January 14th, 2021
The internet is always changing with countless technologies propping up the internet vying to survive in an extremely competitive world. Google releases new algorithms (a big word that means a solution to a problem) all the time, these algorithmic changes drastically change the effectiveness of a website to rank and gain new visitors.
The big tech companies are customer-obsessed to the point where many of their methods for delivering the best possible service or customer experience can become controversial at best and an invasion of our fundamental human rights at worst.
When you look at the ever-increasing rate at which technology and digital design evolve, it's easy to see why a website can become outdated quickly.
I recently took on a small WordPress project (still the most popular website platform in the world) because they were having difficulty being found by their clients on search engines.
I carried out an audit of their website, and it showed that search engines were ranking pages that existed on their website that had nothing to do with their industry.
On closer inspection, it was clear that the website was created using a pre-made theme designed for a particular industry. It was a cut and pace job. Furthermore, software that the website used had not updated for four years.
Slow website speed
Increased security threats
Poor rankings on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Could affect reputation with their existing customers
Could confuse existing and new customers
Loss of business
It is impossible to know how much this has cost their business, but what is likely is that it has. I expect that a maintenance package would cost less.
The answer to this problem isn't simple, but here are a few solutions that Net Frontier has to offer.
All our websites are built from scratch using cutting edge yet proven technology.
We offer website maintenance packages to ensure your website runs smoothly.
We assess our websites periodically and keep our clients up to date.
We offer audits of websites for free.
Websites are generally underperforming and could be doing a whole lot more for your business or project. The key is to try and put the customer or user first and help them to the best of your ability.
Merely trying to help may sound trite, but if a business has the genuine intent to help, they will not be so severely affected by a change in algorithms because Google wants you to find what you are searching for.
Give your potential customer the information they are looking for. You can do this by writing a blog or adding pages to your website that are focused on the varying needs of your customer.
If you create content about your business that is helpful to your customers, you will begin to rank higher in search engines.
Updating adding and improving the content of your website should form part of your maintenance strategy. Of course, the lines are now beginning to become blurred between what makes something maintenance and what makes something SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
I prefer not to try and define this too much in favour of merely coming up with a comprehensive over-arching strategy to make sure the website is reaching towards its potential.
Whilst we are well versed in many website technologies, including WordPress, the technology we are currently using to build websites is called Gatsby.
Gatsby has a fantastic ecosystem of plugins that allow us to create whatever functionality you would like to see on your website.
Gatsby also does a couple of other things that may be of interest to you.
It provides us with a workflow that means updating a website couldn't be more straightforward for a developer that knows how to code (not all do!!!). When we build a website, we make it in the knowledge; it will need to be updated. So Gatsby allows us to create the website by separating the various parts of it up into modules.
Having modules means the structure of the website is clearly laid out and well organised. And because we build from scratch, we know exactly whats going on with every part of it (not all website companies do!!!), making it much more cost-effective to maintain.
Hopefully, this article has got across some of the reasons you should consider a strategy for maintaining your website. Our maintenance philosophy isn't really a maintenance philosophy at all. It's more about continually improving and looking for ways to succeed in the exciting world of online entrepreneurialism.
There are always more opportunities, new ideas and techniques to harness. If you would like us to help you leverage them to make your business succeed, then please feel free to get in touch.
Article by Daniel Couzens