In the digital age, businesses and organizations without websites are almost invisible to the general public. That’s why the World Wide Web is home to over 1.9 billion websites, with new ones popping up every day.
These days, it seems like everyone is rushing to launch their website, but owning a website is part of the process. Website maintenance is another crucial aspect of website ownership and is imperative to increasing and retaining your site’s traffic. Unfortunately, most site owners overlook site maintenance, which works to their detriment.
We could go on all day about the benefits of site maintenance, but that’s not what we’re here for. Today, we’ll be highlighting a few foolproof tips on maintaining a website for fast and seamless navigation.
Keep Your Content Fresh
You’ve heard of the phrase “content is king,” which holds true for all types of websites. Web content is among the most significant factors that determine the success of your website. Not only is it great for rankings, but it also improves website traffic.
That said, make sure you update your static content whenever possible. This includes any outdated content, statistics, or company developments. If you run a blog, consider replacing old content with new content that reflects current trends.
When it comes to updating your site content, make sure you do it regularly. Doing it after a long period only increases the amount of stuff you have to update. When it’s time to actually update your content, you’ll have too much to update and you might give up along the way.
Check for Site Compatibility Across Various Platforms
Not everyone that visits your website does so through Google or Internet Explorer. There are dozens of other browsers that are popular with web users worldwide. It’s up to you to ensure your website works with at least the popular web browsers, if not all of them.
As such, keep checking how well your website works on various platforms. Different updates could change how your website works on a particular browser. Keep checking to ensure users have a seamless experience regardless of their browser of choice.
Update Your Site Plugins
The last thing you want on your blog or business website is outdated plugins. Outdated plugins are detrimental to your site’s functionality, making them slow and inaccessible. What’s more, outdated plugins have security loopholes that hackers can exploit to infiltrate your website.
The ill-conceived notion that plugins will update automatically is far from the truth. It’s your responsibility to ensure all the plugins on your website are up to date. In fact, updating plugins is one of the most crucial aspects of website management.
That said, keep checking your web hosting platform for any plugin updates. For newer updates, give them a week or so for developers to identify any bugs with the updates. After a week, download the updates so you can keep your site in proper working condition.
Remove or Update Broken Links
Web users hate clicking on links on your site, only to be met with the dreaded “404 error.” This is downright frustrating, and also hurts your SEO. That’s why you need to update or get rid of any broken links ASAP.
Outbound links are beneficial to your website’s SERP ranking, but only if they work. Broken outbound links will do the opposite of what they’re supposed to do and hurt your SEO. Web crawlers from Google are quick to pick up any broken links and reduce your SEO ranking.
Sometimes the websites of these outbound links may have closed down. If they have, clicking on the links will lead nowhere. It’s links like these that you need to get rid of as soon as possible. You should consider replacing them with links to websites that work.
If you have a small website, you can review all these links manually one-by-one. For large websites, you’ll need to use software that can check your entire website for any broken links.
Change Your Site’s Passwords
You could be wondering what passwords have to do with maintaining your website. Well, quite a lot, as a matter of fact. When it comes to websites, maintenance goes hand-in-hand with security.
Passwords are the first line of defense against hackers and unauthorized access to your site’s resources. Having strong passwords is great for your site’s security. However, if you want to keep your website’s security on lock, you need to change your passwords regularly.
As a rule of thumb, make sure you change your passwords at least once a year. That way, you can always be one step ahead of the hackers. Ensure the passwords are long and combine numbers, letters, and symbols too.
Don’t Forget About Speed
Did you know that 53% of internet users will leave a web page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load? Read that twice, and you’ll understand why you should prioritize speed during your usual website maintenance.
When you first get your website up and running, it will load pages very fast. However, as you add content, the site becomes slower. Before you know it, your site is dreadfully slow and is frustrating users left, right, and center.
There are a plethora of pain points that could be hurting your site’s speed. This makes it super difficult to pinpoint the reason why your site is slow, but don’t let that deter you. You can use online troubleshooting tips to make it easier for you to figure out what’s slowing down your site.
Also, when designing a website do your best not to go overboard. Stuffing your site with a lot of videos and high-quality images might hurt its loading speed. So make sure you don’t overstuff your website with too much content, or try compressing some of the large files on your website.
Proper Website Maintenance Made Easy
With the information above, website maintenance should be a breeze, regardless of the type of website you own. Use these foolproof tips to ensure a bang-up job when maintaining your website. Don’t forget, website maintenance is a continuous process that shouldn’t stop.
Contact us today if you need any help with managing your site or your site content.
