What happens after your website is completed and goes live? Can you simply sit back and watch the sales come in until it’s time to get another website years down the road?
You could take that approach, but we wouldn’t recommend it. That would be something like buying a new truck for your business and then abandoning it after it needs a new tank of gas or an oil change. It’s much better, and more cost-effective over the long run, to simply invest a little bit of time and money into regular website maintenance.
Because we know that might not be a topic you are very familiar with, today we’re going to share a few things you should know about keeping your company’s web presence in good working order…
Website Maintenance Shouldn’t be Ignored
The first thing to know about website maintenance is that it is important. Without it, the web presence you invested so much into could quickly become obsolete. You might find that certain pages become outdated, your plug-ins stop working as expected, or that you have security issues. All of these are bad for business, and won’t help you impress new customers.
Small Website Problems Can Turn Into Big Headaches
When a website is well-maintained, pages load quickly and everything works the way it’s supposed to. Skip a few updates or audits, though, and it’s only a matter of time before some underlying pieces of code stop working with new browsers or content management updates. Then, you can get into situations where some of your pages crash, or visitors get warnings when they try to access your content.
Detailed Website Audits are Important
One of the most basic and effective ways to maintain your website is having a creative team conduct a regular website audit. This just means digging into your HTML using specialized software to find missing or broken links, performance problems, or security concerns. You could consider it a regular doctor’s checkup for your website, and having one each year can help you identify small issues and stop them from becoming bigger concerns.
You Shouldn’t Ignore Web Content Reviews
Although website maintenance is mostly directed at underlying technical details, it’s a good idea to look through your content from time to time. After all, your business is always changing; you need things like company bios, product descriptions, prices, and frequently asked questions to reflect those changes so customers can get current information.
You Don’t Want to Handle Website Maintenance Alone
It’s virtually impossible for the average business owner to handle website maintenance on their own. There are simply too many details to keep track of, especially if you don’t have a technical background. Besides, a good creative team can use specialized software to automate a lot of the work and find issues that wouldn’t be apparent to the naked eye.
Is Your Creative Team Giving the Results You Expect?
At Black Door Creative in Rhode Island, we specialize in helping our clients to find smart, cost-effective solutions to their marketing problems. If you feel like you should be getting better results from your website or offline promotional campaigns, contact us today to schedule a free consultation and see how we can help.
