Website maintenance is quite important in any business, regardless of its size. A website is considered a worldwide window in one’s business and it normally has such a big impact on how the value of products and services are perceived. A well-maintained website often has a critical impact on real-time service industries. There are various reasons that make website maintenance important including;
Customer Interest
A well-maintained website regularly attracts new customers while maintaining interest levels of existing customers. It should be customer centered and consistently kept relevant by ensuring customer constant points are in good working condition and routinely refreshing its content. The website administrator should ensure that phone number listings are updated and price lists, products and services are correct and current.
Search Engines
Website maintenance is very critical to search-engine rankings. Most websites that contain old content normally rank lower in search engine listings. Various search engines including Google, check the website’s pages “if-modified-since” HTTP header so as to determine whether the site is worth crawling. Failing to make repetitive modifications could result to the website being pushed below active competitors in the listings and hence cost the owner business over time.
Corporate Image
One’s website is termed as a public reflection to their corporate image. A poorly maintained website containing errors, dead pages, outdated information and broken links projects a sloppy corporate image and can result to business decline over time. One should routinely examine the look and feel of his website and frequently update it to match its corporate image. Corrections on poor grammar, broken links and spelling mistakes should be done with immediate effect before customers get to notice.
Considerations
Website maintenance activities should cover major business-critical key areas. These include quality control, copy production, publishing, performance monitoring, feedback monitoring, infrastructure maintenance, change control, risk control and routine maintenance. For risk management, one should have a business-continuity plan for his or her website so as to ensure the hosting service provider has a maintenance and backup plan that is strictly in line with his own business service levels. These back up and maintenance is considered important when one has a mission-critical or real time website.
Updated Security Patches and Bug Fixes
Web maintenance is vitally important in terms of security. A website should be regularly updated with the latest bug fixes and security patches. These helps in restricting hackers who break into websites and upload viruses such as Trojan for use in their attack schemes. One of the major ways of hackers to gain access to a website is through an outdated software. Hackers will try to take advantage of websites with outdated software due to the availability of security patches. This results to visitors on the website being prone to viruses when downloading software from the website. Search engines such as Google automatically burn websites that contain malware.
Other important reasons for website maintenance include; keeping up with changing technology, Adding new products, solutions, services or features, maintaining Google rankings and keeping visitors interested.