Your website has been designed and developed and is now live. So what next?
Many people think that that’s the end of it until sometime in the future,when they decide that the site should be revamped. But this is a fallacy. Once a website has gone live, it is essential that it is continually maintained. Why?
Most website developers will offer to maintain your site. The best way for you to get this done is to contract to a monthly maintenace contract, whereby the developer performs certain tasks on a regular basis in return for a small monthl fee.
What should be included in a mantenance contract?
Different developers will offer different things but, here are the basics that you should get.
Security Updates
Website hacking is on the increase. Hackers usually try to infiltrate a site and plant links to other sites. At one time, hacking was mainly the preserve of amateurs., but these days, has become a highly organized business.
A hacked website can be black-listed by Google, such that it will be inaccessible by the Chrome browser. It can be black-listed and suspended by your hosting company. You need to avoid such consequences at all costs.
Your web developer should be applying security patches. In order to stay one step ahead of the hackers, website platforms such as WordPress, continually release security updates which need to be applied to counter hackers.
Backup
A website should be regularly backed up. It is not unknown for sites to crash and, if backups are not available, you could lose the site entirely. Don’t assume that your web developer will automatically keep backups unless you have specifically contracted for him to do that.
This is especially true if the site is being changed regularly, by updating a blog for example. And even more so if you’re updating the site yourself. It’s not unknown for content to be inadvertanly corrupted such that a restore from a backup is the only way to recover it.
Content Updates
You may decide that it is not cost effective to use you time to update content on the site, either updatin web pages or blog posts. Most maintenance contracts include a certain amount of te
Trends in website designs change for many reasons, not least of all because of technological changes. For example, the increasing use of hand held devices. All websites should now be designed to be “responsive”. In other words to be easily viewed on hand held devices. In fact, Google penalizes websites that are not designed to be responsive, in it’s search results.
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maintenance contract should include small updates t the site. ct potential customers to it. Such as getting it visibly listed on search engines either by search engine optimization or by using pay-per-click advertising. Also, by using social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook etc. to reach to reach people.
Convert Visitors to Leads
The site must also capture people’s attention and cause visitors to take action, such as contact you or buy from you, whatever is your desired outcome for visitors to the site. To do this effective, the site needs to be modified and updated regularly.
In this regard, it is interesting to look at sites such as Amazon and Ebay. The general perception of those sites is that they don’t change very much. But this is a misconception. Site such as these are being continually monitored and tweaked to improve effectiveness. In the same way, albeit not necessarily on the same scale, a small business’ website should be subject to similar improvement.
So, what next after your website has launched? In the same way as you use company brochures and literature in your marketing, be prepared to use your website in a similar fashion. This means investing some money and time in it, after it has been developed, if you want to get a return on that investment.