Website Maintenance Tips

Posted by Edwin Lynch on May 3, 2010 in Business Practices, website

Maintaining a website is a bit like having a shop. Some of your content might be the same over time, but every morning, you really need to rotate the products in the street front window and show people your current specials.

People will check your company website before visiting your business and if it’s not up to date, they will most certainly go to your competitors. A First Impression may also be the last. If people don’t find your website appealing right from the start, they certainly won’t be back for more. Especially if it’s more of the same. Once you’ve made a beautiful website, the journey of having a website begins. it’s by no means the end. Customers don’t keep visiting the same beautiful website unless there’s something to see. And that means regular updates and change. Within your beautiful design.

Here are some tips to keep your site a going concern and ensure a steady stream of visitors:

1) Update.

Content is King. Refresh your website with new content on regular basis. Daily is best, weekly a close second, but do it at the same time every week or day. This way, regulars will return to see your new stuff. Always review static content (such as your “About Us” page) for corrections or updates. Post new entries or news articles that will capture your users imagination and result in comments and visits. Your policies and terms & conditions pages also need to be updated to keep up with the current privacy laws and regulations. Service agreements and contracts need to be screened at least monthly.

2) Check Browser Compatibility.

Your site needs to work on all browsers. Check your site in Firefox, IE, Google Chrome (my favourite due to its speed), Opera and Safari – on both Mac and PC versions. You need to ensure that all the elements of your design are working perfectly. You can use Browser Shots (http://browsershots.org/) to see screen-shots of your website in multiple browsers and on multiple platforms.

3) Check for broken links.

You need to check for broken links regularly. Because you can’t control which sites you link to, you need to check if they still exist – or when your link to a specific page on another site it’s still relevant. Broken links reflect poorly on you. It’s your job to maintain and make sure they work. Broken links means that your site doesn’t work properly and it’s just an irritation to potential customers.

4) Speed.

How quickly does your site load. Most of us have broadband, but there are still many people using dial-up. Plus 3G connectivity can still be a bit slow – a bit like when you get shaped because you’ve used your broadband. If your site is taking an inordinate time to load, then you need to do something about it. Gone are the days where you can put a Flash loader with the promise “Please wait. It’ll be worth it, I promise”. Nobody cares about your great graphical interface as much as you do. You can use tools for testing the loading speed of your web site with Web Page Analyser (http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/). Minimize the number of graphics on each page or optimise them for web delivery. Go easy on your animation (it’s a good idea to have only one moving item on your home page) and make sure your browser loads images before your front page image rotator tries to present them.

5) Conversation.

These days, business is “a conversation”. If you give people a space to express their opinions or interact with you directly, then they’re less likely to go and do it elsewhere. The conversation can be achieved by allowing commenting, feedbacks, track-backs, suggestions etc. on your site. If you open the communication doors, your audience will also inform you about errors, bad links and bugs that you can fix. Encourage criticism and feedback and if someone leaves a comment or sends you an email, respond quickly instead of leaving it for a week. Seek comments / discussion from people via social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook etc.) and make posts to busy forums where potential interested parties may be lurking. Ask people to review your site. Positive and negative responses can help improve the functionality and usability of your website and your business in general.

6) Make your website Search Engine Friendly.

Well Structured, W3C compliant, pixel perfect code will automatically make your website search engine friendly. 97% of people will find you using a search engine and more than 90% of those people will find you using Google (the biggest company in the world). Getting your web person to; add meta-tag descriptions, optimize and review title tags and keywords etc. will help you rank highly on search engines.

7) Analytics.

It’s important to monitor your website analytics regularly. Geoffrey Multimedia sends you this information weekly so you can see how you are faring in terms of traffic and visitors. But don’t get too obsessed by these statistics as it’s a bit like watching stock market fluctuations. Take more note of how the conversation is working. Are peopel leaving comments, sending you emails or attending your advertised events. Are they, ultimately, buying your product? Use “Call to Action” buttons and graphics on pages where you are selling a product or service. Geoffrey Multimedia uses Google Analytics which will send you an automated traffic report weekly.

A website is a going concern – not a virtual brochure. It should be in a constant state of change, not static and gathering dust. In a way, it’s like a business unto itself.

Keep your shop front window tidy and try to move your stuff around every day. You never know who has an eye on that new bicycle and if they see it gone one day, you can guarantee they’ll come into your shop to see if it’s there and check out what else you have.