Website maintenance should be a top priority for any business that uses a website as an essential part of its activity. Not only does regular maintenance ensure maximum efficiency, but it also helps protect the time and money invested in your website. As a website design company, we wanted to share important website maintenance tips that all businesses should know.
Unsurprisingly, some of the habits of successful content creators mirror those of highly effective people. While being naturally creative is important when it comes to generating content, the habits and routines put in place to support the creative process are just as important.
This list of tips provides a basic guide to what we think every site should do regularly. Please note that this doesn’t cover items such as content audits, SEO audits or other marketing tasks. While these should also be done regularly, they don’t fall within the same scope as website maintenance. These aspects generally fall under digital marketing, while web maintenance is related to web development.
1- Schedule regular reviews
At the very least, your site should be reviewed and tested every year and after any update. A quarterly schedule is much more ideal, because things change quickly in the online landscape. The entire site should be carefully reviewed with each element tested. You may find content errors, broken links, features that don’t load properly, load-time issues, typos, and so on. Every page should be reviewed.
The focus should be on the user experience during these evaluations, acting as if you were a customer to make sure you see the site through their eyes. Don’t forget to also make sure the site meets accessibility standards for people with disabilities.
2- Test your site’s compatibility on different devices and browsers every six months
Over time, devices and browsers evolve. This can lead to compatibility issues with websites. Therefore, it’s wise to test your site on the latest mobile devices and tablets with Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Apple Safari.
3- Test all critical touch points every quarter
Every touch point should be carefully tested on a quarterly basis as well as after an update. This means all forms, call-to-action (CTA) areas and payment-process elements (where applicable) should be checked. Take the time to enter information incorrectly and create user errors to confirm that the appropriate follow-up actions take place.
4- Check the website’s backups every quarter
This tip is very important, don’t take it lightly. While some may recommend checking backups on an annual basis, most sites can change in a short time, which is why quarterly backups are a much better idea. This will minimize potential data loss in the event of a catastrophic event such as the unexpected termination of a hosting contract, a hacker attack on your website, or a handling error.
5- Review analytics monthly
The reason analytics should be reviewed on a monthly schedule is proper performance evaluation. Measuring key performance indicators (KPIs), reviewing SEO rankings and analyzing reports not only shows how effective a site is, but also helps identify problems or potential issues. When done every month, possible errors can be confirmed and resolved faster with better benchmarks for future changes.
6- Perform a security check every month
Software should be updated and installed, including security patches, bug fixes and any other updates related to the web server, database, operating system, CMS and connected applications. While it’s always best to install patches once they’re released, at least the ones that get overlooked will be caught during a full monthly check. This tip is important to protect your site from attacks. To learn more, don’t hesitate to check out this article to easily improve your site’s security.
7- Review contact information every year
Surprisingly, many websites have outdated contact information, such as old phone numbers, old physical locations or outdated team information. Your website is an information portal and must be accurate so that if a customer or potential customer wants to contact you, they can do so easily. Update your contact information every month.
This also applies to other information that may change during the year, such as copyright, the website’s privacy policy, site terms, terms of use, terms or sale terms, and any other disclaimers. The goal is to make sure they comply with current policies and laws to protect your online activities.
Your company’s website is a tool and, as such, should always be in the best possible condition. The way to ensure this happens is to follow these website maintenance tips that all businesses should know. Just as good automatic maintenance keeps your car running properly, regular website maintenance keeps your business running efficiently.
Would you like to do maintenance on your blog or website? Don’t hesitate to contact us, we’ll be happy to help.