Do Companies Need Website Maintenance? Here’s How!

It’s time for you to do Website Maintenance.

After creating a website to introduce or promote your business, the website cannot be left alone. Like a motorized vehicle that requires regular maintenance to keep it safe and comfortable to use, websites must also undergo regular maintenance. 

What is the reason? Website maintenance can increase user trust by closing security holes that can be used by irresponsible individuals to hack sensitive information. In addition, the chances of your website being ranked top on search engines are also greater because all aspects are by constantly evolving standards.

So, how do you do maintenance for the website? Check out the answers below.

How to Do Website Maintenance

Website maintenance is not difficult because you just need to pay attention to the following things during the maintenance process.

1. Make sure every aspect of the website is still functioning

As a user, you’re bound to be unhappy when you come across content that’s inaccessible or worse, looks broken. Therefore, after creating a website, the agenda that must be present on website maintenance is to check the links to each web page and the plugins used.

First, start by checking if any links aren’t working. So that it doesn’t take up too much time, you can simply use the Broken Link Checker plugin which can check the condition of more than one link simultaneously, so all you have to do is focus on repairing broken URLs.

Next, make sure all the important components of your website, such as price catalogs, online forms, search features, and others, have the latest version. This is because the feature code that is not updated will be filled with bugs and security holes that can harm your users. So, don’t forget this part. 

2. Perform regular data backups

Emergencies such as natural disasters that cut power supply to servers, component failures, and DDoS and virus attacks will come without permission. You will lose visitor traffic and credibility if you don’t take action. To prevent this bad impact, you should back up or back up your data regularly.

So, how often should data backups be carried out? At the very least, try to schedule weekly backups. The more often, the better. This will ensure that you still have the files for the newer version of the content, so you can just upload it. 

However, make sure you store the backup file in a separate place from the location of the website data so that it is not lost in the event of theft.

3. Update website content

Every year, there will always be new trends and discoveries that are present. So, these two things can make your website content outdated and no longer needed by new users who access it at different times. You need to remember that there are times when a potential customer finds your business from old content that has been published.

So, how do you ensure that the health of your website traffic remains healthy? Just creating a website and some content is not enough. Apart from creating new content, don’t forget old content that may no longer be relevant and must be updated. 

For example, you can add the latest information according to current conditions in certain articles. After that, include a description of changes or additions to data at the top of the web page so that users know about it immediately.

4. Delete spam comments

Spam comments do not always contain sentiments that are not related to the topic of discussion of content. Sometimes, some bad actors will trick your website visitors with lures and URLs to dangerous websites in spam comments. 

Unfortunately, monitoring the comments column at all times and immediately deleting spam comments that appear may sound difficult to some people, especially if you don’t have enough human resources. How can you prevent it? 

Take just a little time to eradicate spam in your website’s comments column on a scheduled basis. Additionally, automatic anti-spam filters that could make this process easier could also be considered.

5. Monitor SEO

When you search for information from search engines, of course, you will only glance at websites that occupy the top positions on the first page. Well, your potential visitors also do the same thing when they find the answers they need, so the website’s SEO performance is very important to attract more visitors.

To monitor the SEO performance and ranking of your website on the Google search results page or SERP, two tools can be used: Google Search Console and Google Analytics. These two consoles will give you access to various menus to monitor the number of clicks and visits to a page, traffic volume, number of backlinks, to website position for certain keywords. 

After looking at weekly, monthly, and yearly trends, devise a strategy to increase your website’s ranking, whether by updating content, sharing content, or trying the next tip.

6. Test the loading speed of web pages

Who doesn’t want to wait too long for a website to finish loading? Therefore, since 2018, Google has implemented an update that takes the loading speed of a web page into account for ranking on SERP. So, so that your website continues to attract visitors now and in the future, don’t ignore loading speed.

During the website maintenance process, you certainly shouldn’t forget to test the website’s loading speed. The easiest way is to use Google PageSpeed ​​Insight for desktop display and Google Mobile Website Speed ​​Testing Tool for the mobile version.

These two tools will measure loading speed and provide suggestions for optimizing it based on the values ​​obtained. Practically, you can also share the results of the report with related parties, if needed. 

7. Improve and update the design structure

Website design trends are always changing. In other words, the design elements that were everyone’s favorite when you first created your website may not be popular a few years later. One of the sentiments that underlie changes in web page design trends is the increasing awareness of user experience, such as the birth of the dark mode color scheme.

What should you do? Keep abreast of design trends and user experience. Then, every four months, evaluate the structure and design elements of your website. To determine which elements should be replaced, consider whether these two aspects are still following the current trend or not and whether they are still responsive.

8. Check the active period of the domain

One more thing that is no less important in website maintenance is the validity period of the domain name. If you don’t renew your domain in time, your visitors won’t be able to access your business website. This will hurt your SEO optimization and SERP ranking, especially if the deletion of this domain is ultimately permanent.

So that your website is always active, check carefully how long your domain name is valid. If it’s almost expired, complete the payment immediately before the deadline stated, so that your website won’t just disappear.