Why Website Maintenance is So Important

In today’s digital age, websites are the cornerstone of brand success. Not only are they a platform for selling your product or service, but they’re also a valuable medium for building brand image and credibility. As such, the need for a smooth user experience couldn’t be more important.

This is where website maintenance comes in. Without it, your website can quickly become out of date and look unprofessional. When this happens, you run the risk of damaging your company’s reputation and even losing customers. Worse still, running your site on old plugins or an outdated content management system (CMS) can leave your site vulnerable to hacking or even break your site altogether. 

In this blog, we take a look at 5 benefits your brand stands to gain simply by maintaining your business website. (And why it’s wise to work with a professional Sydney web agency who can do it for you).

What is website maintenance?

Website maintenance is the process of keeping a website up-to-date and running smoothly. This includes tasks like upgrading plugins, patching the software, ensuring all links are working, checking for broken code, and updating content regularly.

It’s not a one-off fix either, but rather an ongoing process that should be carried out on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, and/or yearly). While it may seem like a lot of work, website maintenance is essential in keeping your site in good health and preventing a drop in site traffic.

5 Benefits of website maintenance

1. Improved Security

If your website is running on outdated software, inadequate security patches, and dated plug-ins, hackers will have no trouble exploiting these weaknesses and potentially toppling your brand site in the process.

Herein lies one of the biggest upshots to regular website maintenance: it will help keep your site’s security up-to-date and protect your business from malicious attacks. Working with a professional web development team is your safest bet for ensuring optimal website safety.

2. You Have a Backup Site (just in case)

Picture this: you’ve just poured a substantial amount of time and resources into building the perfect brand site. Next minute – the system crashes for some unforeseen reason. Now you have to start from square one…again. Talk about a nightmare.

The good news is that this doesn’t have to be your reality. Website maintenance involves regular site backups, saving both your source code (Javascript, HTML, CSS, etc.) as well as your site content. So you can rest assured knowing that if the unfortunate ever does happen, you’ll be able to recover your site with ease, rather than starting from scratch.

3. Frictionless User Experience (UX)

When users visit your site there’s always the silent expectation that everything will work as it should. And with 88% of consumers being less likely to return to a website after having a bad UX, it’s clear that slow loading times, broken links, and an unoptimized mobile display just won’t do.

And with Google’s recent Page Experience update changing the way the search engine ranks websites – now scoring a user’s experience loading a webpage using new metrics known as Core Web Vitals – the need to have fast content loading and an quick response time to user input is all the more important.

To have any chance of seeing conversion growth, website maintenance is a must. A dedicated web development team is your silver bullet for technical issues and poor functionality, as they have the expertise to keep your site running like a well-oiled machine.

4. Enhanced SEO

A well-maintained site means an up-to-date site, and this is something that Google loves.

From a technical standpoint, regular website maintenance will help ensure your site is free of broken links and other common errors which can lead to search engine penalties. Not to mention, by keeping your content fresh and relevant with new publications and updated keywords, you’re more likely to rank higher on the search engine results page.

In other words, if you’re not working with a professional web development team to maintain your site, you could be missing out on valuable organic traffic.

5. Growing a glowing brand perception

Your website is a direct reflection of your brand – so naturally, you want it to put its best foot forward at all times.

From first impressions to interacting with site content, every touchpoint should instill confidence in users that they’re dealing with a reputable and professional business. Website maintenance will help ensure your site is always looking its best and performing optimally, reinforcing the customer perception that your brand is one of integrity and professionalism – one they can trust to do business with.

Why you should work with web maintenance professionals?

With your website being the cornerstone of your brand, you really don’t want to take any chances when it comes to keeping it in working order.

In addition to offering bespoke web design and development services, our digital marketing agency in Sydney also provides ongoing website maintenance and support.

Our expert web technicians administer comprehensive stress-testing of your brand site, as well as updates for CMS and plugins to ensure your website is achieving optimal performance. Get in touch with G Squared today to see how we can help you with website development Sydney.