Just like cars, websites require maintenance to operate properly. To protect and keep your car in perfect running order, you must take it in for regular maintenance. You should be doing the same thing with your website.
Website maintenance is important to your business as it can have a big impact on the value of your products or services. In general, we see companies updating their website’s “Look and Feel” on an annual basis. This change not only provides new content for clients, but it shows that your company and products are being regularly invested in. This attention to detail helps you attract new customers and retains current clients.
The lack of maintenance can also hurt you over time. As an example, Google is constantly changing its metrics and algorithms regarding ranking your content online. When you have a site that has not been updated, your content will fall behind and not get ranked. To give you a specific instance, websites used to just use keywords. So, if you site had the word “Cat” written 1000 times, you would get ranked higher. In the current ranking system, you would not only get a lower ranking, you would be considered “not valid” since Google knows your content is not viable. Here are the general guidelines that Google currently uses to rank your website:
To help you bring your website up to current standards, JDB Technology has a few simple services to help keep your site up-to-date.
- We make sure each site is secure. Security is the main reason that website maintenance is so important. Failing to do regularly scheduled maintenance on a website gives hackers the chance to steal data from your site. This includes:
- SSL Certifications
- Malware Scanning
- Firewall installation/ verification
- Security best practice check
- We check for and install updates. Software Updates are important because they often include critical patches to resolve security holes. Updates will protect you from the latest threats.
- Core file updates
- Theme updates
- Plugin updates
- Test and verify changes. Many updates may make your site secure, but it also tends to break things. After securing and updating the site, we must spend the time to review everything.
- Verify text and layout
- Verify header/footer alignment
- Verify links/buttons/ forms
- Verify graphics
In our opinion, you NEED to keep your site maintained and updated. This improves accessibility and visitor experience, but it is becoming more of a necessity in doing business. A well-maintained website has the ability to reach every client, generate more leads, increase conversions, and get more customers. Give us a call today to learn more on how we can help you with your web maintenance.