Maintain, maintain, maintain. I’ve used a variation of the same word three times now. If you’re sighing already, chances are you know you’ve fallen behind on your website. The best time need to maintain your website is right now. That’s four times; that’s how critical it is! Maybe it’s been a while or you’re putting it off because it’s not in your wheelhouse. No matter what platform your website is built on, websites will never be digital assets where you can just “set it and forget it.” This blog is all about website maintenance and how to boost your website’s visibility, read on.

Website Maintenance

I’m not sure how many times our writers have used this phrase, but it will never stop being true. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In the case of websites, save yourself several pounds of cure. The amount of time you’d need to spend to rebuild your website after an incident could prove destructive to your schedule, or worse, your bottom line. Now, you’re losing time and money rebuilding it yourself instead of playing it safe from the start. Don’t pull your hair out all over your keyboard; that’s gross. Your hair will get underneath your keys.

Keep in mind, convenience—the thing we all love dearly—isn’t always the option. When it comes to auto-updates, you should steer clear. “Wait, why would I do that, Erik?” I’m glad you asked. Steer clear of auto updates because of how they operate. They will update in the background—when you’re sleeping and not looking at your website. Changes in coding could wreak havoc on your design, user interface, and the experience altogether. You could wake up to missing features, broken links, unformatted pages, and your image tarnished. That’s not good.

The solution is to manually update with a few clicks. Be sure to perform regular backups. Remember though: you can’t roll back a template. Understanding the trouble with that is simple. You can revert back to the current status of your website via a revision. You can also perform a backup. If you perform an update, there is no undo button. The only option is to restore a backup. And if you have no backup, you are in trouble. That’s why it’s essential to perform regular backups. Save them to your computer in case of an emergency. Even if you take a few minutes every week to check and update plug-ins and templates, it’ll be worth it in the long-run.

How Blogs Can Help You

Yes, blogs can help your website. Blogs can help in terms of organic growth and ranking. Consistent blogs will push you up on Google. Yes, you know that already. You’ve read many of my other marketing blogs found on the radio station and my agency’s blog“How are blogs related to website maintenance?” Because blogs help you become found, you have a “place” on search engines. Think of it this way. That “place” is being moved around due to other people’s SEO efforts and other keyword tricks. By continually blogging, you’re holding ground with your place and not falling farther down on the search pages. Therefore, blogs are indeed part of website maintenance—more so for reputation.

4+ Maintenance Plans For You

Now that I’ve educated you on the basics of website maintenance and upkeep, let’s wrap up. It boils down to two things. Is it easier for you to maintain your own website? And: is it worth your time as well? Make sure you keep manual settings and check your website’s front end for the visual side. Perhaps, you’d prefer to outsource your web maintenance to professionals. Whichever is more comfortable for you is the way to go.

If you do outsource, think about the type of package you’ll need on a monthly basis. Do you want blogs written for you so you outrank your competitors? Do you want to put yourself in the STRATOSPHERE with all the bells and whistles? All those added perks come from analytics, reporting, support, and an entire social media package included in our most robust package called PROPEL.

"social media development"

If none of your monthly maintenance needs fit the bill, you can go custom, of course. This is often the case for clients with unique and diverse websites. Membership-style, database, multi-faceted eCommerce or “one-off” websites would fall into the custom package because their needs are greater than the average website. I call my custom package going into ORBIT. Whatever your maintenance needs are, my team can accommodate.

Web sites are like operating systems. They need to be updated, maintained and backed up regularly. It’s essential for your business to run smoothly. Don’t miss a lead or sale because you were in maintenance mode, or worse, you had to rebuild your website due to a major maintenance issue. Since we’re all head honchos here, we can work together to provide you the best quote. Request your quote here.

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