A website needs regular website maintenance to function properly. There are many issues related to websites which need regular attention so that the website can remain unharmed by malicious attacks and can always remain updated with the latest information and content.
Regular website maintenance is the key to online sustainability. Website owners think that once their CMS website has been built, you don’t need to do anything more to it other than add content but that is just one aspect of the overall website maintenance.
Website Maintenance comprises all the activities needed to ensure the smooth functioning and operational integrity of the website.
The activities which fall under WEB MAINTENANCE are:
- Website Publishing
- Website Quality Assurance
- Manage Communication With Website Visitors
- Measure Success Of The Website
- Manage technical aspects of the website
The no. Of people needed in the team may vary from 1 to 5 or more depending on the size and complexity of the website.
The decision of maintaining the website in-house or outsourcing to an agency also depends on the size of the website and also on the availability of people having the required knowledge to maintain the website in-house.
Website maintenance is a challenging task that many businesses do not have the time for. Some may lack the knowledge and tools needed for proper website upkeep. One solution is to hire a company that specializes or offers web maintenance services.
Usually people invest a huge amount developing a good website and many times also spend on promoting the website online but in the name of maintenance they assume that only adding content is enough and as they can easily manage that via the CMS very little attention is paid to the other aspects of the website. Such as,
- Check for errors and broken links
- Check for security holes
- Install new tools, plugins and functions
- Update contents
- Update back-end platfom and software patches
- Back up database and content, etc.
Today if you have a medium sized dynamic website or a large eCommerce website then while allocating budgets for SEO, PPC, Social Media, Content, etc. One needs to allocate a certain budget for the regular maintenance also.Else, such a cost cutting may prove to be Penny Wise But Pound Foolish.
Though your SEO may warn you many times with the technical issues but may not make the actual changes on the website as they may require a web developer to execute those changes or it may not fall under the scope of the SEO Contract.
Last year in June we mentioned in one of our blog posts that “When all these activities are to be managed in-house it requires a very big budget and specialized skill sets or if outsourced it needs precise coordination. The challenge that the online business owners small or big brands face today is how to the get the maximum ROI from the selected set of the above activities they decide to focus on for a wider and a qualitative digital presence.”
There are many activities when executed in coordination ensure the success of the website and help the website owner achieve the goal for which the website was developed in the first place.
If you are planning to invest in a small basic website or a medium size dynamic website or a large eCommerce website then please consider all these aspects before venturing out on the virtual sands for business. As many times individually each agency may be doing their bit but the overall success is a mirage because of the lack of coordination.
Hence all these activities can be managed in-house by having a dedicated team or outsource it to different specialized agencies by defining the scope of each agency very clearly and appoint a person in-house to co-ordinate with the different agencies to achieve holistic success or find a company which offers turnkey solutions and offers all these services under their hood.
