The importance of maintaining your website
When was the last time you updated your website? Was it a few weeks ago, months ago, or much longer? Think about it, when you visit a website that’s not been updated in a while, wouldn’t you start to lose faith in the brand?
Owning a website comes with many responsibilities. You can’t just upload your content and forget about it, knowing that you’ve got a presence online. Regular website maintenance is a must if you want your site to be successful and be trusted by consumers and search engines like Google.
With regular website maintenance your site will run smoothly and be free of bugs – so there will be no more disgruntled visitors. All the content will continue to be up-to-date too as you share the latest news and best offers. Showing you’re relevant in an ever-competitive world has never been more important.
In addition to these points, search engines need to know you’re relevant too and that your business is still up and running. Failing to update your website and make regular changes or additions will also look a little suspect to Google.
Six areas to improve on your website
If you’re really not sure which areas you can improve and build upon on your website, we’re here to give you a helping hand. While for some product-led businesses it may be obvious to update a website with new products, for others updating a website may appear harder.
Area #1 Content is King
Take a good, hard look at your content. There’s a big difference between what reads well on a word document and what works well as a website. Is your copy as direct, characterful and communicative as you’d like it to be? If not, perhaps you need to look into clever copy and marketing strategies. When it comes to copy there’s always room for improvement and an opportunity to refresh what’s on your website.
Area #2 Become a blogger
Another easy way to improve your website is with a regular blog or news page. This type of content not only shows how active you are as a business, it’s also extremely useful in reaching out to new customers. Share you blogs and news items over on social media and keep SEO rules in mind. Remember that this type of content must be posted regularly if you really want to reap the benefits.
Area #3 Keep on top of offers
There’s nothing worse than clicking on an offer on a site only to find out that when you visit the page, the offer has expired. Keeping on top of images and banners will not only keep your site up-to-date, but will also save you a lot of hassle.
Area #4 Hot product pages
As mentioned above, if you’ve got a whole range of new products in stock, putting them on your website should be your priority. Keeping your product pages up to date is an absolute necessity for any E-commerce site – and that include removing old stock as well as putting on new items. A steady flow of new products also keeps customers coming back – also benefiting your retention rates.
Area #5 Broken links = bad experience
Content on the Internet changes every day, meaning it doesn’t take much for a link to become out-dated. Links become broken over time – and if you’re not checking or updating your website you’re unlikely to pick it up. Ensuring that all links are fixed will not only benefit your site’s SEO, it will also ensure your business looks professional.
Area #6 Up to speed with updates
It’s not just the details on your website you need to keep on top of, it’s the external factors that keep your website running too. Domain names are subject to renewal every couple of years and in order to keep yours it’s crucial that you renew them.
Likewise, third party software providers, like WordPress, Magento or Opencart are always updating their software. While you’ll usually receive a notification upon log-in, you’ll miss it if you fail to go on to your website.
You really should keep on top of these updates by contacting your website developer or hosting administrator to prevent any problems that may occur with your site, as a result of outdated plugins or extensions.
This is because the updates usually contain important security updates that prevent your site from being compromised. As an added bonus, oftentimes the updates include newly rolled out features to enhance your website experience even further!
Next steps…
At 21 Digital, we can help you with every one of these elements and leave you with a website that is set to impress. Our range of professional services will ensure your website is up to date 24/7 and relevant to both search engines and your consumers.
Our services include:
Pro-Website Maintenance
Our Pro package offers clients a dedicated design and code resource on tap to help keep things fresh, professional and always on brand. Our monthly price plans start from as little as £160 p/m.
PAYG
If you don’t need to make regular changes then our pay as you go tariff is for you. We carry out any necessary updates on an ad hoc basis to suit you. Simply pre-purchase the hours you require at a standard studio rate.
To find out more, contact Sam, our Marketing Director today on 01254 660 560.
