Website Maintenance Outline

I often get asked “What should I do to keep my website up to date?” I have put together a breakdown of ideas to keep your site current and fresh with some timeline suggestions.

Daily or Weekly

(Depending on how often you can handle things)

Blog Article – This can be done as often as you have info to share. Blog posts do not have to be overly complicated – they can be simple paragraphs and with our websites, you can write them in advance and schedule them out. Some people want to blog everyday, I struggle to get one a month as I am always doing my customers stuff and my site is the last on the priority list (I guess it is a good thing to be busy :))

As a businessman, I am kind of amazed that people don’t know what subjects to write about. I have a simple tip to keep you flooded with ideas for your blog. Keep a pad next to your phone and write down the questions you get asked about your business, product or service. Take a few minutes when you are ready to update your blog and create “unpublished” blog articles for each question first – then you can go in and answer them later. Trust me – with a few weeks of this and you will have enough articles to schedule them out for the year.

Backup – Few people realize that your hosting company only backups your site for their purpose. In the case of a hack, it is the customers responsibility to restore the site. You should take a backup of your site and keep it on your PC. At Tampa PC Web Design, we backup your site when we first build it, or when we make significant changes to it for you. However, if you are updating your shopping cart, blog or other areas, either make sure you are backing up – or talk to us about our maintenance plans where we will do a monthly backup each month for you. When you are posting your blog each week – simply make a backup at the same time. Habits can be habit forming 🙂

Monthly Tasks

Recent Projects – If you have a recent project section or latest news section – take a few minutes each month to add your recent happenings to the projects. This lets your customers know that you are still in business and are still working. This lets them know you are working in the various areas and they can see that you are active.

Add to your Gallery or Portfolio – When you are first building a website – the chore of getting all the info together can be overwhelming like an IRS audit! Except that this chore brings you more business. Once a month – add a few photographs of recent work or projects to your gallery.

QUARTERLY TASKS

Case Studies or Service Article – These can be a great way to enhance your SEO ranking with some solid content about your industry. You might have an interesting customer in the past 3 months where you can discuss what their problem was and how your business solved the problem in detail.

Check Links – If you link to other sites or vendors for information – remember that those can change – be sure to check all the links on your site on a regular basis. You web designer builds the site for you – but you are responsible for content and making sure everything is still current.

YEARLY

Website Checkup – Alot has changed since we built our first website in 1994. Back then the thought of even wanting to order a pizza on the “net” was absurd. It took longer to dial the phone and connect the modem then it did to order a pizza and then the pizza website just printed and faxed the order to the appropriate store. Today phones and tablets rule. Smart Tvs are becoming the norm. While we would like to think that making a website is a one time deal – the reality is your website should be a living thing. You should be changing it regularly and most likely you will need a redesign every few years to keep up with the times.