5 Most Misunderstood Facts About Website Maintenance
It’s not enough to have a website; the emphasis should be on having a website that ticks all the right boxes. One of such critical areas bothers on the misunderstood facts about website maintenance. Yet, many business owners do not understand the facts about website maintenance and what it involves.
To succeed in the business world today, having a website needs to be part of your plans. It does not matter whether you are fully an online business or an offline business that relies on online sources to drive sales.
Just think of your website like your car, the fact that it requires an oil change every three months, or at 3000km. To this end, we’ve identified what many misunderstand about website maintenance;
1. Cheap Web Hosting Doesn’t Matter
Maybe you don’t understand the place of a web host. Let’s give this analogy; a web host is like a garage that houses your website. While you may have installed all of the best locks and alarms available, it won’t matter if the passcode is easy to guess, the garage is located in a bad neighborhood, or has to share the garage with other people.
Of course, it comes tempting to choose a cheap web host, especially if you are still new and without much traffic expectations.
But you should know something; “You get what you pay for.” Nothing more, nothing less.
Your web host’s quality determines your website’s speed and security. That is to say; you are likely to have a slow and insecure website with a cheap web host. It’s not worth it to lose your customers’ trust or piss them off with a slow website.
2. Managing a Website Can Be Done By Anyone
Nothing can kill your website or business faster than adopting a DIY method in managing your website. This is one of the most disputer facts about website maintenance.
Yes, there is a DIY fever out there, and it’s quite contagious. Everyone is trying to be their webmaster. Please don’t do it! Even if you are lucky to get it right, your business will suffer for it. Managing a website professionally requires an ample amount of time, which you are less likely to have as an entrepreneur.
It’s best you hand the management of your website to someone else, a professional who knows their way around growing and maintaining a website.
It’s about spending your time wisely. At the same time, handing off the task of maintaining your website to a sound and proven professionals. Many business owners are getting it quite wrong with this fact about website maintenance.
3. Updates Are Optional and Unnecessary
Never be a part of this position as all software are build to be updated; there’s no exception to this rule. An analogy to drive home this point, imagine if you are still the same person you are at birth, at a state of tabula rasa?
You get it now?
Not even WordPress. Yes, there are many moving parts in themes, plugins, and the core WordPress code. The performance and security of a website is hinged on how regular the updates are. There is a problem every update is intended to fix.
There’s a caveat here, however. Updating your website is not just about being able to click the “Update” button. Attention should be paid to understanding what the update entails and how it can benefit your website. It’s only by reading the update description that you can be sure there are no compatibility issues.
Do you also know that you should have a backup of your website before making any major updates? You won’t want to shut out your visitors if there’s a compatibility issue.
That’s why it’s important to leave your website maintenance to a professional, rather than DIY.
4. Web Host Support is Enough
Yes, your website host will have an in-house customer support team. And usually, they know their onions. With all the skills and experience they might have packed in the in-house team, there is a problem. They neither know you nor your business.
There are quite a lot of conundrums involved; firstly, they may not be conversant with the content management system that your website is built on, and there is a high chance that they don’t know your business goals.
If you have the chance of seeing the customer roll call of website hosts, you’ll know you are just an email address to them.
You can’t ever rely on the support being provided by the website host. You need to have dedicated support staff in place attending to the complaints and concerns of customers.
5. No Need For On-Page Optimization and Call To Action
Before anyone can locate your website, they are likely to have searched for your business online. Or rather, they must have searched for your type of business online.
Now, what’s the importance of building a house that no one can live in or locate.
For everyone trying to locate your business they are likely to have inputted certain keywords into the search engine. That’s the place of on-page optimization for your website. It’s like the directions needed to locate your website amidst the thousands offering similar services.
Now, it’s not about stuffing your website with keywords. You need to ensure the copy reads as natural as possible.
Don’t forget the place of a call to action also. Show the potential customers what to do, don’t make it difficult to use your services.