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.