You’ve just launched your brand-spanking-new, state-of-the-art, oh-my-goodness-look-how-gorgeous-it-is website for your local business; congratulations! Now that you’re done patting yourself on the back, it’s time to get back to work on it. …wait, what?
That’s right. No matter how new or up-to-date your website is, you need to be doing regular IT maintenance, website upgrades, and general web maintenance in order to keep it fresh and bringing in all the traffic you need. This doesn’t mean a wholesale redesign every 3 months, but it does mean having someone who knows what they’re doing on standby to make sure everything is running smoothly as time goes on.
But why is regular IT maintenance so important? What happens if you fall behind on your website updates? It’s not always intuitive, so here’s what you need to know about keeping your website fresh with IT upgrades and updates:
Protect your website from new and malicious threats
Let’s start with possibly the most crucial part of keeping your IT up-to-date: cyber security. We hear so much about it in the news, but the raw numbers are sometimes even scarier. According to AV-Test Institute, well over 500,000 new pieces of malware (malicious software) are detected every day. That’s terrifying! And lest you think that this number is meaningless considering “all the computers that are out there,” Google has revealed that 7% of websites tested are infected with some type of malware, which is nearly 1 in 10.
Fortunately, regular IT maintenance is one of the easiest–and most effective–ways of combating malware infection. Cyber security threats often work by being so new that they bypass the detection and security measures put in place by most ordinary website owners, but if you’re keeping your website infrastructure updated regularly, you’re ahead of the curve. Regular security audits, scheduled IT maintenance, and consistent website updates done by a professional are absolutely key to protecting your website, your computer systems, and the data of your business and your customers.
Improve your site usability and visitor satisfaction
Just like malicious software is constantly advancing every day, so is the software that helps make our websites functional, attractive, and easy to use. From coding techniques and file types that can increase website speeds to better optimization for popular platforms to even ever-changing website aesthetic trends, web design and IT support are moving forward at an incredible pace, and it’s always important to keep up.
Regular web infrastructure and website updates ensure that every visitor to your website is greeted with an experience that’s stable, beautiful, and intuitively navigable, whether they’re on a mobile device, a desktop computer, or the next big emergent technology. Just like how your business updates your product selection, your store layouts, and your technology to keep up with consumer trends and customer demands, you need to keep your site up-to-date for all the same reasons. It’s 2023, and your web presence is a core part of your customer experience that you simply cannot afford to ignore.
Bump up (or maintain) your SEO rankings
In addition to helping customers have a pleasant and usable experience once they’re on your website, regular IT maintenance can help potential customers be more likely to find your website in the first place. Every day, Google and other search engines crawl the web and catalog websites, ranking them based on factors like site speed, site security, and visitor satisfaction, and that determines how likely your site is to show up on the all-important page 1 of search results.
In order to achieve this, you can utilize Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) to ensure that your website is meeting all the criteria that Google says is worth ranking, and keeping your website up-to-date means that even when this criteria shifts, your website isn’t falling behind. What worked 6 months ago may not work today, and regular IT maintenance will help your web presence maintain its, well, presence!
IT maintenance can sound like a lot of work, and it is–it’s also more technical than many business owners want to get into, which is why Skol Marketing’s Minnesota-based team is here to help. To learn more about how we can help you keep your website consistently safe, attractive, and high-ranking, please don’t hesitate to contact the local web experts at Skol Marketing.
