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Website Maintenance Tips

by with No Comment Website Tips

Website maintenance is essential to keeping your website running efficiently and successfully. Whether you’re creating or running an e-commerce site, a blog, or a professional portfolio having a website that is properly maintained can go a long way toward providing a positive customer experience and extending the life of your website. Proper website maintenance is not only important for keeping website performance up, but it also eliminates potential security threats. Here are some top tips for keeping your website running smoothly.

Regular Backups

Maintaining a website involves taking regular backups to ensure its safekeeping. In the event of any unexpected incidents or problems, having a backup enables quick restoration of the website.

Preserving a complete backup of the website is vital as it enables the return to its original condition during a crisis or an attack. This should encompass all aspects including the front end, back end, files, plugins, and databases. Services like UpdraftPlus and VaultPress provide comprehensive backup services for websites powered by WordPress. It’s advisable to store the backup in a secure location like the cloud or an external hard drive.

For optimal protection, it’s advisable to carry out a website backup at least once a week or even on a daily basis.

Loading Speeds

Website load times are an important factor in search rankings, and a slow website can negatively impact your search rankings. There can be multiple factors that can cause your website to slow down, so it’s important to pinpoint what is causing the exact issue.

A slow-loading website can be frustrating for users, leading to a higher bounce rate and decreased engagement. When a website takes too long to load, users may give up and go to a competitor’s site instead, resulting in lost opportunities for conversion.

According to a study by Akamai Technologies, a 1-second delay in website load time can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. Additionally, 40% of users abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.

We would highly recommend using a Content Delivery Network (CDN): The goal of a CDN is to improve the loading speed and overall performance of a website, particularly for users who are located far away from the server where the website is hosted. A CDN can speed up your website by caching and delivering its content from multiple locations around the world.

Update Software/Plugins

Keep software up to date. You must be sure to keep all software related to your website updated. This includes plugins, scripts, libraries, databases, and anything else that’s part of the website’s infrastructure. Regularly updating software can help keep your website safe from security threats, bugs, and other issues.

Software updates can also improve the performance and functionality of your website. This can help increase the speed and reliability of your site, leading to a better user experience and potentially higher conversion rates.

After updating your software, test your website to ensure everything is working as expected. This can help catch any potential issues before they become major problems. Sometimes, the newest versions of software/plugins can be released with their own heap of issues. Waiting for a period of time to see community feedback for the update or creating a staging environment is a good measure to prevent any undue damage.

New Content

Keeping content up-to-date is something that many website owners struggle with. Regular content updates not only help to keep a website looking modern and fresh, but they also help to ensure that it’s functioning properly and meeting customers’ needs.

Creating a schedule for content updates can help ensure that you’re regularly making changes to your site. The ideal schedule will depend on the type of site you run and how frequently content needs to be updated. Smaller sites may only need a few updates per month, while larger sites may need updates on a weekly or even daily basis.

Blogs can be a great way to keep content fresh, current, and interesting. Whether you’re sharing news, updating customers on new products, or providing helpful advice, a blog can be a great way to stay engaged with your customers.

Conclusion

Maintaining your website is crucial for its performance, security, and overall success. By following the tips outlined in this blog, you can ensure that your website is up-to-date and your site is running smoothly. Don’t neglect this important aspect of website maintenance, as this neglect can lead to security breaches, performance issues, and other problems that could hurt your site’s success.

If you’re looking to offload your website maintenance, we have packages to cover all of your website maintenance needs.

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5 Signs Your Website Needs Work

by with No Comment Website Tips

If your website is the face of your brand, it’s important to make sure it’s the face of a successful, thriving business. While keeping up with web design trends and technology can be a challenge, there are some key signs that can indicate it’s time to make some improvements to your site. Here are five signs your website needs work:

1. Slow Load Times

This is a common issue, and one that’s easily remedied. Website users don’t like waiting more than three seconds for a page to load, and if the site’s taking too long, they’ll likely take their business elsewhere. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to speed up your site, such as optimizing images, reducing plug-in use, and utilizing content delivery networks.

Slow load times can also lead to a website being penalized in terms of its ranking in search engine results. Websites are constantly trying to rank higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), as this makes a website more visible and increases the chances of web traffic.

2. Cluttered Design

The appearance of your website is one of the most important factors in whether or not visitors will engage with it. A cluttered website can lead to high bounce rates and low user engagement, which can ultimately decrease traffic and conversions on the website.

Clutter can quickly become overwhelming and make visitors feel uncomfortable, so too much text, imagery, and other elements can detract from the user experience. A website should be easy to navigate with simple menus and an intuitive organization. Significantly reduce page elements, and put considerable thought into the order in which you’re presenting them.

3. Outdated Look and Feel

Having an outdated website can be detrimental to your business. Not only does it make your brand look outdated and unappealing, it is also potentially damaging to your online presence. In today’s digital world, the website is often the first impression a consumer will have of a business or brand, and that first impression can be lasting.

Website design trends change quickly and it can be tough to keep up with them. However, a website that looks like it’s from a different era will immediately put a bad taste in users mouths; it conveys the idea that your business is old-fashioned or out of touch. Make sure the design is modern and relevant by using fresh colors and featuring an up-to-date layout.

4. Poor SEO

When it comes to your website, it is important to ensure that it can be found easily by potential customers. Poor SEO (search engine optimization) is bad for your website because it affects how easily customers and search engines can find and use your site.

SEO is a key factor in website visibility and search engine indexing. If you’re not optimizing your content with key terms, meta tags, and other strategies that make it easier for potential customers to find you, you may be losing out on critical opportunities.

5. Lack of Mobile Accessibility

This is becoming increasingly more important, as more and more web traffic is generated via mobile devices. If your website hasn’t been optimized for mobile viewing, it’s almost certain to affect the user experience in a negative way. Making it easier for customers to view your website no matter where they’re located can go a long way toward engaging them and increasing conversions.

If your website is displaying any of these signs, it may be time to invest in some upgrades. Refreshing your website design, optimizing content and code, and optimizing for mobile can help ensure a positive user experience and can help your business stand out from the rest.