Don’t Neglect Your Website Maintenance!

Maintain your website and it will maintain you!

How often do you go to a website that is out of date, doesn’t function properly, or just simply isn’t there? You wouldn’t neglect your home or business like that, so website maintenance should be high on your business agenda.

Just like a house, a website needs to be looked after, kept fresh and regularly updated. But many websites are left to fall into disrepair with out of date information and broken links, causing visitors to go elsewhere.

Too often website maintenance can become a low priority for businesses, even though the website is the window to the business and what it has to offer. If your website is still offering Christmas specials in the middle of June, what sort of impression of your business will it leave on your potential customers? Not only will your website lose credibility but your visitors will lose interest. And what if the information on your website is no longer true? In spite of what your disclaimers say, it could have dire consequences for your business.

Update your content

Websites that are updated regularly, rank higher in search engine ratings, thereby attracting more traffic.  Search engines such as Google and Yahoo regularly search for changes in content on websites. The more content you can add to your website, the more established the site will look, giving you more authority within your industry.

Websites that have regularly updated content will ensure visitors come back for more. With regular website updates, your visitors will build up trust and interest in your business. News pages or blogs are a good way of engaging your customers. If you have been successful at something, broadcast it on the website. Visitors will get to know you and want to return for new information. If you offer an RSS for a newsletter or updates to your blog or site, it will be even easier for others to keep up with your brand new content.

Tips to keep your website fresh and interesting:

• Keep information on services, products and pricing up to date
• Regularly add industry related photos and other graphics to maintain the freshness of the website
• Include articles, a blog or other facility for producing regular new content
• Send out announcements about news, changes or promotions.

Check your links – internally and externally

Nothing gets website visitors more irritated than broken links. A broken link is a link that points to a location that no longer exists. Links should be checked regularly to avoid the embarrassment of them not working. You can check them yourself by systematically checking every link, or you can get an online service to do it for you.

If you have deleted pages on your site, don’t forget to check if they were linked to from external sites or else these will also be broken links. And if you have added or deleted pages, make sure your site map is up to date so that search engine robots can navigate it easily.

Realistically, your website should evolve over time as your business expands or changes so that your customers keep coming back. And, just like looking after a house, with regular maintenance and care, your website can remain solid and functional for a long time.