We all know the importance of a great website for every business and the elements that come into play – branding, design, copy and SEO. All of these together allow businesses to tell their customers who they are and why they do what they do. But what about user experience? Yes, these elements play a part, but what about in the long-term?
As your business grows, so too will your offerings and customer base. And nothing is worse for a customer than navigating a slow or bug-ridden website. When having your website created or refreshed, regular maintenance needs to be considered.
Claudio Conte is the founder and CEO of Spiral Orb Designs. Having built 5 other businesses across 11+ years, Claudio created Spiral Orb Designs to address the pain points many business owners face. A firm offering extensive web design and development services, Claudio and his team have a single goal of creating a better narrative for brands by showcasing their abilities to achieve scalability within the business of those he works with.
Below Claudio outlines the ins and outs of website maintenance.
A website is like a car
Your website is one of your business’ vehicles for growth. Not only does it allow you to talk directly to your customers, it helps you to showcase who your company is, what products or services you offer, and is an essential part of your CRM strategy. Just as you would get your car regularly serviced, the same needs to be done for your website.
Following this analogy, often car servicing just means tuning the brakes, or changing the tyres. The same can be said of your website. Website maintenance doesn’t mean a complete redesign, but could be fixing a bug, updating the copy or adding a new product or service. Website maintenance is essentially just a protocol that you follow and need to be diligent towards
Why is website maintenance often seen as low priority?
The truth is website maintenance is overlooked because for many businesses, especially start-ups and smaller organisations, there just isn’t a pain point strong enough to justify an extra expense when creating your website.
To use another analogy, just like insurance, however, it’s probably not important until you wish you had it. Not only can it be tedious work, but it can be costly if not previously purchased or negotiated as part of your initial website design and development agreement.
If it’s so important, why don’t many agencies offer it?
Web design agencies are first and foremost a business. And the key to business is profit. For many agencies, website maintenance lacks a significant profit-margin, so they choose to focus on big projects – because that’s where the money’s at.
Website maintenance can be a heavy process and quite a systematic procedure. It involves a lot of cogs to make it work, and only time can deliver the best result with efficient delivery.
Website maintenance, however, is important because it’s crucial for the longevity of something that is SUPPOSED to return profit to you directly or indirectly. Seeking out an agency that offers this initially means a far cheaper follow-on service when you need it. This is because website maintenance means less revisions, less work, and less costs.
Is website maintenance and security really that important?
Every web designer will tell you the importance of this, so let’s have a look at why. A website is essentially software, and software that isn’t regularly maintained and updated run the risk of two major things happening:
· Hackers finding their way through back-doors, outdated themes and plugins.
· Website plugins (software) being left outdated and potentially breaking your website.
We unfortunately live in an age where 3rd party companies steal traffic, payments and even hijacking websites for ransom. Because there’s no such thing as cyber police, a website held for ransom can really put a business in a bind.
Another thing to consider is data collection and privacy. Protecting your customer’s private details is an absolute must! We’ve all seen the losses a certain tele-provider experienced when customer information was hacked, don’t let the same happen to your business!
Why don’t businesses care about website maintenance enough?
Simply put, we just don’t understand the true value that our websites have in the digital world. Many don’t consider that a website is more than just a digital version of your business card or a way to sell inventory. Many are unaware of how having the correct automations in place can help a website generate leads and referrals with only a one-time setup and regular minor tweaks. A well-functioning website helps to attract partnerships that bring in more business, thereby generating more profit and growth.
Website maintenance is the ticket to ensuring your website actually works for your business. It gives you the reassurance that everything is working perfectly on the back-end, that someone is regularly testing your website, running security scans and performing daily backups while reporting all the not so fun stuff you simply don’t have time to do.
To make sure your website is working as it should, check out Claudio’s ALL-IN-ONE Website Audit Cheatsheet. To learn more from the team at Spiral Orb Designs, get in contact here.
