Putting a strategy in place to maintain your website is the first and perhaps the most important part towards meeting your objectives of doing business online.
The cost of neglecting your website is just too highβdo the wrong thing and you risk your investment falling apart.
Taking care of your site and constantly improving it should be your priority. If your website is disorganized users will not hesitate to leave for the next one.
This means you need to:
- Regularly check up on its performance.
- Get rid of issues that affect its performance.
- Optimize your website for search engines and users.
But how do you do all this and which tools can you use? Weβve done the heavy lifting for youβall you need to do is read this article and implement the shared website maintenance tips.
Let's get started.
Website Maintenance Strategies
The problem we have in the industry is that we have website owners do the wrong thing for their website (goals) for a variety of reasons:
- Following an outdated process
- Not having a process at all
- Not having a clear goal etc.
And more often than not, they end up being disappointed when they don't get the (unrealistic) expectation they had.
We've spent considerable time, money, and effort to minimize this problem at Legiit
The first step to managing your website before diving into any website maintenance tips is through the Legiit dashboard, which can connect to your site, and tell you all the website maintenance issues you have, what you need, and who can do it.
Like this.
Enter your website URL.
After this, the Legiit GMSD dashboard runs an audit of your site to determine the health of your site and areas that need improvement.
Once you know how your site is performing, you can then pick up one issue at a time and begin to resolve it or the dashboard will recommend technical SEO experts who can help you resolve them.
Sounds intriguing, right? So this is key to informing your best practices and maintenance strategy.
Letβs look at some website maintenance tips and see what else can you do.
Website Maintenance Strategies to Improve Navigation and Accessibility
#1 Add links to your homepage
A home page gives an overview of the contents of your website. It contains a companyβs logo, a headline, a navigation bar, a call to action, a footer, a search bar, an introduction, and visual media.
You need to ensure that no links on this page are brokenβif there are any, you need to update them.
Adding links that connect to the pages on your website creates an internal structure that a user and search engines can navigate through. It also helps your website stay organized as it allows you to split pages and content into different topics and categories.
Why is this important?
Firstly, when a user visits your website, your homepage is the first thing they will see. How organized and well-structured it is will determine whether they proceed to spend their time on it or not.
Secondly, Google crawlers that index your website, and navigate your website from page to page depend on using links on your homepage.
Adding links to your website isnβt just another website maintenance tip among the numerous website maintenance strategies. It is a necessity for both search engine and user optimization.
#2 Simplify your website design
It is easier to maintain a website that is simple to understand and adjust. A simple website structure allows users to find what they are looking for without the hustle of moving back and forth from page to page.
Simplifying your website design means decluttering and getting rid of all unnecessary features that make its appearance look shaggy and complicate navigation.
This can be:
- Texts you can do without
- Unnecessary feature buttons
- Dormant web pages
Ensure you make your content readable with sizeable fonts that fit a screen well. In the case of bulky content, break it down into sections to make it palatable for readers.
For example, you can add breadcrumbs to your site to help users navigate through the site easily.
Avoid pop-up ads on your homepage. They slow down a website's speed and interrupt a user's interaction with your website.
Using a monotone color is also a way of keeping your website design simple. Too many colors distract users from doing what brought them to your website.
Website Maintenance Strategies for SEO
These website maintenance strategies help you improve your search engine optimization tactics by looking at technical and content structures that affect SEO on your website.
Website maintenance strategies for improving Website Speed and Performance
#1. Fix site speed
Using the Legiit dashboard, you get recommendations on whether your site speed is good or bad.
Site speed is the time a website takes to load all its content on your screen upon clicking on it. The site of a speed can have a negative or positive impact on your website.
A fast loading speed will increase the amount of time that users spend on your website which will then increase conversion rates and chances of ranking higher on search engines. A slow-loading page on the other hand will discourage users from spending more time on it.
But how do you fix the speed of your website?
The loading speed of your website is affected by:
- A shared website host server
- Bulky images and videos
- Too many ads on your website.
- A distance between your website and a user
To fix a slow loading speed:
Audit your website - you cannot fix what you donβt know. Using tools such as the Legiit dashboard, conduct a website audit to determine the speed of your website. The ideal page speed should be anything below 4 seconds.
Compress images and videos on your website: visual media take up the most space on a website. Compress images and videos to reduce their size before uploading them on your website.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN is a group of servers in different locations. They speed up a page's loading process by bringing your website closer to its users by delivering a cached version of your site to them via the closest server within their location.
Use private hosting servers: shared host servers compete for resources which may cause traffic hog that slows down a siteβs loading speed. With a private web host, you get an abundance of resources at your disposal
#2. Get rid of broken links
A deleted page, a misspelling of a link, or a change in URL structure all make up a broken link.
Broken links are a sign of a poorly maintained website to both users and search engines such as Google. They make it hard for Google crawlers to navigate through your website.
Too many broken links on your website prevent your website from being indexed as they lead to dead ends that cause crawl errors.
If your website is not indexed then it cannot be ranked on search engine result pages meaning your website will not be visible to users. This will lead to a decline in conversion rates, website traffic, and even sales.
The good news is you can fix broken links on your website.
There are four ways of getting rid of broken links depending on how they became βbrokenβ in the first place.
- Perform a website audit: a website audit will provide you with all the data you need about the status of the links on your website. Use tools such as SEMrushβs site audit which identifies more than 140 technical and on-page issues, including broken links.
- Update URL: after you have identified your broken links, determine the links that are broken due to a change in the location of their pages and change the URLs to direct to the new location. You can do this manually or you can hire experts from our marketplace to help with the procedure.
- Use redirects: this method works best for broken links that have changed their URLs. Use a 301 redirect code that signals a permanent shift of a URL. It redirects a user from the previous URL to the new existing one.
- Delete broken links: you can manually remove all broken links that lead to deleted pages that cannot be replaced or redirected.
C. Why you should have website Maintenance Strategies on your website
Benefits of implementing website maintenance strategies on your website
#1. Increases organic traffic
A well-maintained website improves its performance. It makes search engine optimization easy and improves a user's experience.
Additionally, a website that is mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, crawlable, and loads fast, motivates users to stay and explore your website more.
This act of spending more time on your website will be seen by search engines as a sign that your website has something valuable to offer its users. In return, your website will gain a boost in ranking top on search engine results pages for more users in need of your content to see.
Thus increasing the number of visitors on your website which causes an increase in website traffic.
#2. Boosts Website Credibility
If you cannot maintain the appearance and functioning of your website no one will be able to trust you to handle their money or rely on your website as a source of information.
Visitors to your website may not notice how well your website is maintained but they will spot it if it is disorganized. A well-organized website shows professionalism and builds trust with potential clients.
Staying consistent and updating your content as a way of maintaining a healthy website also builds credibility with your audience. It shows your expertise and commitment.
#3. Improves Conversion rates
Different reasons lead people to create a website. It could either be to make sales, get email subscribers, dominate in a certain niche, or market a business.
Whichever reason it is, thereβs a goal to be achieved. When visitors come to your website and complete your desired goal, it is known as a conversion. Meaning they have converted to either subscribers, customers, etc.
A conversion rate is therefore the number of users on your website who have completed your desired goal against the number of total users on your website.
For all this to happen, your website needs to be optimized for both users and search engines. Once optimized it will attract more users interested in its content and lead to an increase in conversion rates.
Final thoughts
Your website becomes a liability or an asset depending on how much effort you put into it. If you maintain it well, it will give you the returns you expect if not, it will depreciate with time.
Every top-performing website you see online has undergone regular maintenance to keep it healthy and up to date.
Do not take chances with your website. Take advantage of the given website maintenance tips and watch your website improve its performance.
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