The process of launching your new website brings excitement, but website security and performance speed, and maintenance are equally vital.
The DMV (Washington DC and Maryland, and Virginia) small business owners need to maintain their websites regularly to achieve ongoing website performance and customer attraction, and security protection.
If your site is built on platforms like WordPress, neglecting updates can lead to slow loading times, broken pages, or even hacking attempts.
The Website Maintenance Checklist helps your business website stay operational throughout the entire year.
1. Keep Software, Themes, and Plugins Updated
Websites experience breakdowns and security breaches because they continue to operate with outdated software systems. Make sure to regularly update:
- The website platform (like WordPress)
- All themes and plugins
- Security tools and extensions
The system will check for updates during every month at least once.
Our Website Maintenance service provides an automated solution to handle this task when you need it.
2. Back Up Your Website Regularly
The backup system lets users recover their lost data after major system failures, which might take several hours or even days to happen.
Your site needs a full backup that contains both files and design elements, and database components.
Backups should run daily or weekly at a minimum while being stored outside of your hosting server in a secure location.
Your site will become accessible right away after you restore the backup when your site experiences a crash or malware infection.
3. Check for Broken Links
The broken links create user frustration while simultaneously decreasing the search engine optimization performance of your website.
A website scanner tool or plugin allows you to find all pages that show 404 error messages.
All outdated links need to be replaced or deleted because you have changed your page URLs and website structure.
4. Monitor Website Speed
Your website speed determines how many customers stay on your site while also affecting your position in Google search results.
The website speed testing tools Google Page Speed Insights and GTmetrix operate as free tools to evaluate your site speed.
The following factors might cause slow page loading times:
- Large image sizes
- Outdated plugins
- Unoptimized hosting
Our Hosting & Support service ensures your site loads quickly and performs consistently.
5. Review Your SEO Setup
Your website’s search engine optimization will experience changes when you create new pages or products during your website development process. Your business goals need ongoing evaluation through which you must verify that your current keywords and titles, and meta descriptions, remain relevant.
Also, check that your site is still connected to:
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Google Business Profile
Our SEO Setup service will help you get started with optimizing your pages for search engine visibility.
6. Test Your Contact Forms
Contact form testing represents the simplest maintenance task, which most people ignore during their website maintenance activities.
Check that all inquiries reach the correct email address while verifying your phone number and address, and that operating hours remain accurate.
Even a small error can cost you valuable leads.
7. Check for Security Issues
Your website should always have an active SSL certificate (HTTPS) and up-to-date security tools. Your system needs immediate attention when your browser or antivirus software displays warning messages.
The regular scanning process for malware and spam links, and suspicious login attempts, stops major security problems from occurring in the future.
8. Review Your Content and Images
Fresh content keeps your website relevant and improves your SEO. Your website needs to be checked every few months for the following issues:
- Outdated text or pricing
- Broken or blurry images
- Old blog posts that could be updated
Your search engine rankings will stay stable when you keep updating your website content because visitors will stay interested in your site.
9. Test Your Website on Mobile Devices
Your website needs to function properly on mobile devices because customers mainly access your site through their smartphones.
Your website needs to function properly on iOS and Android devices, so test the layout and buttons, and menus on both platforms.
All websites we create are mobile-friendly, but testing ensures your site continues performing as expected after updates.
10. Schedule Regular Maintenance
People need to maintain their daily routines in order to achieve their goals.
Create a current schedule that will help you evaluate all items on this list every month or quarter, or year.
Our Alexandria-based team will perform the work for you. Our Website Maintenance plans keep your site secure, updated, and performing at its best — without you lifting a finger.
Keep Your Website Running Smoothly
Your website serves as the digital representation of your business, which needs continuous maintenance to operate effectively and securely.
Our company’s Websites for Small Business delivers complete Website Maintenance and Hosting & Support services to small businesses throughout Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC and Maryland, and Virginia.
Contact us today or call (703) 370-7433 to schedule your free consultation and learn how we can keep your website running like new.
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