Do websites need maintenance? Yes, they do!
Much like a car, your website needs occasional maintenance in order to keep things running smoothly. If you aren’t performing check-ups on key aspects of your website, you risk creating problems with performance, security, and user experience. And the last thing anyone wants is a website that sends visitors scrambling to find the exit button.
If you want to ensure your website is user-friendly, while also bringing in traffic and leads, then maintenance is essential. But the question is, what can you do to keep your site performing its best? This post shares five common tasks you can tackle, as well as how a professional can help you out.
5 Common Website Maintenance Tasks for Your To-Do List
In order to effectively perform website maintenance, you need to know where to begin. Here are five tasks you’ll want to add to your to-do list ASAP.
1. Check for Broken Links
A broken link is a link that doesn’t work. When someone clicks on it, they’re likely directed to a 404 error page. Initially, a broken link might not sound so bad. But the reality is that it’s frustrating for readers who click on these links, expecting to access additional content.
Having a bunch of broken links (whether external or internal) isn’t great for your website’s reputation either. Quality links can give you a boost in Google’s search results, helping you rank higher. However, this can’t happen if the links you’re sharing are broken. That might hurt your SEO in the end. The best thing you can do is check for broken links on a monthly basis and get them fixed.
2. Optimize Page Speed
A slow website immediately transports many of us back to the days of dial-up internet. Today’s website visitors don’t have the patience to wait ages for a page to load. They want everything fast. And if your site is moving at a snail’s pace, they aren’t going to be inclined to stick around.
If you need to optimize the load time of your site, there are a few things you can do. You may want to enable a caching plugin, reduce the size of the images in your posts, and get rid of resource-hogging plugins that you don’t really need. The final thing to look at is whether or not you should upgrade your hosting plan to something more robust.
3. Correct Any SEO Issues
When you’ve worked so hard to build your website and create quality content, you want to rank at the top of the search results. That’s why it’s important to check for anything that could be hurting your chances at claiming that number one spot. Firefox Rank Checker can help you see where you’re ranking, so you’ll be able to make tweaks to your SEO strategy if needed.
4. Conduct a Backup of Data
How long has it been since you last performed a backup of your website? If it’s been a while (or maybe you’ve never done a backup), that needs to change immediately. You never know when something may happen that causes you to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for. That’s why it’s smart to back up your website’s code, as well as the content, so it can be restored if needed.
There are plenty of plugins that perform backups for you, but you often need to remember to run them yourself. Hence the reason it’s an important part of your website maintenance.
5. Perform All Software Updates
You’re probably guilty of ignoring the notifications every time your computer tells you there’s a new update that’s ready to be installed. Odds are, you’re doing the same with your website. However, the updates that come from WordPress or your plugins cannot be ignored. These updates feature improvements to performance and security patches.
Besides that, many updates bring along new features that you’ll want to try. Just remember to perform a backup of your data beforehand!
5 Common Website Maintenance Tasks for Your To-Do List
The good news is, you can use website maintenance tools to make this a little easier for you. However, if you find that you just don’t have the time to give your website the attention it needs, you can seek the help of a qualified specialist.
Here are two reasons why outsourcing maintenance is beneficial:
- An Expert Knows What to Look For: Instead of trying to figure it all out yourself, a specialist can handle all your maintenance tasks. This person will know exactly what to look for and how to fix any issues in the most efficient way possible, so you don’t have to worry about it.
- It’s Going to Free Up Your Time: By taking those maintenance tasks off your to-do list, you’ll free up your schedule to focus on the work that matters the most. That means you can worry about creating content and serving your customers, while someone else handles the tech.
"Backups, updates, and auditing overall website health are three areas I cover with my website maintenance package."
Ready to Outsource Your Maintenance Tasks?
Backups, updates, and auditing overall website health are three areas I cover with my website maintenance package. Instead of you stressing about keeping your site performing at its best, I can step in and take care of all your technical tasks.
Learn more about my standard maintenance plan.
Stay up-to-date on trends and services
Learn more about my standard maintenance plan.
