Everyone knows how important it is nowadays to have a website for your business.
Having a well-designed and comprehensive website will be the foundation of your online visibility and channel for your digital marketing campaigns.
However, designing, building, and launching your real estate website is not enough. It needs to be maintained and updated regularly to keep your online presence relevant to adapt to the changing times and trends.
With other similar websites wanting to get ahead of the race, without definitive goals and strategies to stay on the top of your game, you can end up biting the dust and getting left behind.
Here are critical ideas you need to know about website maintenance.
Website maintenance is vital to your online success
It Is crucial to understand the importance of website maintenance. Some people often put off critical website maintenance believing they have other important business matters to attend to, such as meeting prospects, closing deals, listing properties, etc.
However, real estate agents need to understand that a real estate website needs a lifetime commitment, which means that it needs to be maintained accordingly to achieve results.
Aside from relevance and security, another factor plays a huge part in website maintenance- search engines such as Google- which also continually update its search platform to adjust to the online population’s ever-changing demands and needs.
Running on the latest updates
Without website maintenance, you might get left behind from the latest updates, plugins, core online software, features, etc.
Remember that website is not a magic wand that you can guarantee success. Still, it needs to be regularly monitored if it runs on the latest software and feature updates for security and performance reasons.
Your focus is always to keep your server technology, core software, and plugins up-to-date and compatible with the current online environment.
You may know which components require updating if you are personally maintaining admin rights to your website. If not, make sure that your hosting provider regularly checks and updates their servers.
Security must be the top priority to prevent your site from getting compromised, followed by updates to your core software features and functionalities.
Proper and adequate back-up protocols
Do you have adequate and proper back-up protocols for your website in the event of emergencies or other untoward incidents?
Having offline copies of your website, contents, and data are critical to ensuring that your files and other vital components of your website are intact in any event.
This can also help the event of problems that could occur and affect your website’s processes during an update event, and you need to revert to the existing version and restart the process.
What’s more, in the event of a critical failure, it would be easy to go back to the last good copy of your website instead of starting from scratch, which can be costly and time-consuming.
Make sure to check your website and routinely do back-up checks regularly. If you have someone handling your website, make sure that they have back-up plans and processes in place for such events when it occurs.
Do not risk your website’s security
Every day there are thousands of malware and hackers prowling for website vulnerabilities so they can compromise websites and do their evil deeds.
Get with your website administrator and find out how your website can deal with online attacks and other malicious intrusions.
Also, make sure to routinely run tests to determine if your website performs the way it should, such as load speed, search capabilities, functionalities, etc.
Make sure it is optimised for SEO
Websites need to be SEO-friendly, that includes yours. Search engine optimisation or SEO is critical for making your website accessible and compatible with search engines and devices, mainly when you aim to boost conversion and attract traffic to your site.
Ensure that your website interface, layout, and design are optimised for mobile and tablet devices since most searches today occur on portable and mobile devices.
Ensure that your website has no defunct or broken links and images, which can impact user experience and affect your site’s overall performance.
Now that you know why website maintenance is essential, it is critical to be consistent and aware of ensuring that your website is up to date.