As a small business owner, you know that keeping your website updated is essential to your success. But did you know that there are certain things you should update on a regular basis? In this blog post, we’ll discuss the most important website updates you need to make regularly. Keep reading to learn more!
Benefits of Updating Your Website
Why You Should Update Your Website Regularly
The Benefits Of Keeping Your Site Updated
In 2022, keeping your website up to date will be more important than ever before. Here are just a few of the benefits you can expect from keeping your site updated:
Increased traffic and leads
When you keep your website up to date with the latest information, products, and services, you’ll attract more visitors who are interested in what you have to offer. And since they’ve found your website through a search engine, you can be sure that these visitors are interested in what you have to offer and are likely to become customers.
Improved website security
Hackers are always looking for new ways to break into websites and steal sensitive information. By keeping your website up to date, you make it more difficult for hackers to find vulnerabilities in your site’s security. This can help protect your business from data theft or other malicious activities.
How often should I update my website?
There is no set schedule for website maintenance – it depends on your website’s specific needs and the type of business you own. However, keeping a regular routine will help ensure that your website is always up-to-date and running smoothly. Taking 30 minutes a month to keep the lights on from a technical perspective (updating plugins etc) is a great idea and will benefit you in the long run. We’ve recommended 8 things to do every 8 weeks. They’re not “sexy” tips in the least, but those tips will keep you safe from hackers and chaos. Bear in mind that updating and refreshing your website is not the same thing. Keeping content, images and layout fresh should be done regularly, but will depend on how often you have updates and news to share. Some of our clients prefer to keep their updates on social media, whilst others update their blogs weekly. And there are even some who do both in conjunction. Do what works for you, follow the digital strategy you have put in place and ensure you keep to the consistent path you have promised to yourself and to your clients.
We’ve outlined some easy steps to take in order to keep it safe and secure, including keeping plugins up-to-date, ensuring themes are updated periodically (and if possible, avoid outdated ones), and using a reputable hosting provider with strong encryption protocols. Once you have taken these simple measures into consideration, you can then begin focusing on other aspects of your digital marketing strategy such as content creation or social media promotion. If you need help implementing all of this information and would rather let someone else do it for you so that you can focus on running your company instead, we offer website maintenance, search engine optimization and other related services which will ensure people find your site.
Why would you want to update your website regularly?
Better customer experience
Updating your website regularly ensures that customers always have the latest information about your products and services. This helps them make informed decisions about whether they want to do business with you. It also gives them a positive impression of your company, since it shows that you’re committed to providing the best possible experience to your customers.
Functionality
A website that isn’t maintained properly can also suffer from functionality issues. These issues can range from minor glitches to complete website crashes. By keeping your website up-to-date with the latest software updates and plugins, you can help ensure that it functions correctly. This is especially important if your website is eCommerce or contains sensitive data.
Make sure your website’s visitors have a positive experience by keeping it updated with fresh content.
Reputation Management
If your website is outdated or poorly maintained, it can reflect negatively on your business’ reputation. Potential customers may think that you’re not professional or that you don’t care about your business enough to keep your website up-to-date. By keeping your website maintained, you can help ensure that it reflects positively on your business’ reputation.
If you’re like most small business owners, you probably don’t have the time or money to invest in a website overhaul every few months. However, by making a few simple changes on a regular basis, you can keep your website looking fresh and inviting to new visitors. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Do These 5 Things
Keep your website’s software up to date, including your plugins and themes.
One of the best ways to keep your website up to date is by regularly updating its software. This includes plugins and themes, both of which can have security vulnerabilities if not kept up to date. You can update your website’s software manually, or you can use a plugin or service that will automate the process for you. WordPress themes can be updated from the themes panel in the WordPress admin, and plugins can be updated from the Plugins menu. You should also keep your website’s software up to date on a regular basis, even if there are no security vulnerabilities that need to be fixed. This will help ensure that your website is running smoothly and efficiently.
Install a firewall plugin on your website.
A firewall plugin can help protect your website from malicious activity by blocking traffic that is not authorized to access your website. This can help keep your website safe from hackers and other online threats. There are a number of different firewall plugins available, so you should choose one that fits the needs of your website. Some popular firewall plugins include Wordfence Security (my recommendation that works for us every time!), CloudFlare, and iThemes Security. If you have notifications enabled, you will see more information on who is trying to hack your website, updates and news in the web security space. It might not make for the most riveting reading, but you will definitely know what is happening and what to do to fix it.
Install a backup plugin on your website
If something goes wrong with your website, it’s important to have a backup plan in place so you can restore your site to its previous state. A backup plugin will create backups of your website’s data (including files, database, and settings) at regular intervals, so you’ll always have a recent copy of your website’s data if something goes wrong. There are a number of different backup plugins available, so you should choose one that fits the needs of your website. Some popular backup plugins include UpdraftPlus, BackWPup, and WP Time Capsule.
Optimize your website for search engines
In order to attract more visitors to your website, you need to make sure that it is optimized for search engines. This means adding the correct keywords and metadata to your website’s pages, as well as configuring your website’s settings in a way that will improve its ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). You can optimize your website manually, or you can use a plugin or service that will automate the process for you. WordPress has a number of built-in optimization features, and there are also a number of plugins available that can help you further optimize your website. My favourites include YoastSEO and Rankmath. Simple enough to use and implement. Remember, SEO is a long-term game, you need to keep chipping at it!
Extra tip – If you’re looking for a practical, simple process to follow to improve your SEO, the guys at Ubersuggest has a great 7 week course called “SEO Unlocked” – taking you through practical steps. Making it simple and understandable for all of us.
Enable compression to reduce website size
Compression can help reduce the size of your website’s files, which can lead to faster download speeds and reduced bandwidth usage. You can enable compression on your website manually, or you can use a plugin or service that will automate the process for you. WordPress has built-in support for compression, and there are also a number of plugins available that can help you further compress your website’s files.
By following the tips in this article, you can keep your website up-to-date and looking fresh – without spending a fortune! If you need help implementing all of this information, we offer website maintenance services that will take care of everything for you. Let us help you keep your website secure and running like a well-oiled machine!
I´m Mel, a designer at heart with a passion for design and all things digital, I’m all about delivering the best content that brings YOU the most value.