5 Website Maintenance Tasks That Need Your Attention
Posted on 30th September 2022
Having a professional-looking website is essential these days. But simply getting your website up and running isn’t enough. Just like cars, websites need regular maintenance to ensure they operate at full capacity and performance. A well-maintained website is secure, attracts visitors and keeps them engaged.
Here are some website maintenance jobs that need doing at least once a month…
1. Checking for errors
Ever clicked on a weblink only to be presented with a 404 Page Not Found error? Frustrating, isn’t it? This happens when the link is broken, i.e. the webpage has been deleted or moved. A 404 error is just one of the many errors visitors may experience when navigating your website.
Others include the 500 Internal Server error (meaning there’s a problem with the website’s server) and the 501 Not Implemented error (where the website lacks the functionality to show information the visitor’s web browser has requested).
Websites containing lots of errors negatively impact SEO since search engines can’t crawl these sites properly. So what can you do about checking your website for errors? First, connect your site to Google Search Console, then use Google’s tools to monitor site performance and identify errors.
2. Testing page loading speed
Did you know that 40% of consumers abandon a webpage if it takes three or more seconds to load? Today’s website visitors are impatient – they expect to click on a link and reach its destination immediately. So making sure your website is lightning fast is essential.
It’s best to check your website speed monthly as page loading times can change over time due to large, unoptimised images, javascript issues, excessive HTTP requests and webpage errors. A free tool you can use to check load time is Pingdom.
As well as fixing the issues described above, another thing you can do to improve your website speed is implement caching software. This stores copies of your website’s files in a temporary storage location to deliver them quickly through the web visitor’s browser.
3. Running backups
You must run website backups regularly in case you lose any data. Data loss (and the screen of death – where a blank screen replaces your website) can happen due to human error, malware, problems during application updates – or worse, your site getting hacked.
Running regular backups lets you quickly regain control of your site and restore it to a previous version where all the data is intact.
4. Performing updates
Your website works via software, and like all software, it’ll need updating to prevent security issues and keep your site running smoothly. If your website uses plugins or third-party apps (like Wix and WordPress do), these will also need updating. Broken or outdated plugins provide an easy way for hackers to access your site and can cause havoc with the user interface.
5. Viewing your site on different devices and browsers
You’ll already know how important it is for visitors to access your website across multiple devices (if you need convincing, there are more than 62.3 million mobile internet users in the UK alone).
Checking your website displays correctly on different devices isn’t something you should just do at the design stage and then forget about. Because whenever browsers are updated, this can change how your site looks and works. Browser updates often include new features, security fixes, style changes and performance upgrades. And although these changes have nothing to do with your website, they can affect how your site performs.
Check your website monthly just in case you need to make any updates that enable your site’s features to work properly in the most up-to-date browsers.
Website maintenance with it’seeze
If you have an it’seeze website, you can relax knowing that several website maintenance tasks are taken care of for you. Such as:
Daily backups – these are done automatically, so you’ll never have to worry about them. In the event of data loss, we can quickly restore your site to a recent version.
24/7 monitoring – we carry out ongoing performance checks to ensure your website is always online and available.
Speed optimisation – we have the tools to make your website run ultrafast, helping keep visitors engaged.
Regular updates – your website will be constantly secure and GDPR compliant. It’ll also be mobile-friendly and work on all devices and browsers from day one and throughout the time you task us with looking after your site.
Get in touch today for more information on website maintenance and how it’seeze can help. You might also like to take advantage of our free website health check to check your site is performing as it should.
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