Why You Should Never Neglect Your Website

Website maintenance is not exactly the most fun part of owning a website. But it’s also one of the most important. You wouldn’t neglect changing your oil, so why neglect your site?

If you don’t maintain your site and keep it up-to-date with all the latest security updates and browser requirements, you could be opening yourself up to a whole world of problems.

Why should you care about website maintenance? Because neglecting your website can lead to all sorts of problems. Hacked websites, crashed servers and lost data can all be the result of not maintaining your website. So, make website maintenance a top priority and avoid these disasters.

How to maintain your website

The best way to maintain your website to help prevent website neglection will vary depending on the type of website you have and the software it’s running on. Let’s delve a little deeper into why you should maintain your website:

• Install all the latest security updates as soon as they become available.

Many modern websites are based on an open source CMS such as WordPress. Even though WordPress and other systems frequently release security patches, they are still open to hackers trying to exploit outdated software. A professional website maintenance service, such as ours, will ensure that your website is always kept secure and up-to-date. Helping you to focus on running your business instead of worrying about your website being hacked or broken.

• Ensure your website is compatible with all the latest browsers.

The use of websites has increased dramatically over the past couple of decades. With over 1.8 billion websites already in use worldwide, the growth of websites shows no sign of slowing down. And due to ever-increasing rates of device fragmentation, people view this content from thousands of web-enabled devices operating on unique browsers. Having a website that works effortlessly across multiple devices and browser combinations is an absolute necessity.

• Perform regular backups of your website data.

Whether it is needed for restorative or development purposes, there will be times when a backup is needed. Even with a standard backup solution in place, there is still a risk of your server being hacked and unwanted users gaining access to your website data. We backup your data daily on a 30 day rolling period.

• Regularly update your website content and keep it fresh.

Making sure that you keep content up-to-date on your site will help build trust between you and your customers or visitors. Having useful information for a user to rely on will help keep them coming back and updated information will also help build domain authority.

Why neglecting your website can be disastrous?

There are several reasons why website neglecting can be disastrous:

• Hacked websites can lead to stolen data and identity theft.

• Crashed servers can cause businesses to lose money due to lost sales and downtime.

Server crashes occur when a website, software application, or operating system stops functioning and does not get displayed within a browser. For some businesses it can be disastrous for their site to be offline for any length of time. Having a company that can jump in quickly to resolve the issue can help avoid this.

• Lost data can result in expensive and time-consuming recoveries.

Without maintaining and backing up your data regularly your company runs the risk of loosing your site data. Recovery can then be very difficult if not impossible.

• Neglecting your website content can lead to a decline in traffic and lost sales.

One of the things that can slow-bleed the traffic from your site is the quality (or lack thereof) of the content you publish on your site.
By de-indexing, deleting or improving pages that aren’t getting much organic traffic can help. As well as striving to create longer content articles (around 1500 words) and using high quality images to improve the look of your articles.

In order to help prevent these issues a website maintenance plan should be in place for your site, the main reason why is to improve the user experience, the security of the website and it also saves costs in the long term because these issues are being taken care of immediately. At WTBI our support packages include 24/7 monitoring of your website, monthly security updates, monthly core updates and daily backups of your website, additional packages can also be included such as reporting, recommendations and fixes.

Ways to improve the process – how to make maintaining your site easy

Maintaining your website can be a daunting task, but there are ways to make it easier. Here are a few tips:

• Use a CMS: A content management system (CMS) can make maintaining your website much easier. A CMS will automate many of the tasks of website maintenance, such as installing security updates and backing up data.

• Use a hosting company that performs regular backups: Many hosting companies offer automated backups of your website data. This can help you avoid the hassle of having to perform backups yourself.

• Use a monitoring tool: A website monitoring tool can help you detect and fix errors on your website quickly. This can help prevent problems from snowballing out of control. an example of a monitoring tool is SEMrush which have a site audit tool that checks your website for errors and alerts you to them , it also tells you how to fix these errors and in general is a really useful tools for monitoring your website.

– Using a template: If your website is based on a template, using a pre-made template can make it easier to update your website content.

If you work with WTBI you will know we deal with these issues as part of our ongoing services making the process of website maintenance much easier. So don’t neglect your website – make website maintenance a top priority!

Conclusion

Maintaining your website is a critical task that should not be neglected. By installing security updates when needed, performing regular backups and monitoring your website for errors, you can keep your website running smoothly. And be sure to also update your website content regularly to keep it fresh and engaging.