About 5.35 billion people worldwide currently use the internet. If you want your business to be successful, having a strong online presence is crucial.
Your website is an incredibly valuable asset and how you use it can have a huge impact on the success of your business. Things change fast online, and you need to keep an eye on your site to make sure it’s helping you get the best results.
A website maintenance plan can help you keep your website functional and up-to-date. This will make it more appealing and useful for visitors.
Keep reading for some tips on what makes a quality website maintenance package.
1. Perform Security Updates
Online security is more important now than ever before. The average cost of a data breach is $6.94 million Cdn, so this is something that all businesses need to work to avoid.
The security needs of a website will depend on what that website does. Sites that store user data (particularly things like credit card information) must be highly secure. All monthly website maintenance packages should consist of making sure website security is as robust as it can be.
Cyber threats like malware, phishing, and hacking can damage your business both in terms of finance and reputation. Depending on the severity of a cyber attack, the damage caused could be irreparable.
A website maintenance plan should include regular security checks. Any potential vulnerabilities should be addressed and security software and plugins must be kept up to date. Cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to launch attacks and security updates are one of the best ways to protect against them.
2. Back Your Site Up
You might add or update data on your site quite often, and you don’t want to lose all of the work you put in. Unexpected issues can occur, so should regularly back up your site to make sure you can restore it if anything goes wrong.
A backup contains your site’s files and database so that you can restore them if you ever need to. This may be if the site crashes or if a cybercriminal attacks it, for example.
There are backup plugins which are fairly simple to use yet very effective. It’s also worth noting that some hosting providers offer backup capabilities.
These solutions are ideal for smaller sites that don’t have huge demands. For larger websites with a lot of data, however, you may need to take more measures to ensure your site is backed up correctly.
3. Update Software and Plugins
There are plenty of different plugins and other tools that modern websites use. These can add features, improve security, boost SEO, and more. Many developers release regular updates for these, so you should install them when they arise.
These updates can serve various purposes. In most cases, they’re based on features, compatibility, or security. If you want your site to function at its best and be as secure as possible, updating software and plugins is an essential part of your website maintenance checklist.
Note that in some cases, an update could cause an issue with your site. This is another reason why backups are so important. If an update does cause any issues, you can restore a backup to get your site working properly again and then you can figure out what the issue is.
4. Optimize Performance
Website speed is highly important, so you want to make sure yours performs as it should. On top of improving SEO, a faster website will offer a better user experience. Users have high expectations these days, so if your website takes too long to load, they’ll be more likely to head over to one of your competitors’ sites.
There are plenty of factors that can affect website speed. Some of the key ones are:
- Type of hosting
- Media on pages (images, videos, etc.)
- Unoptimized Code
- Caching
- Server configuration
Ideally, you’ll make sure your site is optimized as you’re building it, but there may be plenty of improvements to make with time.
For example, when first starting out, you might go for a cost-effective hosting plan. While this may be sufficient early on, your website might start to struggle as your business grows and you get more visitors. Upgrading to a better type of hosting service could offer increased speed that will improve the performance of your site.
5. Update Content
Many of your visitors will likely be drawn in by the content you produce for your site. As such, you should keep updating this content so that people will want to come back. New consent is also good for SEO, so this will help increase both traffic and engagement.
The exact content you should use will depend on your type of business and your target audience. It’s a good idea to have a content strategy that’s built for your brand. Common inclusions are blog posts, videos, and images.
Depending on what you have on your site, you may also want to remove older content as it becomes outdated. Alternatively, you could revamp old content to ensure it stays relevant.
6. Work on SEO
While some of the above elements will naturally help with SEO, you should still focus on it directly. Effective SEO can have a huge impact on the organic traffic your site gets, and it’s one of the most effective ways to bring in new visitors.
There are all kinds of things you can do to improve SEO, such as:
- Publishing relevant, authoritative content
- Making your site mobile-responsive
- Keyword research
- Using alt tags
- Getting authoritative backlinks
- Image optimization
- Fixing broken links
It can take a while to really see the effects of SEO, but it’s one of the most effective marketing strategies there is, and it’s essential if you want to keep up with the competition.
The Right Website Maintenance Plan
Having a reliable website maintenance plan will help ensure your website always performs as it should and provides users with what they need. Effective website maintenance isn’t easy for those who don’t have the right experience.
SelexWeb is an Edmonton web design company that offers a range of services. We’ve already helped various local clients including Solaris Canada, BARR LLP, Edmonton Family Network, and many more. Take a look at our website maintenance page to find out more about how we can help.
