In this digital age, your website is of paramount importance for your business—it represents your company on the internet and helps you reach millions of netizens and potential clients. In fact, some businesses have gone entirely digital and rely on their website completely for revenue, therefore, your website needs regular maintenance and care – lack of which can cripple your company.
Although you might surf hundreds of websites on a regular basis, how much do you know about what it takes to maintain your favourite website? Read on to learn more about website design maintenance, its importance, and useful tips on doing it effectively.
What is website maintenance?
Website maintenance is the process of regular checks to identify and fix bugs, issues and mistakes that hamper the usability and visual appeal of a website. The process also involves incorporating regular updates to keep the website relevant and sustain or increase the footfall of the site.
Why do websites need maintenance?
A visually appealing and bug-free website enhances the value of your company and attracts potential customers. Here are a few important reasons why you should focus on this.
SEO parameters
The whole point of building a website is to reach out to people surfing the internet about your products and services. This can only happen if people can find your website readily and if it has a good SEO ranking. Maintaining your website and updating it with the latest trends, news, keywords and content can ensure that it appears at the top of the search list when someone searches for a product similar to yours.
Customer engagement
Even if your products and services are high-quality, an unappealing or faulty website can irritate new and potential customers and drive them away. Regular maintenance can ensure that your website is free from typos, grammatical mistakes and bugs.
Security
Security is one of the main reasons for regularly maintaining your website, especially if you store sensitive customer information digitally. This includes installation of regular software updates and security patches to make it harder for hackers to target your website.
Brand image
A functional and appealing website can speak volumes about your company’s professionalism and commitment to your customers. If your website is dormant for too long or outdated, your present customers may leave and turn to your competition.
Latest technological and design trends
Staying on top of your maintenance schedule can allow you to be an early adopter of the latest technology which can establish your position as a pioneer in the market. In addition, incorporating these trends can help make your back-end operations smoother and provide your customers with cool website features they may not get elsewhere.
How can you maintain a website effectively?
Although it is a step in the right direction, regular website maintenance cannot guarantee more visitors to your website if you don’t have a structured plan. Here are a few guidelines that can help you maintain your website.
Choose the right website builder
A site can be relatively easy to maintain as long as you select the right builder that is able to meet all your business and customer needs - reducing your workload.
Update website content regularly
Nothing puts off a potential lead more than finding out that the last update on your website is more than six months old. Updating your website with posts about recent company events, promotions, news and other relevant content can make your website more likeable to consumers.
Give your homepage a makeover
Your website home page is the first thing that your consumers will see and issues such as formatting errors, poor design, typos and broken links can deter them from exploring further. Re-doing your homepage to make it visually appealing and user-friendly can attract more customers.
There are many web design courses in Dublin as well as other major cities that can provide a comprehensive understanding of different aspects of this field. You can pick up the basics of the process from the Diploma in Web Design course offered by the prestigious IBAT College in Dublin. The course focuses on the fundamentals of web design and maintenance. Click here to learn more and find out how you can sign up today!