Whether you?re on your own or part of a larger company or team regular maintenance of your website is just as important as building it in the first place.
Very often a company will launch a website and forget about it, focusing on other projects. This is a big mistake.
There are many different areas that you need to check regularly. One of the most important of these is the mobile version of your website.
Mobile optimization
According to Smart Insights 80% of Internet users own a smartphone. Adults spend 2.8 hours a day on average using the Internet on their mobile device as opposed to 2.4 hours on a desktop.
Because so many of your clients are going to be viewing your website on a mobile device you need to make sure it?s mobile optimized.
Regularly test your site on as many mobile devices as possible to make sure it?s easy to use and nothing is broken.
Sometimes your site may look great on one device but have a problem on another.
If your website still uses Flash you need to remove that as iOS no longer supports Flash. This will cause usability problems on your website on iPhones and iPads.
With a properly mobile optimized site you make sure that your site is visible to your clients at all times and locations.
It helps you expand your customer based, stand out from your competition and provides a better user experience.
Update your website content regularly
Regular updates to your website are very important. Over time certain content and graphics become obsolete and need to be replaced.
Regularly review your website to remove old content like advertisements for holiday promotions.
Too many websites still have Christmas themed advertising up well into the spring because no one bothered to take it down. This makes you and your company look incredibly unprofessional.
Google also likes regular updates and uses this as one of its elements in determining the rank of your website.
Post company news
Adding a blog or news section to your website is quite easy. If you?re using WordPress then this is already built into your site.
Any time your company is mentioned in your locals news make a post. Any time you get new reviews or testimonials post them to your site.
If you have new staff members joining your team write a quick article introducing them to everyone.
If you?re promoting or attending any events or running any contents be sure to post about those as well.
Wherever possible be sure to also include photos and video with your updates to provide a better experience and increase engagement.
Keep your staff page up to date
You probably have a staff page on your website and if you don?t you should definitely add one.
A staff page puts a face on your organization and makes you look more human.
This should be an up to date listing of your team. If anyone comes or goes you need to update it immediately.
Make sure each team member has a professional photo, not an empty thumbnail and make sure their contact information is up to date as well.
Think about adding in new features
Chances are pretty good that there?s a new feature you?d like to add to your website that you couldn?t add at launch.
Now is the time to add in a blog if you don?t have one, social sharing buttons or a frequently asked questions page.
Make regular backups of your website
Regular backups of your website are incredibly important if anything ever went wrong or you want to change web hosts.
Some website providers like WP Engine will back up your site regularly. WP Engine even makes daily backups.
There are many other backup services that you can use as well and if you have a website vendor they should have an automatic backup option as well.
Set up alerts in case your website goes down
It?s very easy to forget about your website while you focus on other problems.
Very often staff members won?t check the site, it?ll go down and no one will know until days later.
You can avoid having this happen by setting up automatic email alerts that will notify you if you have any problems.
If you have a WordPress website the free plugin Jetpack has an option to send you email alerts if your site goes down.
You can also set up your website with the Google Search Console and receive email alerts from them if there?s a problem as well.
Check for broken links
Over time links on your website break down, especially if you?re linking to third party sites.
There are many tools out there that you can use to scan your website for broken links so you can either go in and remove or update them.
Install regular software and plugin updates
Finally, it?s very important to keep your website software and plugins up to date.
Not only do these updates often have new features but most importantly the provide security updates.
Keeping everything up to date ensures that you won?t have any problems with hacking, malware, etc.
WordPress and many WordPress plugins have regular updates so you need to monitor this regularly.
This post first appeared on the Realty Digital Marketing Professional Community here:?Why Regular Maintenance of Your Website is so Important
