Now you can sit back and relax until it’s time to redo your website in a few years, right?
Wrong.
Websites are like cars, they need regular maintenance. Like, what would you do if your website kept making a cuuur-CHUNK noise every time you turned left? What would you do?
What WOULD you do?
Never fear, your trusted LyntonWeb Mechanics are here to help! Here's a maintenance checklist to help keep your website running smoothly:
Weekly Maintenance
1. Updates
Do your updates! This really only applies if you are on a CMS like WordPress or Joomla, but it is so important in protecting your site from hackers. Check for CMS updates and plugin updates. I seriously can’t stress this enough. You don’t want to be hacked like I was.
2. Write new blog posts
Blogging is great for your website. It expands the page count and creates new content, both of which Google loves. And guess what? It will increase your search rankings. Just make sure to include great keywords in your posts.
Monthly Maintenance
1. Check Webmaster Tools
Webmaster Tools is a free service from Google. We love it. Check in once a month for any 404 errors and HTML improvements that Webmaster Tools suggests. Definitely get those 404 pages redirected to valid pages with 301 redirects. Having a large number of 404 errors will hurt your search engine rankings.
2. Check links and page formatting
Google Webmaster Tools may miss some URLs. Take a few minutes and click around your website checking for broken links. Also look for any pages that may not be displaying correctly. Sometimes a quick page update can mess up the formatting of a page and not be caught after it’s published. Make sure that doesn’t happen to you!
Yearly Maintenance
1. Update and/or add new images to your main (non-blog) pages
The easiest way to change the look of your website is to change out the images you use on your site. Rotate out the slides or hero banners on your homepage and other pages (you may want to do this more often). Also look for and replace any out of date product images or videos.
2. Update the content on your pages
Check out the analytics for your site. How is each page performing? If a page has a high bounce rate, it may be time to re-think the content on that page. How can you make it more appealing to your customers? Just like the images above, make sure any documentation, features, or product lists are 100% up to date. You don’t want a customer of yours getting out of date information about your products, do you? Of course not.
A little web maintenance along the way will keep your website looking like it just rolled off the showroom floor. Still need help? Contact our inbound experts. We’ll make sure your website will last way longer than 100,000 miles.
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