In a perfect world, when a website is launched its a flawless, finished product. All businesses need regular website maintenance to attract and retain customers, maintain search engine rankings and present new information, products and services to the public.

But in fact, websites are more like on going projects. Every website requires maintenance eventually. Our tip? Go for a monthly web maintenance plan. Here’s why:

1. Boosts your Brand – The website is the image of your business. It is highly important that it’s free of errors, broken links or dead pages. A poorly maintained website with lots of errors, broken links, dead pages and outdated information projects a sloppy corporate image and can cause business to decline over time. Routinely examine the look and feel of your website and update it to match your corporate image. Check and fix broken links, poor grammar and spelling mistakes as quickly as possible — preferably before a customer brings them to your attention.
2. SEO – Web maintenance helps Google determine if your website is relevant, and old content means lower rankings. Website maintenance is critical to search-engine rankings. Websites with old content rank lower in search engine listings. Some search engines, including Google, check your page’s “if-modified-since” HTTP header to determine whether it is worth crawling. Failing to make frequent modifications could cause you to be pushed below active competitors in the listings and cost you business over time.
3. Keep customers Happy – Keeping the site content updated will satisfy your existing customers and catch the attention of new customers as well. A well-maintained website attracts new customers and maintains the interest levels of existing customers. Your website should be customer centered and kept relevant by routinely refreshing the content and ensuring that customer contact points are in good working order. Routinely check that contact forms work, address and phone number listings are updated and products, services and price lists are current and correct.
4. Save Costs – Calling your agency every time your website needs update or repair will eventually add up in fees. You can avoid this with Circle M’s monthly maintenance plan.

Your website-maintenance activities need to cover some business-critical key areas. These include copy production, quality control, publishing, feedback monitoring, performance monitoring, infrastructure maintenance, routine maintenance, change control and risk control. For risk management, you need to have a business-continuity plan in place for your website and ensure that your hosting service provider has a backup and maintenance plan that is in line with your own business service levels, especially if you have a real-time or mission-critical website.