Website Maintenance 101
How Maintenance Keeps Your Website In Tip Top Shape
made with
Table of Contents 1.
Introduction
2.
Why does website maintenance matter?
3.
Google Labels Hacked Websites
4.
What is website maintenance?
5.
How does website maintenance work?
6.
Checklist Overview
7.
Website Health Report Card
Introduction Let's demistify the concept of website maintenance.
Common Mistake No. #3466432 One of the most prevalent misconceptions about websites is that once it is launched into the world; it's done. Whew! You wipe your forehead. You lift a drink to cheer. You click your heels together with joy. You send it out into the world. It's done. A new phase of excitement comes in as it's now time to promote your website. In the excitement to move full steam ahead, website maintenance can move to the back burner. Days become weeks. Weeks become months. Before you know it, you website can start to feel a bit discombobulated, frustrated, surprised, and a host of other feelings because it's shine and luster is starting to fade.
We can't have the company website looking all cattywampusnow, can we? No siree. It needs to be in tip top shape. This way, you can spread joy and pride of your website everywhere you go as you promote your business online and offline. Websites don't have vacations. Your website is doing it's job 365/24/7 of presenting your company in the public eye. With such an important role in its hands, it must look the part, be the part, act the part, at all times, both internally and externally. While the public eye will only see the outside of your website, it is in the dark corners, behind the scenes, where the problems begin to raise their head, grow, fester, and claw their way to the public side. To keep the dark side at bay, we must do a slew of things.
I'm on a mission to help demystify website maintenance. In this eBook, you’ll find out some basics about website maintenance. In a nutshell, this eBook covers 3 main topics: 1. Why it matters, 2. What it is, and 3. How it is done. With these basics, you will know from a high-level view what all this website maintenance stuff is about.
What to Expect This eBook is deliberately non-technical in nature. You won't see 50 lines of code neatly nested to show you the backend of your website. There are no tests or quizzes for you to complete after reading this, just simple explanations to make sure that you get it.
For Maintenance & Beyond I hope these nuggets of knowledge help boost your awareness & understanding of website maintenance implications. Should you have questions, by all means, please get in touch. Odds are, you know how to find me. I'm here to help you, your website, and your company make a glowingly positive statement on the web.
Why does website maintenance matter? You’ve invested time, money, and effort into having a website that represents your business before the world, including past clients, current clients, and future clients. It’s essential that your website be functional, up-to-date, safe-to-use, and online at all times.
Maintenance Matters Without maintenance, many frustrating things can happen: Features Can Stop Working Features Can Create Conflicts Features Allow Exploits In Security Becomes Outdated Things Look Out of Place In short, your website investment can begin to wither away bit by bit, like sands falling through your hand. Website maintenance ensures that your website, the foundation of your online business, works, stays current, protected, and up to date. Website maintenance prevents bad things from happening to your website. When the technical issues monster comes out, it's hard to put it back into its cage and fix the damage is costs. Prevention is key to costly repairs & time spent in rebuilding & fixing.
Google Labels Hacked Websites "This website may be hacked," is one of the worst things to read near your website in Google search results. To find out about the status of your website, use Google's Safe Browsing Tool to see the status of just about any website online. Browse safely, my friends! View Google's Safe Browsing Tool
W h a t is w e b s ite m a in te n a n c e ?
at protects your th e ic rv se ly th on m a is Website Maintenance eed, and functions. sp , ce an ar pe ap n, tio ta website security, repu
Imagine your website as a beautiful home with a gorgeous backyard--fit for a stay-vaction. Every two weeks, the landscape glam squad comes by and gives your back yard that makeover to keep it looking like an urban oasis. Now imagine what would become of your beloved back yard if you left it unattended for a really looooooong time? It wouldn’t be long before those weeds fly in, start multiplying like crazy, suffocating the life out of beloved plants and stealing the spotlight from the beauty of the yard. Your website left unattended and unmaintained for months or years can start to collect digital cobwebs that make for a nice comfy home for viruses, bugs, and a host of other pain-in-the-neck technical problems. Once inside, they corrupt safety of the website, features of the website, and reputation of the website.
Website Backup 101 Website backup protects every word, picture, and page on your website. Every last one. It does this by taking "pictures" of your website. If an unwanted change happens, if an accident happens, if something goes terribly wrong, then the website backup reserrects the last previous version that worked well, without errors. Website backup is a lifesaver, rescuing websites from the brink of destruction, the depths of technical disasters, and the pain of hacker sabotage. And, yes, you absolutely need it, if you want to give your website much needed protection against unforeseen issues.
Backups Protect Your Website Website backups insure that you can bounce back from technical nightmares. Should the worst happen, you can bounce back way more quickly. Blog posts get deleted, Chunks of the page get deleted Website Reverts Back to Blank Canvas Angry employee deletes a database, Website passwords leaked, Website gets hacked, Website starts hosting viruses And many more bad scenarios
These and many other yucky, hair-pulling out scenarios can be reversed in just a few clicks of the mouse through daily, automatic, website back up.
Magically Recover As If Nothing Bad Happened Today's website have a number of villains. Website backup helps you have a little magic on your side. When unfairness strikes, it’s like you have a fairy godmother who says, “Pippity Hobbity Zoo! Your site will be up and running with a little wave of my website backup wand.” Like magic, your site reverts back to it’s previous normal bug-free incarnation. Website backup is the ultimate undo/redo button for your website.
Automatic Backup vs Manual Backup
There are two main types of website backup: automatic and manual. Automatic website backup is consistent, convenient, and complete. It works like clockwork taking daily snapshots of website. Personally, I favor automatic. Manual website backup requires you to do it on a periodic basis. There are more steps involved in doing it this way. And more importantly, you have to remember to do it.
How does website maintenance work? It's a simple 3 step process tha makes sure website maintenance is done super well. 3 Major Phases of Maintenance: 1. Pre-Evaluation Check 2. 30 Point Checklist 3. Post Checklist Reporting
During pre-evaluation check, we get the ducks in order to prepare the website for a thorough evaluation. During the 30 point checklist, we look in the nooks and crannies where websites need inspection the most. During reporting, we formulate the Website Health Report Card.
Checklist Overview Once a month, our website developer examines the health of your website using a 30 point checklist. By looking under the hood and in the nooks and crannies we can produce a Website Health Report Card for your website.
Phase 1: Backup Website Protect your entire website from top to bottom including: Pages Images Words
Phase 2: Updates We will update a number of things as necessary: Theme Updates Wordpress Version Wordpress Plugins
Phase 3: Security We’ll make sure that your website is protected against: Hackers Viruses Malware
Website Health Report Card
Now that you've learned a few of the basics for website maintenance, it's time to look under the hood and behind the curtain on your website.
Schedule an appointment to find out how to receive your own Website Health Report Card lickety split.
Schedule Appointment
made with