Keeping Your Website Running with Regular Maintenance
WordPress is one of the most straightforward and most efficient website creation and content management systems out there today. There are plenty of others, but WordPress is probably the most familiar and most comfortable to get up and running. If you have a WordPress site or are thinking about starting one, when you’ve completed the fun part – design and layout – it’s time to think about website maintenance.
User First
Keeping your site maintained is key to making sure your users’ experiences are the best they can be. At Spearhead Sales and Marketing, we know that business success must be about the customer’s needs first. So, since your site is part of your sales and marketing strategy, isn’t it obvious that keeping a clean, updated, regularly maintained website focused on the customer will lead to excellent user experience?
It’s a Tool
Just like your car, your website needs regular maintenance. You wouldn’t let your oil go without changing it and hope your car works at its best, would you? The same sort of thought needs to go into your website. Even though WordPress offers many tools to help you stay on top of your site, it’s still your website, and you should spend the time to keep it working optimally. Here’s how:
The latest – Make sure to install the newest version of the site to ensure you have all of the updates that WordPress offers. Don’t forget to monitor the themes and plugins you have on the site – the creators send out periodic updates as well.
Automatic updates – With all of the hacking stories in the news almost daily, keeping your site secure is one of the top maintenance efforts you can do. WordPress does offer Security Scanning and Spam Protection plugins, so there’s no excuse not to take security seriously. Your site visitors deserve it, right?
Clean spam – Speaking of spam, use the Spam Protection plugin to clear the many spam comments you’re likely to receive on your contact page. The spambots are rampant, and it may seem like a losing battle to keep fighting them, but keeping your comment section clean, up to date, and ready for real people to comment will go a long way to ensuring your visitors have a great experience – not to mention leading to potential sales!
Back up daily – Who hasn’t lost a substantial paper or progress on a form due to a computer glitch or crash? It’s horrible. Well, image losing ALL of the data on your site due to site corruption? It’s not something you want to think about, but it happens. So, backup your site – DAILY! There are different ways to backup your site locally, off-site, or in the cloud, etc. WordPress offers some tools to back up your site, so you’re always ready for hackers, crashes, or the zombie apocalypse!
Comments – Here’s another issue that you may not consider “maintenance”: answering comments. If you have an active site and people are engaging with you, answer them as soon as possible. Keep your comments section active, positive, and responsive (and clean, see spam section above). The site will look “lived in” and your site visitors will appreciate it – and may buy what you’re selling!
Check analytics – Another way to help with your maintenance efforts is to check your analytics to see how your site is performing. If you know what page is the most popular you can spend extra time cleaning it up to boost your user’s experience. Tools like SEMRush and HubSpot are great to see how your site is doing and the best way to optimize it.
Scheduling – There are automated tools to schedule maintenance for your site, or you could make an “analog” schedule. HubSpot has a great article outlining the different marketing maintenance tasks that help keep your site updated on the front end – and when you should do them. One thing to never forget, when you do receive an automatic update from WordPress or other plugin creators, make sure you understand what it will do and use it!
Keeping your WordPress site up to date is key to ensuring your visitors are satisfied with your content and, more importantly, their experience. There are simple things you can do daily and others that may need a more expert hand. Spearhead can help! We love digital projects and love helping people with them even more! Let us know how we can help you.
Contact us today to experience how Spearhead Sales and Marketing brings a maximum, sustainable impact to businesses that are dedicated to optimized sales and growth. We focus on tailored programs in both the traditional and digital spaces that maximize relationship building, lead generation, innovative marketing technology tools, sales partnerships, digital services, and strategic planning and development to build your customer base and close sales. Spearhead will be your agency of record for record-breaking performance!