. Themes come somewhere in the middle. There are some, but very FEW times when plugins or themes cause more problems than WP core, but as I said, these are very rare. I suggest deleting inactive plugins and themes as this will give you better website speed, more storage space and increased security.
Daily tasks need to be done regularly to keep the website active and secure.
Respond to blog comments. We all know how much a blog benefits the web presence of any business. In addition to a better search engine ranking, a well-written blog shows your visitors that you are an authority in your field. But the blog is written for the sake of visitors and audience. And what good is it if you don't respond to their comments? By commenting, you prove your credibility to visitors who are visiting your site for the first time, but also that you are active and take your web presence seriously.
Regular website backup. A website backup is the process of copying and archiving the latest version of a website to preserve its data and content in case of an error or problem. The backup must be performed daily to reduce the risk of losing new content.
The following tasks are also important, but they are not so urgent that they need to be performed daily.
Consider the visible part of the website. Every website exists only for the benefit of its users and visitors. Therefore, from time to time, it is necessary to look at the visible part of your website from the point of view of a normal visitor. Are all the pages functioning normally? Is the mobile version of the web adapted well enough? These are some of the points you should look out for when checking the appearance and day-to-day functionality of a website.
Analytics check. Website analytics builds on the above task. A week-long analytics check will provide insight into what content users are reading the most, how users are behaving on the site, and which pages are not engaging enough for them. With this information, you can then adjust your strategy and content to best suit your specific audience. Also, by reviewing analytics, you can spot problems before the search engines abstract them.
Delete spam comments. If you write a blog on your website, spam comments will eventually show up. That's why it's important to check your site regularly to delete spam comments and free up resources.
Although the task interval increases, the following tasks are not less important than those that need to be performed more frequently. On the contrary.
Testing and deleting plugins and themes. It is well known that one of the biggest advantages of WordPress websites is a huge archive of various plugins, extensions and themes. During the life cycle of a website, many extensions are tried, and those that are no longer used are often forgotten. To avoid wasting web resources, you should go through your resources once a month and delete the extensions and themes that are no longer used.
Database optimization. Databases are filled with various data on a daily basis, much of which is unwanted and unnecessary. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize your website's database once a month and free up space for the data that is really necessary.
Malware scans and hacking. The risk of hacking is a reality for every website owner. That's why it's important to be proactive and check for website irregularities on a regular basis.
The following tasks do not need to be performed every month, but they should definitely be followed to keep the website functioning normally.
Eliminate dead links. Dead links are links that lead to a page that cannot be accessed permanently. In the context of maintaining a website, dead links include links to your website, links that lead to your website, or links that lead from your website to a third-party website that no longer exists. Such links do not provide a good user experience, so users quickly leave your website.
Updating personal and business information. It's a good idea to check every few months to see if the information on the web reflects your brand and philosophy. Things change quickly, not just on the web, but in real life - maybe your business goal has changed, or you want to take your website in a different direction, or you just need to change your new business address. So as part of website maintenance, check pages such as About Us, Contact Us, Legal Information pages, etc.
