Many times, we analogise building a website to building a house but one of the major dissimilarities is that at some point, you could say “Yeah! We are done with building!” although there are always a few times in a year that you may need to do some retouching.
Regardless, for websites, to claim “I’m done!” Is a big fat lie! You can never be done building a website. Many clients do not understand this, so they relax the moment their website project is completed. Every website needs recurring upkeep, steady updates, and major changes where essential.
Facebook keeps changing every day because those behind it keep working every day!
For example, to keep FunIQ Skills Academy running, I work every day on it. I make changes where necessary, review security settings, inspect my server and other important details, look at the website analytics and navigate across pages to be sure that everything is in order.
Sometimes, a website can just pack up and stop working! But the webmaster will never get to notice if someone is not always monitoring it. Large organizations employ people whose role is to ensure that the websites are running smoothly. They also hire developers whose job is to continue building and improving the platform. This is why Twitter, Facebook, and Google of the last 10 years are not the same thing as it is today because people are always working on improving them.
For basic business websites, not much may be required to be done on the website every day. Updates can simply happen weekly or even monthly while the uptime ought to be constantly monitored. But for complex websites like Social Media platforms and other dynamic platforms where users are engaged constantly, much work may need to be done always.
For a website to be very successful, it will need to be continually updated or even rebuilt when necessary. Here are some basic ways to maintain a website
Update Website Stack
You need to keep your website stack current. This means your PHP or CMS versions (for websites running on these) should be updated properly. Also, if your website uses plugins, you should ensure you keep them up to date and troubleshoot always to ensure that the updates don’t break your website in any way. Updating your website stack saves your website from susceptibility.
Keep Contents Up-to-date
You should ensure that your contents are not outdated. All your images, information, footer and copyright notices should be up to date. If there are events on your website, ensure that they are up to date too. You need to constantly review the pillar contents on your website to ensure they reflect the current need of your organisation. Using a blog to update the latest information also help make your website super SEO friendly.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is one of the activities that remain ongoing on every website project, it can never get done! There needs to be dedicated time for optimizing your website for search engines. This also includes looking at the analytics, tracking your website ranking, reviewing and updating your keywords, updating your content and performing other related activities.
Check Website Trends
Some moment back, we didn’t know what the story feature was on social media but today, every social media platform including TikTok and YouTube has stories where users can post short videos. This is happening because it is the trend! It is the same for websites. You need to always look out for trends and user preferences. At the moment, flat and responsive designs are selling faster and if you have been running an old website, you may need to update the design and user interface so that the user experience can be worth it.
Depending on the kind of website you are running, you may be making major updates or working sparingly on the website but one thing is always certain, there isn’t any completed website project in existence. If your website is not evolving, it is dying. The implication of this is that you don’t have to wait for a perfect time to start running your website, you just have to start and begin to perfect it with time.
If you are looking for an agency to build and also maintain your website projects, then Funtrick Technology is the right place to start. And if you desire to start a career in website development, the Website Development Course on FunIQ Skills Academy is a good place to start. At FunIQ Skills Academy, you don’t only get to learn, you also get to meet new people and connect with them via the FunIQ Social Platform.
Onyedikachukwu George Nnadozie is the creative director of Funtrick Technology, an author and a public speaker. Aside from his creative job at Funtrick Technology, he takes time to write on his personal blog, George’s Diary. He also founded FunIQ Skills Academy, an online learning platform where he teach Digital Skills.
