As a business owner, you have your plate full of day-to-day responsibilities to ensure your business is running smoothly and successfully. It can be difficult to keep track of every aspect of your business that requires your attention. One important element to a business that is often overlooked is the maintenance of a website. Your website is your business’ window directly to customers and leads. A poorly maintained website can wreak havoc on your business’ best intentions and efforts, to keep your visitors satisfied and informed.
What is Website Maintenance?
There are many layers, details, ins, and outs that come together in the development of a professional and effective business website. Many of the components that comprise your website require routine maintenance and updates to ensure your business is providing its customers the best overall web experience possible and providing them the most up-to-date information relevant to them.
In order to be effective, website maintenance requires weekly, monthly, and quarterly checkups and updates. A randomized and piecemeal approach to website maintenance can lead to security risks not only for your business but for its visitors. Properly maintaining a website is not a one-and-done task. It requires an organized and scheduled strategy to keep your site running at its best day in and day out.
Most website maintenance tasks fall into one of the following categories:
- Technical Maintenance of Your Website — This includes the more specialized aspects of your site related to functionality, visibility, and security.
- Update to Content and Information Available — The review and update of the material provided by your website and its relevance to your current business goals and offerings.
- Improvement and Update of Overall Site Design and Theme — Ensuring your site remains appealing to your ideal customers and contributes to a positive experience while staying up to date on the latest developments and web design trends.
Why Is Website Maintenance Important for Your Business?
Each business has a unique purpose for its website but ultimately the common goal to grow your business and your customer base by providing your service, product, or valuable information about your company to all who come across your business homepage. The routine maintenance of your website can allow you to provide a positive and enjoyable web experience to your visitors. Broken links, out of date content, cybersecurity hazards, and other navigation obstacles and difficulties can frustrate end-users and, in turn, turn them off to the prospect of engaging in business with your company.
Having a successful business website, in the long run, goes well beyond the initial development and creation phase. Problematic websites create a number of problems for your business and your customers. Outside the look and feel of your website; issues with functionality, broken links, improper formatting, and other accessibility concerns can be detrimental to your business affecting your site’s ranking and visibility through search engines, heightened risk of a cybersecurity attack on your business or customers, and decreased engagement.
Implementing a well-thought-out website maintenance plan will make certain your business is providing the best overall web experience possible to your customers and visitors. A professional and up to date website translates into a professional and respectable brand image.
Website Maintenance Can Be Tedious & Time Consuming
You now understand the importance of maintaining your website and what it entails. You may be wondering to yourself just how you will manage your time and responsibilities to fit in another complex and detailed task to your list of to-dos.
The reality is that website maintenance can be quite tedious, frustrating, and time-consuming. The technical aspects of website maintenance often require specialized knowledge or extensive research to implement effectively. Creating engaging and appealing content for your audience takes up valuable time and resources that you need for more pressing aspects of your business requiring your individual attention.
Hiring an in-house web developer is expensive and more often than no cost-prohibitive for most businesses. However, outsourcing your website maintenance responsibilities provides your business the opportunity to hire a team with the experience and knowledge necessary to complete these tasks routinely and efficiently.
Outsource Your Website Maintenance to the Right Professional
Once you decide to outsource your website maintenance it is important to make sure you are hiring the right professional for the work needed. Website maintenance can entail highly technical work best suited for a web developer as well as content creation and management which can be delegated to a virtual assistant.
Reviewing the work required for your business website and delegating these tasks and responsibilities can at first seem daunting and overwhelming. However, with a bit of a crash course in website maintenance needs, you will be able to delegate the right jobs to the right individuals to keep your website running optimally.
Top Website Maintenance Tasks You Should Outsource to a Virtual Assistant
Content Creation
Adding new, engaging, and appealing content is crucial in the maintenance of your business website. A virtual assistant can create and upload exciting and fresh content for your website keeping your business present and relevant to your audience.
Content creation includes but is not limited to:
- Writing and uploading new blogs, articles, and marketing material for your website through your content management system.
- Creating posts for your social media channels linking back to relevant sections of your site
- Uploading images representing your brand and offerings
Content Management
A virtual assistant can review your content library and remove or update content that is out of date or no longer relevant to your business offerings. An assistant can research and identify your best performing website content through engagement and views helping you to better understand your audience and what they value.
Test Your Website’s Accessibility
Your virtual assistant can meticulously go through your website, pages, and forms to ensure they are working properly and directing your visitors as intended.
Manage Lead Creation
In addition to ensuring your forms are visible and working a virtual assistant can make certain these forms are properly directing valuable lead information back to your company and the appropriate department. Obtaining leads is a critical role of your website, losing leads through improper redirection can be a huge loss of opportunities and earnings for your company.
Remove Spam
Unwanted advertising, spam, and comments on your blogs and forums can be disruptive and distracting. A virtual assistant can routinely go through these pages and remove these unwanted posts.
Update Social Media Channels
Building your social media channels and integrating those posts with your existing website content is a great way to build your brand and visibility with your customers and leads. A virtual assistant can help you link these platforms to provide a well-rounded and engaging experience for your audience through all of your available channels.
Manage Your Store or Services Page
Avoid frustrating customers by keeping an up to date online inventory and description of your business’ current offerings. Virtual assistants can help you go through each product or service description and updating as needed in accordance with your inventory and availability.
Review Performance Analytics
The internet provides a number of ways to measure the performance and effectiveness of your website in obtaining views by your audience. Your virtual assistant can help you retrieve this valuable information and provide you with the most up to date reporting through applications or website such as Google Analytics.
Research for SEO purposes
Keeping your business in line with current trends and practices improves your website’s performance in searches and ranking maintaining your presence and competitive advantages. A virtual assistant can help you research the most relevant and best performing keywords for your business and industry to apply to your current SEO strategy.
Top Website Maintenance Tasks You Should Outsource to a Web Developer
Testing of Website
A web developer has the tools and resources needed to quickly identify errors, missing links, and issues affecting your end-users experience on your website. They can test your website, pages, blogs, and forms, to ensure everything is in working order and fix anything that is not.
Update Security Measures
When it comes to a business website, security must be a top priority. Cyber threats are an ever-growing problem not only for companies but its customers. Maintaining a secure website with the latest security updates and measures allows you to have peace of mind and confidence that you are providing a safe and secure experience on your site.
Back-up the Website
Protecting your existing website and content through routine back-ups is the best way to ensure that if an unexpected problem should arise you will be back up and running in no time. A website developer will make sure your website is routinely backed up and saved securely in the event an emergency should occur.
Review Compatibility and Accessibility
Many of your end-users will be accessing your site with different devices, platforms, and even technology assistance. A web developer can help review and maintain your site to ensure you are providing equal access to all of your visitors regardless of their ability or the device they are using.
Fix Errors and Improve Navigation
Addressing errors in the functionality of your site and improving navigation will improve your site’s overall performance and accessibility.
Update Website Software & Plug-ins
Staying up to date on the latest software for maintaining your website and its features is critical to keep all elements running smoothly.
Ensure Timely & Accurate Renewals
Your web developer can make certain your business domains are all renewed on time and update any information needing change.
Review & Optimize Design & Theme
While this is not an area that should be changed regularly from time to time it may be beneficial to update your website’s overall design and theme to keep in line with current trends and navigability features and design.
Improve Functionality
Slow loading sites, images, and content can result in annoying user experience; a web developer can test your site’s speed loading and overall functionality and fix any areas of concern.
Create or Update Custom Application
If you are looking into creating or updating your business’ custom application a web developer can work with you to develop an engaging user experience beneficial to your company and working in line with your current web presence.
Review and Update Contact & Payment Information
Inaccurate business information or out of date payment information can be disruptive to your business’ earnings and turn solid customers away. A web developer can help make sure your business’ identifying information is accurate and uniform across all the internet as well as link your web store and reservation tools to the appropriate payment channels.
If you are looking for help in outsourcing your business’ website maintenance, contact us at Zirtual to let us connect you with the experienced and knowledgeable professionals you need.