There are over a billion websites out there, and yet only 200 million you need to compete against technically. This is because most websites are inert. They are not active, they aren’t being updated, and they are not being interacted with. An active, healthy website is the bare minimum to get started with building a healthy SEO strategy, especially when you consider all the technical SEO requirements that sites like Google now require to rank your website highly, much less start to rank your site on the first page.
Keeping your website healthy is keeping it SEO friendly. Keeping your website interesting is keeping it SEO friendly. Both work to improve the user experience and helps your customers get more value out of your business.
It is an ongoing process that has no end date, however, which means building a healthy, stable routine for the sake of your website. To get started with that routine, you’ll want to follow this guide:
Understand Your Resources
Maintaining and managing a website and the rest of your digital marketing strategy is a serious undertaking. It is no mistake that large companies have entire departments dedicated to this, with people ranging from designers to writers to IT specialists. Don’t overload your employees if you do not have enough. Having one employee take on too many hats ensures that the work they do is sub-par at best. Even if their results are satisfactory, the fact is they could be so much better if you removed some of the work from their plate and allowed them to focus on just a few different components at a time.
If you don’t have the budget for everyone, then outsource. There are so many agencies out there that can help you with everything from the design all the way to your website maintenance. By outsourcing, you can get better results for less, and you can free up your own in-house team for more specific tasks, like content creation.
Keep Security Up to Date
A web maintenance service can do for you to ensure that your website is up to date and that all security measures are in place. This is one of the best ways to secure your website, but it isn’t the only way. Training your employees is another step that many companies overlook because it doesn’t directly impact their website’s security or speed. By ensuring that your employees know how to spot security risks and maintain good habits on their own, you can reduce the risk of backdoor threats to your business.
Audit for SEO Errors
Another task that a maintenance team should handle is audits. These audits should check for a few things. Ensure all the links are working and healthy to ensure that there are no egregious SEO errors. SEO strategies regularly update because Google’s algorithm updates regularly, so having a dedicated team on hand to help you stay on top of those changes is a must, both for your ranking and for the user experience.
Keep a Healthy Blog
Your website needs to stay active, and a great way to do that is to keep a blog. This blog should cover plenty of different (but relevant) topics. Brand updates to your business, how-to-guides on how to use your products, interviews with key figures in your industry, and more. Done right, you can get people to subscribe to your newsletter so that they stay in touch with your blog, and in turn, regularly engage with your brand, your products, and your services.
Update Old Content
Old content can also benefit from being updated. You don’t want your home page to become stagnant, especially if SEO keyword strategies change or the content on your website becomes out of date. Updating old content even applies to old blog pieces, which you can edit to include the new information and bring in a new wave of engagement.
Ensure it is Optimized for All Platforms
Finally, ensure that the website is optimized and works beautifully on all platforms. Often this means having a desktop website design and a mobile desktop design. These are the two largest devices used, and creating unique pages depending on the tool your customers use is a must. It’s great for your user’s experience and for your SEO.
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