How to Maintain a Small Business Website
I just launched my website! Now what?
Congratulations – you just launched your small business or non-profit website or blog! You may be wondering what’s next. An earlier article in this series provided an introduction to website maintenance (see How to Create a Small Business Website). Now we will look at the details.
It is very important to implement a regular maintenance plan to ensure the website supports your business objectives. A good way to approach website maintenance is to create a checklist and schedule to remind you what to maintain and when. Here is a sample checklist that you can adapt for your website.
Website Maintenance Checklist
Review Content
Review the content on every page to identify any required changes. Remove outdated content, e.g., special event or promotion that has ended. Edit things that have changed, e.g., price change, new address.
Add New Content
Regularly add new content so your website is useful and interesting to visitors. Content can include text, images, and video.
Website Structure
As your website grows, it will be necessary to add new pages. Monitor the volume of content and organization of the website to ensure you don’t end up with a few giant pages that have too much content.
Check Links
Check all links to ensure they still work. Here’s why… Internal links: you may have moved some content or removed a page and forgotten to update a link. External links: the website you link to may have moved or changed the page.
Link Building
Continue your efforts to add links to other websites and seek inbound links to your website. This will keep your website useful to visitors and help with search engine optimization.
Monitor Analytics
Regularly monitor your analytics in relation to your website goals. If you have a high bounce rate, it is time to re-evaluate your website to identify the cause. For more on analytics, see What is Google Analytics and How can it Help me?
Domain Name and Hosting
Don’t forget to renew your domain name and website hosting accounts. If you don’t renew on time, your website will go down. Tip: set your accounts to auto renew and charge your credit card.
Related Articles
How to Create a Small Business Website
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