What Is Website Maintenance and Why do you need it?

What is website maintenance
Website maintenance includes updating content on your site, fixing broken links, and making sure that your site works well for visitors. It also involves keeping track of all the different aspects of your site, such as how many people visit each day, which pages are most popular, and where users come from when they arrive at your site.
Website maintenance is a continuous process of keeping web pages, content, extensions and applications up-to-date, secure and optimized for optimal performance. It involves a combination of small and large tasks such as updating content, fixing broken links, adding new features or plugins and ensuring the website has the latest security patches. Regular maintenance is key to providing an enjoyable user experience and keeping your website safe from hackers.

Why Should You Maintain Your Site?

A website that isn’t maintained properly will not only lose potential customers, but it will also make it harder for search engines to find your site. If you aren’t maintaining your site, you could miss out on new opportunities to reach more people with your products or services.

Why Website Maintenance is So Critical for Business Owners

Keeping your website updated, secured and running smoothly is critical to the success of your business. Not only can website maintenance help protect your digital assets and keep up with current trends, but it can also improve user experience, provide search engine optimization benefits, and even help you save money in the long run.

WEBSITE MAINTENANCE planning

Planning and scheduling website maintenance is import for your website performance and search engine optimisation.

What is a Website Maintenance Package?

A website maintenance package (also known as website maintenance services) is a set of services offered by a web host company that includes things like domain name registration, email accounts, and website design. It's also possible to purchase these services separately, but a monthly website maintenance package usually offers them at a discounted rate. Read more about our website maintenance packages here.

Website Maintenance Services

Keep up with the latest technology and best practices with these maintenance services that will make sure your website is secure, fast, and optimised for success. Maintaining a website means more than just updating content regularly. Staying current on the latest technologies, keeping security up to date, and optimizing for success requires ongoing effort. Luckily, there are various website maintenance services available to help ensure your website is always running smoothly.

Website Hosting and Maintenance.

Web hosting and security are two of the most important aspects of website maintenance. A quality web hosting provider will ensure your website is always running at optimal speeds, while reliably protecting it from malicious activity and data breaches. Furthermore, a good hosting provider will be able to assist you in dealing with any issues that may arise. We can help with website hosting.

Website Audit and Performance Monitoring.

Regular website audits and performance monitoring can help you identify errors or dysfunctional elements on your website. Some maintenance services provide an extensive site audit feature to assess your website for any known security threats, broken links, outdated content and other issues that could be hindering your website performance or search engine rankings. This type of comprehensive analysis will provide you with the information you need to make sure everything is running smoothly and securely.

Mobile Compatibility Check.

A mobile compatibility check is an important element of any website audit. This will determine if your website is optimized for the most popular smartphone and tablet browsers. If you aren’t meeting the standards for mobile optimization, you could be missing out on valuable traffic from potential customers that are using their phones to access your website. Maintenance services can help analyze mobile friendliness quickly, identify errors and make sure your website looks great on every device.

SEO Optimization.

A maintenance service should include an audit of your webpages to make sure they are optimized for search engine crawlers. This is important to ensure that your website will rank well in the eyes of Google and other search engines. It’s also important to make sure that you have all of the technical elements, such as metadata and H1 tags, set up properly so that your content can be indexed correctly. Maintenance services should check regularly that your SEO strategy is keeping up with best practices so you don’t fall behind in search rankings.

Database Maintenance and Backup Solutions.

Web maintenance services should include regular backups of your website’s database. A backup ensures that if something goes wrong – such as someone hacking into your site or corrupting the data – you can restore everything quickly and easily. Many services also offer ongoing database maintenance to make sure that it is optimized for speed and accuracy, with the data structures set up correctly and no obsolete or excessive records clogging the system making search queries slow down.

eCommerce Website Maintenance

eCommerce websites require constant updates as new products can be added and old ones updated or removed. Determine how many products you add each month so that you can request an accurate maintenance quote from your website maintenance company. You will also need to budget for shopping cart plugin updates, as these will need to be updated regularly to ensure the safety of shoppers using your website to make payments.

Content Editing Services

Content editing services are essential for businesses looking to elevate their digital presence and create compelling content. Whether you're working on web copy, blog posts, or social media content, a professional editing service can help perfect your writing and ensure accuracy. Read on to learn more about the different types of content editing services available.

Structural Editing

Structural editing involves addressing large-scale issues such as paragraphs structure, flow, rhetoric, and argumentation. It also addresses grammar concerns like punctuation—but on a more substantial level. Structural editors are best suited for businesses seeking input from an outsider to refine the content's overall structure, tone, and relevance to the target audience.

Copy Editing

Copy editing is a layer of content refining, where word choice, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are addressed. A copy editor can also catch factual errors or outdated information, as well as reword awkward phrasing or jargon that might not make sense to the average reader. Copy editing services should be used when finalizing your content before it’s published.

Line Editing & Proofreading

Line editing is a deeper level of content refining. Here, a line editor will focus on the flow of your content and improve how it reads. It can include suggestions such as changing sentence structure to be more concise or removing passive language to make it more active. On top of that, a proofreader looks for any errors missed during copy editing, paying attention to spelling, grammar, and punctuation details.

Website Content Editing

Many marketing teams will benefit from website content editing services. Copy editors and proofreaders help business owners make sure their web copy is engaging, informative, and error-free. Additionally, they can check that headlines, titles, page descriptions, and other key elements have the right tone of voice when corresponding to a brand's overall style guide.

Technical Editing

When businesses need to make sure that their technical copy is up-to-date and properly formatted, they'll benefit from engaging services like technical editing. These types of services are designed to ensure accuracy in technical writing and content, ranging from webpages and apps to software documentation. Technical editors review content for errors – typos, incorrect facts or information, or broken links – as well as ensuring that each piece complies with industry standards or terms of a company's style guide.

The Benefits of Regular Website Maintenance

Website maintenance team planning
There are several benefits to regularly maintaining your website. First, it ensures that your site stays current and relevant. Second, it helps keep your site secure by updating security patches and other software updates. Third, it makes sure that your site loads quickly and efficiently. Finally, it keeps your site free from malware and viruses.

Website maintenance is just as critical to SEO ranking as creating new content. Keeping your website up-to-date with the latest coding and technology helps search engine crawlers find and spider your webpages during indexing. Additionally, making sure that the most keyword-relevant content is featured on your website also enhances its visibility in search results pages. Therefore, it’s important to schedule repairs regularly to ensure that any technical issues are resolved quickly and any minor design changes are made suitably.

It’s equally important to make sure the content on your website is fresh and updated with the latest trends, information and products. Having outdated or irrelevant content is an indication of neglect to search engine crawlers, which leads them to either ignore it completely or rank it low in search pages. As such, you need to regularly review blog posts and update product images or descriptions as needed.

When Should You Schedule Maintenance?

Website maintenance schedule
Scheduling regular maintenance is one of the easiest ways to ensure that your site runs smoothly. It also allows you to focus on more pressing issues while leaving the less urgent tasks to others. However, there are some things that should not be scheduled during maintenance. These include major changes to your site such as adding new pages or products, changing your domain name, or moving your site to a different hosting provider.

We recommend scheduling your maintenance each month as this will be sufficient to find and fix website issues within a reasonable time frame.

How Do I Know If My Website Needs Maintenance?

Broken website due to no maintenance
There are several signs that your website needs maintenance. One of the first signs is when visitors report slow loading times. Another sign is when you notice that your bounce rate has increased. A third sign is when you receive complaints about your site being down. Finally, another sign is when you see a decrease in search engine rankings.

You may also find that there are broken links (404 errors) on your website which can also mean that maintenance is required. These broken links can impact your website ranking.

5 Signs You Need to Give Your Website Maintenance Now

Having a website is an essential part of modern business–but if you don't properly maintain it, it can start to suffer. Learn how to recognize when your website needs maintenance so you can keep your online presence up and running smoothly.

1. Your website is not optimized for mobile.

Over half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website is not optimized for that, it’s going to suffer in terms of user experience, search engine rankings and conversions. Having a mobile-friendly site is more important than ever before, so you should make sure your website is properly optimized and functioning correctly on mobile devices.

2. The design looks outdated or generic.

If your website looks like it hasn’t been updated in years, it could be a sign that it’s time for a major overhaul of your web design. Create content that is fresh and up-to-date with the latest trends in web design, as this can drastically improve the look and feel of your website and potentially increase conversions. Additionally, make sure you focus on creating a website that is unique to your brand - having a generic template or outdated design will turn away most potential customers.

3. You've experienced a decline in web traffic and conversions.

If your website isn't up-to-date with the latest trends and optimized for the best user experience, it could be causing your web traffic to decline. This can be seen in a decrease in total visits, pages per session, bounce rate and duration per session - all of which are indicators that users aren’t staying on your website and therefore not converting. Check out analytics tools such as Google Analytics to get a better understanding of how users are engaging with your website so you can make the necessary changes.

4. You're not sure if your content is up-to-date with the latest algorithms and industry standards.

Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, and if you're not keeping up with the latest trends, it could be causing your website to perform poorly. Content that’s optimized for keywords is important in order to increase visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). To ensure your content is still relevant and relatable, use a keyword tool such as Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs Keyword Explorer to check for recent updates on common phrases used within your target market. This will help you keep track of which topics have the most search volume.

5. You need to increase security due to a recent data breach or vulnerability.

Cybersecurity is an important factor when it comes to website maintenance, and if your website has been compromised, it's essential to take precautions immediately. Ensure that all passwords used on your site are secure, as well as any plugins, software, and other third-party tools you may be using. Update existing firewalls, remove any outdated software, install security updates regularly and back up your data in a safe location.

How Can I Manage Website Maintenance Tasks?

If you’re not sure how to manage website maintenance tasks, here are some tips to help you out. First, make sure you have enough bandwidth available to handle any spikes in traffic. Second, consider using tools such as Google Analytics to monitor your site’s performance. Third, use a service like Pingdom to check your site’s uptime. Fourth, schedule regular backups of your site. And finally, keep track of your site’s analytics data. 

Why should you have a website maintenance package?

If you're looking for a reliable web host, then you should consider one with a website maintenance package. These packages offer a range of benefits, such as automatic backups, free security updates, and 24/7 support. Some companies also offer content editing services such as adding new articles and SEO services. We can help with website maintenance if its too much for you to manage.

Choosing Between A DIY or Professional Service

If you decide to go with a professional service, there are several things you should consider before signing up. First, find out how much the company charges per month. Then, ask them about any additional fees, such as setup costs, domain registration, and other services. Finally, check whether the company has a money back guarantee. Read more about the costs of website maintenance here.

How Regular Maintenance can Avoid Security Risks

Website under maintenance
Regular website maintenance helps protect your website from security threats and malicious attacks. By keeping it updated, you can be sure that the latest patches are applied and any known vulnerabilities on the site are fixed. Additionally, updating your website with fresh content on a regular basis can help reduce the risk of being hacked by discouraging hackers who use automated programs to identify potential targets.

Backup and Recovery for Disaster Scenarios

Website maintenance isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s also about safeguarding your business website data in case of any potential disaster scenario. Backing up your website data regularly is important to ensure that all the critical components of your site are protected against file corruption, hackers or other malicious activity. You can schedule automated backups to occur regularly to keep a fresh copy of your website and its components available in case you need it.

About the author Jason

"I care about creating great websites that not only look good, but also serve a purpose"