Keeping on top of broken links, missing pages, missing images, image alt tags, page meta and page redirects can be frustrating. That's not to mention checking your site after new browser versions are released. In short, there is an enormous amount of work to keep on top of.
Leaving your site to look after itself can have some adverse effects. Potential customers visiting a website which has no recent content could assume that you're not very busy. Even worse, conclude your no longer trading.
Having an active, up-to-date website shows customers you are busy. They may also become aware of the different services or products you offer, attracting new business at the same time — furthermore, search engines index web pages continuingly. If your competitors are regularly updating content, they will be deemed more relevant, and hence gain a higher position. Having a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy could help you plan new content, using keywords from the SEO plan within new blog articles would have an added 'bang for buck' in your search result rankings.
Broken and missing links
Keeping on top of broken links, missing pages, missing images, image alt tags, page meta and page redirects can be frustrating. That's not to mention checking your site after new browser versions are released. In short, there is an enormous amount of work to keep on top of.
If you are managing to stay on top of your website maintenance, is this done in your spare time? If so, this essentially means you're working. You may not be directly earning money, but you are certainly trying to market yourself to an audience. What is your marketing budget? Do you even allocate one? Each hour you spend working on website maintenance, writing blogs and engaging customers via social media channels is all time that could be spent elsewhere.If you value your free time, it might be worth putting a value on your web maintenance. Multiplying the hours of web maintenance by your hourly rate will give you a figure that could be helpful. It might be worth considering outsourcing the task. There are some significant benefits to outsourcing:
- More will get done, in a shorter amount of time.
- As a direct result, your website visibility will increase.
- It will free up your valuable time.
- Drastically shorten your to-do list.
- Maintaining websites can be tedious and technical, let someone else do it.
- Peace of mind that you are doing everything you can to optimise the chances of being found.
Direct impact on your business
On the flip side, if you are not allocating any time to web maintenance, you may not be spending any time on it, but then are any customers spending time on your site? If your website is just sitting there not being updated, you could be missing out on opportunities to attract new customers and grow your business. Hiring an outside agency to provide website maintenance services can have a direct impact on your business, helping to make it more efficient while saving you a considerable amount of money and time.