In 2019, 37% of folks in the US said they kept themselves up-to-date of news via online platforms. That’s a mix of 23% who use online news portals, while the rest get their info off of social media. Either way, that’s almost the same as the 41% who said they preferred watching news through the TV.
Fast forward to 2020, and the number of people who now go online has skyrocketed by at least 30%. That represents an increase of 346 million Internet users from July 2019 to July 2020.
Website maintenance can help ensure that websites meet the needs of these folks. If you run a website yourself, you’d want to maintain it like you would your home, car, or other assets. That’s because it plays many roles in not only the esthetics but also the function and safety of your site.
To that end, we came up with this guide detailing how vital website “tune-ups” are. Read on to learn why you need to invest in a site maintenance plan ASAP.
Website Maintenance Helps Keep Your Site Secure
A 2019 study found that 22% of critical cyber threats were due to outdated software. Many of these cases involved missing essential software patches. In others, the software was already obsolete and no longer supported by the developer.
Now, keep in mind that your website relies on software to be up and running at all times. Reliable software developers, in turn, constantly roll out updates to address vulnerabilities.
Take Apple as an example. It already rolled out nine macOS security updates from January to October 2020. Moreover, the company says that it will be launching even more software updates this year.
These regular system updates are some of the top reasons Apple is able to reduce security flaws in its OS. So, it’s best to take a page out of the company’s book and also update your website. Regular website maintenance can help reduce your site’s vulnerability to cyber threats.
Site Maintenance Services Keep the Good Stuff Coming
The huge increase in 2020’s global internet traffic mainly has to do with all the lockdowns. At the same time, you can imagine that many people go online to read up on the latest events. Most look up health news, while many others search for ways to entertain themselves.
Regardless of your site’s niche, you need to perform regular website maintenance on it. By having an up-to-date website, you can add new and fresh information to your site. This, in turn, can help raise the number of visitors (AKA traffic) to your site.
Updating Your Site Gives Visitors a Reason to Come Back and Stay
Google’s Martin Splitt himself said that creating “lots of content” can be helpful. He further noted that it’s a “recommendation” for industry blogs. The keyword here is “regular,” which means that you’d want to generate fresh content as often as you could.
At the same time, new content doesn’t appear to be a massive ranking factor in Google. Still, you’d want to update your site because it can make site visitors like you better. After all, if they see the same stuff the next time they visit, they’re more than likely to leave your site right away.
Content creation is a vital component of website maintenance programs. That’s why you’d want to have a regular “tune-up” of your site. Otherwise, you risk making your site’s content obsolete and unhelpful to visitors.
Address Bugs and Flaws Before They Worsen
“Link rot” or dead links (such as 404s and missing images) can damage your site’s reputation. Duplicate pages, on the other hand, can have indirect yet adverse effects on your ranking. By contrast, very slow page loading times can affect both your reputation and SEO.
The thing is, you may not be aware of these issues until your site’s traffic becomes noticeably lower. If you rely on online sales, you may be oblivious to these problems until you realize you have fewer orders.
With an ongoing website maintenance program, you can catch these issues right away. One of the key roles of a webmaster, after all, is to ensure that everything on your site is in perfect condition. With an expert site maintenance team, you can avoid seeing your traffic (and profits) go down.
Backups Are Essential Aspects of Regular Site Maintenance
In 2019, two-thirds of consumers experienced data loss. Hardware and software failure, as well as accidental deletions, were the top causes.
While there are recovery methods, they don’t always retrieve 100% of the deleted data. In the business sector, such losses have resulted in about 60% of businesses closing for good.
Your website, with all its content, is at risk of data loss unless you back up the information.
Website maintenance provides you peace of mind, as data backup is part of the plan. If something does happen that makes your data disappear, you don’t have to worry since you have copies.
Granted, your site will still have some downtime as the pages get reloaded with the lost info. However, this is much easier to handle than losing your data forever.
Always keep in mind that no matter how pricey your software or hardware is, you can’t rely on it to be 100% foolproof. If you can afford such tools or programs, then you can afford website maintenance.
Don’t Let Your Website Put You and Your Business Down
There you have it, some of the essential roles that website maintenance plays. With regular “tune-ups”, you can ensure that your site remains healthy and SEO friendly. You can make certain that your site is safe, 100% working, and up to speed, literally and figuratively.
Ready to have your site inspected, treated, and maintained? Then feel free to drop us a line here at Bochi Web! Our team of exceptional webmasters will be happy to take care of your site maintenance needs.
