Why Website Maintenance is a MUST Do!
A common mistake any site owner can make is to believe that once their site is up and running, it can take care of itself. Regardless of how technically advanced your website is, every website needs some regular TLC.
Search engines prefer Websites that are fast, well maintained and free of errors. I use tools such as Google Webmaster Tools (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools) and Moz to identify and correct problems that can show up over time. These tools are great for identifying problems such as:
- Broken external or internal links
- Duplicate page content
- Spelling mistakes
- Server errors
Broken Links
If you Website is powered by a content management system such as Wordpress, Umbraco or Joomla for example, internal broken links are rare but they do pop up from time to time. External broken links are more common and frequent. Scan your Website regularly to find broken links and correct them.
Google Search Console also tracks incoming links to your Website. If these links don't match up with pages on your Website, you can add 301 redirects so that users are not presented with the dreaded "404 not found" page.
Duplicate Page Content
Its important to keep the page content on your Website unique. Both Google Search Console and Moz provide tools to detect pages with duplicate content such as Titles, Meta Descriptions and Page Content. Finding and correcting any duplicated content is a good for maintaining strong SEO.
Spelling Mistakes
Hey, its happens, and they are not always easy to find visually. Thankfully there are a multitude of free website spell checkers out there to help. Keeping your Website spelling error free is key to maintaining a strong confidence in your business by your customers and website visitors.
A Small Investment with Big Returns
Whether we want to believe it or not, business owners can experience a heavy financial loss for something as simple as failing to keep their website well maintained.
Take the time to regularly update and maintain your website yourself or seek the services of a professional web development company to do it for you. Regular maintenance a vital part of being successful on the Internet.
By Robert Valcourt