When it comes to websites there’s no such thing as set and forget. Your site should always be treated like a car. In order for it to drive you further towards results, you need to regularly service it and pump it full of the right fuel. The term website maintenance often turns people off but in reality you don’t have to be a web developer to run a good website. Here’s all you need to know about keeping your website up to date and adaptable. If it feels like too big of a job or you’re looking to maintain client sites, perhaps it’s time to call in the experts.
Is your site dated?
Does your site look out of date? You may have set your site up following the hottest trends at the time but none of that matters a year later when your site starts to look dated. A dated site isn’t going to feel like a reliable source of relevant information to your customers. Keeping your site looking and feeling relevant doesn’t have to be complicated. You can cut your workload in half by starting on the right foot. A simple minimal design is always going to showcase information and products easily and it’s never really going to look out of date either. As trends change, the less updating you have to do, the better. Call on classic design elements to ensure your site will stand out in any era.
Is your content fresh?
Your website is set up, you’ve got a good batch of content, but it stops there. Your customers are impressed upon their first visit but by their third or fourth your site is offering nothing new. Even if your content is serving the same purpose over and over and over, giving it a fresh face means your existing customers will stay loyal and new customers will be given up to date info every time. Keeping your content on a fresh rotation also means you can target different people at different times. Tap into seasonal traffic with tailored content. With the ability to change your content you can position yourself with trending topics, events, and other businesses. If one type of content isn’t working you can rearrange or retarget with ease. Neglecting content in a site maintenance strategy is where so many businesses go wrong in staying front of mind.
Think about your customers
Your customers should be at the forefront of any decision you make regarding your site. Their needs are constantly changing and evolving as well as the way in which they interact with businesses on a digital platform. Little things, like optimising your site for mobile/tablet use go a long way. The more you can seamlessly fit your site into your customers everyday lives, the more they’ll be willing to bring it into it. Keeping your website up to date and in tune with your customers needs, means keeping a finger on the pulse of their interests.
Technology
Behind all the content strategies, the aesthetics, and the marketing is the back end technology powering your site. Technology evolves and changes fast and it certainly waits for no one. When it comes to the technology powering your site its keep up or get left behind. This is something that’s never going to change so it should be an integral part of your maintenance strategy. When setting up your site consider how much data and files you have on there and how easily they can be backed up. If you keep your site running with only the necessities and don’t overcrowd with gimmicky features it’ll always be able to adapt and upgrade with the technology it’s running on.