It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about a car, house, gadget, or website – continual maintenance is an essential part of life, and overlooking it can trigger serious consequences.
If you just recently launched a sparkling new website for your brand, you might not feel like maintenance is a top priority right now. Unfortunately, no website can run itself, and failing to plan for ongoing updates and repairs can expose your site to hiccups and threats.
At Platinum Consulting, we like to remind small business owners that proper website management is a vital part of keeping their digital presence safe and profitable.
We’ve seen one too many business owners shirk adequate website care, and the results are never pretty. That’s why we created this blog post: to explore some crucial types of website maintenance for all kinds of companies.
1. Security Patches
First and foremost, keeping a website up-to-date means performing regular security updates. Cybercriminal threats are always evolving and testing out new strategies, and your website needs to continually improve its defenses as needed.
To effectively manage website security, your team will need to conduct frequent inspections, updates, and patches. It only takes one vulnerability to weaken your safeguards, so you can’t afford to skimp when it comes to this element of website maintenance.
Unless your web team is well-versed in the latest security patches and threats, you might want to outsource your defenses to professionals. There are millions of different threats out there, and an experienced website maintenance company will have the necessary time, knowledge, and tools to stay hyper-vigilant and defensive.
Worried about spending the money on ongoing security efforts? Consider that the average cost of a data breach was over $4 million in 2022. Security services might seem costly, but data breaches and ransomware recoveries are far more expensive.
2. Plugin and Theme Updates
Speaking of security improvements, did you know that almost all website security breaches exploit plugins? Whether you use WordPress or another website platform, it’s crucial that your business makes regular plugin updates as a part of your ongoing website maintenance.
It doesn’t matter if your plugins are linking to social media platforms or fun features – make sure they’re all kept up to date as new versions are released. Most plugin updates address the latest security threats, but if you let your plugins or site themes get rusty, you could expose your website to seriously compromising threats.
On WordPress alone, 20 to 50 plugins and themes develop vulnerabilities every week. It’s not enough to conduct updates every few months or so – you need to stay on top of updates every day.
3. Frequent Content Creation
Your website’s maintenance and its content might seem like two separate topics, but these lanes intersect more than you might think. Your content defines your website’s health and efficacy in many ways, and if it grows stagnant, so does your website.
Your content strategy needs to evolve and change with your field, as well as your customers’ preferences and needs. Regular website content updates will help keep your audience engaged, but they will also help your site appeal to search engines.
Fresh content tells Google and other search engines that your website is active, relevant, and worth ranking in search results. If your website’s content hasn’t been maintained, your site will seem outdated and less credible to human and digital searchers.
The bottom line: don’t forget to create new content, spruce up old stuff, and generally maintain your website’s copy. If your staff is hard-pressed to find the time for content creation, consider working with a third-party digital asset team.
4. Compressing & Optimizing Images
Regardless of your business’s age, regular website maintenance should always include updating your website graphics and images as needed. Every visual element, from customer review photos to new video demonstrations, should be properly sized to prevent loading errors or frustrating website speed.
Despite how it may seem, optimizing your website’s images isn’t a one-time deal. As your website grows and people add new content, you’ll need to continuously stay on top of optimization and compression.
Failing to properly size images and maintain other graphics can lead to painfully slow web pages (and lots of frustrated website visitors). Additionally, search engines account for ranking factors like page load speed, so if bulky graphics are bringing things to a snail’s pace, your site likely won’t rank highly in organic search results.
5. Fixing Bad Internal & External Links
Have you ever clicked on a link, only for it to take you to an error code or outdated website? It’s frustrating, and chances are, you’ll blame the host site.
That’s why any routine website maintenance plan should account for bad links. You need to stay on top of broken links to external sources, as well as to other pages on your own website.
These “rotted” links aren’t just annoying to visitors – they also pass red flag signals to Google and other search engines, discouraging them from ranking your site highly in search results. If you want to bring in more organic web traffic, you need to ensure all of your links are maintained and fixed as needed.
6. Improving Mobile Responsiveness
Every modern business understands that mobile websites are crucial in 2023 – but many don’t continue to regularly update their mobile sites, and that’s a big mistake.
The vast majority of the world’s internet users (95%) use a mobile phone to go online at least some of the time, and mobile phones now account for roughly 57% of our online time and nearly 53% of the world’s web traffic.
In other words, your mobile website shouldn’t be a second thought after your desktop site. You need to prioritize, update, and maintain your mobile website’s design just as much as you would your desktop site (if not more).
Consider how you can continually make user experience improvements and ensure everything is functioning properly. The easier and more enjoyable your mobile site is to use, the more organic traffic and potential customers you’ll attract.
7. Conducting Regular Site Backups
Last, but certainly not least, we need to talk about performing website backups.
Any digital agency will tell you that backups are an indispensable part of effective website management. You make copies of irreplaceable business documents and personal records – why wouldn’t you do the same for your business website?
It’s not enough to conduct a full website backup every now and then. If you experience a server crash or malware attack, you’ll want a recent, reliable backup at your fingertips – and that means preparing for worst-case scenarios on a regular basis.
If your backups are frequent and comprehensive, you should be able to restore your business website quickly and painlessly in the event of an emergency. If they’re not… well, you’ll have a lot of backtracking and headaches in the future.
We’re Here to Help You Maintain Your Website
As a small business owner, you’re busy – and overseeing the tedious details of website maintenance isn’t something you necessarily have time to prioritize.
Don’t worry: our web developers have you covered.
At Platinum Consulting, we offer customizable website maintenance service plans for all kinds of companies, including startups and SMBs. Our comprehensive website maintenance services take care of everything from security updates to streamlining your content management systems.
You wouldn’t presume your body is healthy without regular checkups under a medical professional – so why would you assume your website is “healthy” without inspections and care from a web dev team?
If think it’s time to hire a web developer or maintenance team, let’s chat. We’re here to help you invest in the long-term success of your business, and that includes overseeing and improving its website.