Is monthly website maintenance really necessary each month?
The answer to that is yes! There is so much more to monthly maintenance of your website than text changes. It isn’t necessarily to read through and change the website text each month, it is more than that. Your brand includes all mediums and channels that you are represented within. It makes sense that if you update one, you are more likely to have updates to more than only your website. Your channels can include, but not limited to social media, blog, newsletters, and email blasts are just a few. These are just as important as your monthly website maintenance.
Have you…
Moved or change locations?
Open new locations?
Add a new product or service?
Open a new division within your business?
These are many reasons that you would want to include monthly maintenance in your normal website development. If you have recently moved, added or even shut down locations, then you could have the wrong location information. You will want to update the business address, and phone number that is inaccurate across the web. That information needs to be changed on all websites that you have your website listed as well. If you have a local website and corporate website, remember to change the information on both. Plus, your social media channels and email newsletters as well.
Now, Google services are an entirely different ball of changes. But the beauty is there is only one place you need to go to make those changes. There is no longer the need to find 5 different places that your business is listed. You have log into your business account and go to the MyBusiness page to change any company details, phone number, hours of operation, services, ect. It’s that easy!
Don’t forget all of the directory sites that your company have a profile under, such as Manta, Angie’s List, Yelp, Houzz, ect. Those directory sites normally rank higher and are listed first most of the time, so they are powerful channels of information you want to keep up-to-date.
Now those examples might not be needed every month for maintenance, but here are a few things that might come up that you will need to have a maintenance plan in place.
New addition to the portfolio/gallery at completion of a project
Spelling errors that weren’t seen or proofed earlier
Page corrections and updates to previous content corrections
New products you are now offering or discontinuing
New service you are now offering or discontinuing
Recognition of an employee in the company or removal of one that left
E-commerce Shopping Cart if you have product and pricing updates
When you do have corrections, what are the chances that you will only have to deal with thewebsite? Not likely, most content, images, links, ect are linked together in one way or another. Especially, if the change involves a product or service you offer or are discontinuing. Employees that are new or left or other circumstances that arise. Your social media channels are linked everywhere and you wouldn’t want bad or incorrect information supplied to your clients.
Always include the following in your monthly maintenance….
- Blog management
- Email newsletters
- Social media management
- Google services
- Client Testimonials
- Portfolio / Gallery
- Company Page
- Online directory’s
- Online Shopping Cart / E-commerce
Can you think of anything else?
Website maintenance isn’t meant to be just another checklist every month. It is a lifeline of your brand and the business image. It is what you worked at to get your business to where it is today. Monthly maintenance is an important factor if you are taking on an online approach to your business. Make sure you include everything that ensures that your website evolves with the changing demands of your audience. Remember to not leave it at monthly maintenance, plan an annual strategic plan as well.
One last thought for you to think about. When you are changing content in your website and monthly maintenance be sure to recognize that your search engine optimization or seo can be dramatically affected, so get with the professional who performs this service and ensure your changes aren’t messing up any of the business search results.
