Regular Website Maintenance – Why It’s A Big Deal For Businesses

We live in a digital age, and that means that every business – regardless of size or industry – must have a website. Because most customers will visit your business online before ever setting foot in your brick and mortar shop or contacting you for services, your website is the first opportunity you have to make an impression. No matter what, your website needs to be a professional looking, authentic representation of your business and your brand.

Chances are, you spent a good deal of resources – likely both your time and money – on developing a website you are proud to be the face of your business online; don’t let it fall into disrepair! Regular website maintenance is an imperative part of running a successful business.

Best Practices for Business Websites Today

If you want your business to be taken seriously, you have to have a professional looking website. A bad website is worse in many cases than no website at all. Think of it this way: at some point, you’ve had to access a website that was poorly designed. Maybe it wasn’t optimized for mobile or slow to load, or maybe you couldn’t locate contact information. You likely clicked away and searched elsewhere. If you don’t want to lose potential customers before they’ve even seen what you have to offer, your website must have:

• Current and Correct Information: While this seems unbearably obvious, it may surprise you how frequently it happens that a change is made at a business and the website is never updated. This can be as simple as a phone number change, an old employee’s contact listed, or incorrect business hours, but if you don’t keep all website information current and accurate, you damage your credibility before you’ve even had a chance to make a sale.
• Attractive and Optimized: You have one shot to make a first impression. Make sure your website presents your business in exactly the light you want your customers to see you. There are plenty of company websites out there that are so poorly designed and difficult to navigate that they completely lack professionalism and credibility.
• Tech-Savvy and Up to Date: Think here of a website with responsive design, or at very least one that is optimized for mobile. If your website is built with responsive design, it will be unified and easy to navigate every time, from every device, which will make customers and possible customers very happy.
• Content – Publishing quality, relevant content and then getting that content in front of your target audience is the best way to spread the wordof what your organization has to offer. Consider posting bi-monthly blog posts and keep content on your website fresh by regularly updating. As an added bonus, remember that the search engines love fresh content.
• Convert – What good is a business website if it doesn’t tell visitors how to take the next steps? A good business website will have clear and concise navigation, making it easy for visitors to find the exact information they will need in order to work with you, along with multiple clear and explicit CTAs.

A Checklist for Maintaining Your Business Website

Trends and technology move fast in our world. A well-designed and thoughtfully executed website built in 2010 is going to seem outdated and clunky today. If you are not consistently updating and making changes to your website, in a few short years it’s going to require at a pretty significant overhaul to bring your website into the modern age – one that will cost you a lot more time and money, all over again.

Follow the following best practices to maintain your business website;

• Schedule Regular Maintenance: bi-monthly is a good minimum frequency for updates.
• Update News/Special Offers: Did the “Monthly Special” expire? Is your “Recent News” from last year? Make sure to keep these areas on your website current!
• Security Updates and Anti-Virus Software: It is vitally important to the health of your website to keep software updated with the latest security patches and bug fixes.
• Don’t get left behind: Stay on top of technological advances and you will continue to drive traffic to your website, keep visitors on your page, and boosting sales.

There’s no way to measure how many potential customers you may lose if your website is outdated website; even a 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. Don’t lose that 7%! Keep your website current with regularly scheduled maintenance and updates.

Look to EmoryDay to Build, Refresh, Optimize and Maintain Your Business Website

We understand you are running a business and don’t have the time or resources in-house to commit to the level of maintenance your business website requires. At EmoryDay, we provide businesses of all sizes the marketing support needed to realize their full potential.

Our team is here to help you build a website for your business you can be proud of, and to help you maintain that website for years to come. Contact us today to learn more.