It’s a good feeling to see your new website go live as the development project comes to a close. The next question is how to ensure your new site lives up to the investment you have made.
A modern website is not simply an online corporate brochure about your business, it is a dynamic entity that needs to be maintained and managed for best results. This falls into two categories:
Technical maintenance
Websites are built using content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress or Craft. To save developers time (and therefore client money), plugins are used to achieve common website functionality in a CMS, for example creating forms, processing e-commerce payments or creating image galleries. CMS software, plugins and internet protocols themselves are updated and improved over time. To keep your new website current you must keep all these aspects of the site updated.
In the short term, if you ignore this maintenance work your site will continue to operate, but this strategy presents three significant risks:
Risk 1 - Downtime - Eventually your new website will become so out-of-step with current technology that something will stop working and the website will fail. When this happens you will face downtime and support costs while you initiate a support ticket and a technician investigates, troubleshoots, fixes, tests and re-launches your website.
Risk 2 - Security - Out-of-date software is a prime security weakness that cybercriminals are looking to exploit. Old software that does not meet current standards can potentially provide access points for a hacker. Depending on how integrated your website is with your business this can cause different levels of damage, from simple downtime and repair costs to reputation damage, having business-critical data held for ransom by cybercriminals, and legal issues if sensitive information like client details become vulnerable.
Risk 3 - Visibility - Technical SEO (whether a site is secure, up-to-date and following current standards and guidelines) is an important part of Google’s assessment of a site for search ranking. A site that is left unmaintained over time will find it difficult to maintain a good search ranking.
IT Basecamp offers an ‘Ultimate’ hosting package that includes keeping your site updated and secure to mitigate these risks. And should your website ever be compromised, we'll sort it at no cost to you!
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
A website is a crucial marketing tool for a modern business but, like any marketing tool, it needs to be managed and driven to deliver great results. At launch, your website is ‘google-ready’. This means it has been built following all Google’s most current guidelines for good search ranking. From this point, your website is ready to be optimised for prime search ranking. This is an ongoing process of assessing what keywords the site is ranking for and watching for and creating opportunities to strengthen keyword use in images, html tags, content and linking.
IT Basecamp offers a range of SEO packages to suit the needs of your business.
Unsure and need to talk to someone? Fill in our online form or call our office 9 - 5:30 Monday to Friday.
ITBasecamp acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of the country in this area and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. The South Coast of New South Wales where we live is Yuin country but indigenous people here come from a number of different groups including Brinja-Yuin, Budawang, Jerrinja, Murramarang, Walbunja, Wandandian and Wodi Wodi. We recognise their continuing connection and contribution to this land.