Your website is the flagbearer of your business and the first point of contact in the digital world. It’s the one point where all your online business activities converge.
Therefore, it needs to be perfect in every aspect and that’s why it should undergo regular maintenance. In the absence of maintenance, there will be slow loading times, security issues, a decline in search ranking, and potential revenue lost.
To give you a context, even a one-second delay in site loading time increases the bounce rate by 32%; that’s 32% fewer customers. Now imagine the impact on your revenue and profits!
Growth Vive Solutions takes pride in being one of the top website maintenance services in Vancouver. To help out our readers, we have compiled the essential website maintenance checklist in 2024.
You can follow the checklist and ensure that your website is running like well-oiled machinery.
Website Maintenance Checklist 2024 In a Nutshell
Website maintenance involves multiple checkpoints. To give you a quick overview of each checkpoint, we have condensed all the points in the table below;
| S. No. | Checklist | Actions | Benefits |
| 1. | Website’s Backup | Automate backups | Prevent data loss |
| 2. | Software Updates | CMS, Plugins & Themes Updates | Improve functionality |
| 3. | Website’s Speed & Performance | Test Load time | Improves Performance |
| 4. | Website’s Responsiveness | Mobile device and cross-browser compatibility | Better User Experience |
| 5. | Website’s Security | Automate Security Scans | Prevent data breaches and cyberattacks |
| 6. | Website’s SEO & Analytics | Analyze SEO matrices like traffic, content, tags, headings, backlinks, etc. | Boost ranking and visibility |
| 7. | Content Evaluation | Upload fresh content & Upload old content | Boost engagement |
| 8. | Website’s Elements | Check contact form, sign-ups, checkout pages etc. | Better User Experience |
| 9. | User Experience (UX) | Check for navigations, CTAs, Responsiveness | Minimize Bounce Rate |
| 10. | Compliances | Check Privacy Policy, GDPR, Cookie Policy etc. | Build User Trust |
| 11. | Hosting & Domains | Monitor uptime, renew hosting and domain registration | Minimize downtime |
The Ultimate Website Maintenance Checklist You Must Always Follow
Let’s get down to business then and explore each aspect of the website maintenance checklist in detail.
1. Perform Regular Backups
The possibility of data loss is ever present in the digital world. It could severely hamper your online presence and can be detrimental to your business. That’s why it’s always recommended to perform regular backups of your website.
Regular backups entail;
- No data loss including customer details or business documents.
- Business continuity in the digital world.
- Compliance with legal regulations for data protection.
- You can back up older versions of your website.
Both the content management system as well as hosting providers offer website backup options. Utilize them to create a backup of your website.
2. Timely Update Software
Around 45.3% of all websites run on WordPress. Besides, webmasters also use platforms like Weebly, Joomla, Drupal etc.
These platforms regularly roll out updates to fix security and performance issues. Likewise, the themes and plugins installed on these CMS also receive regular updates.
Failing to keep up with these updates can expose your website to performance issues and security risks. That’s why it’s essential that you perform software updates regularly.
3. Optimize Website’s Speed & Performance
To maintain a successful online presence, it’s imperative that your website’s load time and performance is smooth.
It helps with;
- Faster websites facilitate a good user experience.
- Improves search ranking
- Boost conversion rate
- Gives credibility to brand
What should you do to ensure faster load time?
- Optimize images by compressing them to the right size.
- Check for core web vitals
- Enables browsing cache
- Use CDN to distribute website content across multiple servers.
If all these seem a daunting task, use tools like Google page speed insights, GTMetrix, etc. to automate the process.
4. Checkout Website’s Responsiveness
In the digital world customer experience matters the most. That’s why website responsiveness is an essential component of website maintenance. It ensures that your website adjusts effortlessly to all screen sizes.
- A responsive website is easy to navigate.
- Easy navigation leads to a better conversion rate.
- Responsiveness also impacts the ranking.
If you are WordPress, the best way to ensure the responsiveness of your website is to adopt a responsive theme. Other than that, you should optimize images as well to fit well with different screen sizes.
5. Monitor Website Security
Around 30,000 websites are hacked each day. Cyber threats are always looming in the digital landscape, which is why it’s imperative to adopt robust security measures.
- Better website security ensures;
- Ensures the safety of sensitive data.
- Keeps the integrity and credibility of the website intact.
- Prevent potential business losses due to data breaches.
- Build trust among users.
How can you ensure the stringent security of your website?
- Enable SSL certificate to encrypt data.
- Keep the CMS, themes, and plugins updated.
- Implement Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) to monitor network traffic.
- Regularly back up your data.
6. Evaluate Content Regularly
Content is king in the digital avenue. Outdated content on your website could lead to;
- Lower search engine visibility.
- Negative user experience due to outdated information.
- Reduction in website traffic.
The best way to evaluate the content on your website is to use SEO tools like Semrush, Surfer SEO, Ahrefs, etc. These tools have built-in features to detect inconsistencies in your content and notify them.
On top of that, regularly post fresh content to ensure you provide relevant information to the users.
7. Keep a tab on Website Elements
Multiple elements combined to create a catchy user-friendly and engaging website. Therefore, it’s imperative that you keep a constant tab on the key elements and make sure they are in place and working.
- Header – Start with a compelling logo.
- Navigation – Menus should be clear and easy to use.
- Search Bar – Make sure it’s readily available to facilitate easy navigation.
- Contact Form – Ensure that you have a contact form in place and that it’s working.
- Checkouts – If you sell via your website, make sure that the checkout page is working flawlessly.
- CTA – CTAs boost conversions, therefore ensure they are crisp and properly placed.
8. Emphasize Heavily on User Experience
UX encompasses the looks and feel of the website. Needless to say, it’s the first thing that users notice on your website. That’s why the US should be pristine and in taste with the audience group you serve.
Keep an eye for these pointers and work on them on a regular basis;
- Usability – Your website loads fine, the menus are accessible and the transition to different pages is smooth.
- Accessibility – Is the information on your website easily available?
- Value – Does the content and images on your website provide value to the users?
- Information Architecture – Make sure the content is organized logically and under relevant categories.
- Visual Design – Ensure that the web design follows modern trends and is visually appealing.
9. Follow Online Compliances
While compliances don’t strictly come into the website’s maintenance umbrella, they nevertheless should be a part of your checklist.
Why?
Because non-compliance with online regulation could attract disciplinary action. It could lead to a reduction in visibility or complete the indexing of your website.
Incidentally, online compliance rules change periodically and if you don’t update them on your website, you could be penalized.
For compliance, make sure you have all the recommended pages, like About Us, Privacy Policy, Rules & Regulations, Contact Page, etc.
10. Hosting & Domain
Hosting and domain are often missed when it comes to website maintenance. But they are a critical aspect of your online success.
Let’s say, your hosting suffers regular downtime, it severely impacts your brand’s reputation. In fact, 46% of consumers distrust websites that suffer regular downtime.
When it comes to domain and hosting, here are a few pointers you must follow;
- Downtime – Check for average downtime, if it’s considerable, move to a different hosting.
- Performance Optimization – Ensure that hosting provides performance optimization tools.
Precise Website Maintenance Roadmap to Ensure Optimal Performance
Quite often, users find themselves in the blue when it comes to website maintenance – should they do it themselves or hire an expert? How often should it be done etc? Firstly, we recommend it’s always better to hire a professional. As for the frequency of website maintenance is concerned, here’s the roadmap you must follow;
| S. No | Tasks | Actions |
1. | Daily Tasks | Check for broken links |
| Monitor Performance | ||
2. | Weekly Tasks | Update content |
| Check for Spam | ||
| Review Website Analytics | ||
| Check Website SEO | ||
3. | Monthly Tasks | Run Security Scans |
| Backup Your Website | ||
| Update Plugin and Themes | ||
| Optimize Website’s Images | ||
| Ensure website elements like forms, contact pages etc. are working | ||
4. | Quarterly Tasks | Conduct a content audit |
| Check website loading speed | ||
| Assess the User Interface | ||
| Update social media links | ||
5 | Annual Tasks | Review and Updates Essential Pages |
| Review Domain and Hosting | ||
| Conduct and In-depth Website Audit |
Can You Automate Website Maintenance?
Yes, you can automate certain aspects of website maintenance. It will make the work at hand simpler and offer you time to denote more important tasks.
However, not everything under the website maintenance umbrella should be automated. For example, going through the analytics is indispensable since you need to have a clear overview of your website’s core matrices.
In any case, let us give you an overview of things that can be automated when it comes to website maintenance;
1. Automated Backups
You can automatically back up a website’s data with tools like BackupBuddy, UpdraftPlus, etc. These tools plan and perform backups without human intervention and keep your website’s data safe.
2. Automated Updates
CMS systems like WordPress have inbuilt functionality to enable automatic updates. When enabled, the system will update to the latest versions and also keep the plugins updated to their latest release.
3. Monitoring Website’s Security
Webmasters can also automate the security aspect of the website. Tools like Wordfence, Sucuri, etc., come in quite handy in this regard. These tools automatically scan the website for potential vulnerabilities and keep webmasters updated for any security threat.
4. Monitoring Website’s Performance
Keeping a tab on a website’s performance is a hefty task, given all the matrices involved. Thankfully, this aspect of website maintenance can also be automated via tools like GTmetrix, Uptime, Sitespeed, Google PageSpeed Insights, etc. These tools will keep a check on website performance and raise an alert if they encounter a dip or an issue creeping up.
5. Monitoring SEO
SEO is critical for a website’s ranking therefore it requires constant monitoring. Thankfully automated SEO optimization tools can do all the heavy lifting for you. Google Search Console, Yoast SEO, Semrush, etc. can keep a check on SEO and offer regular insights and suggestions needed to boost it.
Website Maintenance Packages in Vancouver – How to Pick the Best?
Website maintenance is daunting and the technicalities involved could overwhelm a regular user. The best course is to hire experts who offer Website Maintenance Services. Follow these pointers when considering potential experts for website maintenance;
Experience and references – Not everyone can do website maintenance perfectly. It requires experience. Therefore, always prefer a vendor that has proven website maintenance experience and a tone of positive customer references and feedback.
Response time – Observe the response time – professional and committed vendors have quick response time and they are available promptly to resolve queries and concerns.
Support – Check for the extent of support they provide. It should cover everything essential to ensure extensive maintenance.
Available services – Look through the service page. Does the vendor cover everything that you need for your website’s maintenance? A comprehensive range of services including backups, performance optimization, security updates, etc. is imperative to ensure no aspect of website maintenance is overlooked.
Cost structure – It all comes down to the pricing, meaning you can’t splurge everything in your pocket on website maintenance alone, right? Therefore, compare costs from multiple vendors and see who fits in your budget. Also, look for hidden fees if any, and whether the vendor is completely transparent with its pricing structure or not.
Wrapping Up
That’s the website maintenance checklist in 2024 that you must follow to keep your website sailing smoothly across the online landscape. But website maintenance could easily overwhelm everyday users, therefore we recommend opting for a reliable website maintenance service. Growth Vive Solutions is a trusted Avenue for all your website maintenance needs. Contact Us to get your website in top shape.
FAQs
Why do websites need regular maintenance?
Regular maintenance of the website ensures that it performs best on every front. It loads fast, has no security loopholes, provides an excellent user experience, and fulfills every SEO criteria.
How often does a website undergo maintenance?
There’s no fixed period; but as an expert, we recommend at least a monthly maintenance should be on schedule.
Can website maintenance impact SEO negatively?
No, website maintenance has no negative impact on SEO. On the contrary, ensuring good SEO practice is a big part of website maintenance. Timely maintenance ensures that your website always stands high in SERP.
What does website maintenance entail?
Website maintenance involves a multi-pronged approach. It aims to patch up security loopholes, rectify content and SEO issues, and ensure data backup and cms updates if any.
Is website maintenance costly?
The expense of website maintenance depends on the extent of the work involved. Besides, different website maintenance service providers have different pricing structures. Instead of an expense, consider website maintenance as an investment. It will boost your revenue and profitability over time.