What Maintenance Does My Website Need?

by Whiteshark Media White Shark Media

You have a brand new website up and running. Congratulations! It looks fantastic and offers website viewers everything they could want and need from your brand. You are thrilled with the way it turned out. Plus, you're happy because now your website is done and you don't need to worry about it anymore. Wait! This last part is not true. You see, websites are not a "set it and forget it" thing. All websites need regular upkeep from a company that handles website design and maintenance in Oregon. If you don't do this, your great new website won't be looking or running well for long. Regular monitoring of your website is absolutely essential in order to keep your business running smoothly in the long-term.

What exactly does a website maintenance company in Oregon do? Does this mean the team you hired did a bad job? Is your website going to break? Let's answer all of those questions right now!

What is website maintenance?

By definition, it is the act of regularly checking your website for issues and coding mistakes, as well as keeping it updated and relevant. This maintenance should be done on a consistent basis in order to keep your website healthy, encourage continued traffic growth, and strengthen your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This means you want your website to consistently rank well and actually improve on Google rankings.

Why do I need it?

Keeping a website well maintained and attractive is important to all companies, both big corporations and small shops. It is needed in order to engage and retain website viewers and potential customers. It’s easy for businesses, especially startups and small mom and pop shops, to cut corners and let this slide. Website maintenance can easily become one of those things you forget about, because your website is new and looking so good. Your website doesn’t always present immediate issues, and other things around the business do. That's understandable! However, just like your own physical health can fall apart if you go too long without a regular check up with the doctor, so can the health of your brand's new website!

What needs to be done?

There are quite a few tasks that should be done to keep your website running smoothly. The most time-sensitive of these are website security updates and patches. Without these, your website has the potential to be an actual danger to those who visit you and try to purchase your products. Beyond this, those running your website will check that all of your pages are loading without errors, run a backup and make sure a previous version of your site is stored, and make updates to website software and plugins. This is only the beginning!

You wouldn't dream of buying a brand new car and never taking it into the service department for regular oil changes and tire rotations. Just the same, you don't want to set your new website live without a website maintenance company in Oregon there to make sure it stays perfect.