We’re pleased to offer a free website consultation. Call today, (303) 357-5757, or e-mail dbc@dbcdigital.com.
If you have a business, you likely have a website for marketing. Any business looking for leads, to retain existing customers or help their customers stay informed, needs their own website.
Eighty-one percent of consumers do online research before buying a product or service. So, if you don’t have a website or you’re not running regular website maintenance, Google is passing you by and presenting your competitors instead.
We’re on the same page, right? The great thing about having a website for your business is that you can update it. You can adapt it as you figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Not Only Do You Need a Website, it Needs to Run Smoothly
But not only does your business need a website, you need one that runs smoothly, makes it easy for your customers to find you and one that provides info about who’s visiting.
Your website is your storefront for the internet and when people come to your store they expect it to be open and the lights to be on.
But putting up a website and keeping it running are two separate things.
Keeping your website in shape is like tuning up your bicycle. No one tunes their bike because it’s their favorite thing to do. They tune it so they can keep riding it.
In the same way, just because your website is “live” doesn’t mean you’ve got nothing to do anymore. That’s just the beginning.
Here’s a few important priorities you’ll need to focus on to keep your website running smoothly.
1. Keeping Your Website Updated
Much like a house needs beams to hold it up, websites are built using a Content Management System. WordPress is the most popular CMS but there are others you may have heard of, like Drupal, Joomla and Magento.
Just like your house has standard features like plumbing and heating, most websites include “plugins” that work with the CMS so your website runs better. There are hundreds of plugins out there, but the standard plugins usually increase security, use analytics to improve your site and help people find you in searches.
No matter what CMS you use or what plugins you have installed, they constantly need to be updated or your site could turn off the lights.
You also need to be sure you have the latest security features and that you’re not leaving yourself open to cyber attacks.
Long story short, you need to keep your site and your plugins up to date.
2. Website Back-ups
Part of your website maintenance is making sure your website is backed up. It’s also probably not very high on your list of priorities. We usually don’t think about a disaster until one happens. Just like you need car insurance when you drive, you need to regularly back-up your site.
If something breaks, you can roll back your site to when it was last working. That way you don’t suffer the downtime of a broken site and it gives you time to figure out what’s wrong, instead of scrambling to fix your site.
3. On-Page SEO
Proper website maintenance includes SEO. SEO is the digital equivalent of picking a storefront location in an area with heavy foot traffic. People are more likely to buy from you if you make it easy for them to find you.
That’s what the right SEO does for you, it makes it easier for your potential customers to discover you. When that 81% goes online to find what they’re looking for, the right SEO can lead them to your door.
Great SEO can take some effort but the more you update your site with info that’s relevant to your customers, the better SEO you’re going to have.
Conclusion
When it comes to your website it’s easy to want to set it and forget it–until something unfortunate happens. But the right website maintenance activity – concentrating on SEO, properly updating your plugins and making sure you have a back-up in case of emergency, can make a big difference to your website.
Which means it could make a big difference to your business.
Need Help?
We offer monthly and quarterly website maintenance service packages and provide priority service if you do need help with your site. It doesn’t have to be hard or costly, and we have packages that make it easy and painless.
We offer daily or on-demand backups, so you don’t lose any valuable information in case of an emergency.
DBC Digital can also help make sure you have the right plugins and we can automatically update your plugins on a regular schedule, which means better security and a properly working website.
We also write content for many of our clients. We can help you with blog posts and info guides that not only make you look like the expert you are, but help improve your SEO search results too.
Give us a call at 303.357.5757 or email us at dbc@dbcdigital.com and we’ll help you figure out a service package that works best for you.
Please note: DBC Digital is a full-service marketing company. We’re located in the Denver metro area, just south of the Denver Tech Center, near I-25 and Dry Creek Road.
