With everyone shifting online because of COVID-19 and social distancing, now is the time to check your hosting practices and make sure your website’s admin area is updated. Your website needs to be running properly to compete with increased digital traffic.
After launching your website, many think the hard work is over, but if you are not maintaining your site well, it could lead to much larger obstacles down the road.
Having a comprehensive website maintenance plan (WMP) and quality hosting is an effective way to provide value to your business website and keep your visitors engaged with your site. A sufficient WMP includes a strategic plan for upcoming changes, developments, and company updates in order to keep your site protected and aligned with digital trends.
Understanding hosting can be daunting, but we want to make technology easy to use and comprehensive, so here is a breakdown of what it means to have quality hosting and a solid maintenance plan.
1. Security
Your data and client information should be secure and non-accessible to unauthorized users. With web hackers invading thousands of sites each day, keeping your data safe is a top priority. Hackers can attempt to steal sensitive information, such as credit card details or private client data, and even placing malware to inhibit your site’s workability. For example, if a hacker is able to steal information from clients, it could lead to costly litigation and damage control that can significantly impair your business.
Setting up effective security does not demand excessive time or money, but it does require you to be proactive because after a hack has occurred, it is a costly and time-consuming fix. Your business must amend relationships with clients, manage the clean-up phases, potentially disconnect your website, and more.
Another important aspect of hosting is ensuring that your website is properly and regularly backed up. Your website is the fundamental digital platform for your business, oftentimes an essential resource for day-to-day operations. Why would you risk losing such a critical pillar of your business?
2. Performance
Consumers are becoming progressively more accustomed to high-speed sites with quick loading speeds and responsive designs for desktops and mobile devices. For customers to interact with your site and have it perform at its highest capability, we recommend having a comprehensive WMP. Not only does a slow website increase page abandonment, leading to loss of business, it also decreases your business’ search engine ranking results. Having a low ranking position can lead to less traffic and fewer website lead conversions.
In addition, performance includes the functionality of the website. A poorly designed and developed site will inhibit site navigation and not appeal to the targeted audience. Your website needs to support a positive consumer experience and contribute to constructive business activity.
Click here to learn more about what your website maintenance plan should include.
3. Stability
The stability of your host refers to how often servers are displaying your site correctly, and the amount of downtime the site experiences. You may be surprised at how unstable websites are because of economy hosting and lack of maintenance. A quality hosting plan means the service provider will be able to personally respond to your needs, minimize site downtime, and efficiently implement improvements.
Having downtime will cause poor functioning, therefore quickly causing customers to switch to competitors as soon as an issue arises. This could result in the loss of customers and decrease your ranking on search engine results. By upgrading your site to allow for enhanced interaction, your customers and website visitors will gain trust in the dependability of your business. There are many ways to maintain your site’s stability, and it all starts with proper host matching.
A quality hosting service ensures your website is protected, therefore mitigating the very real and harmful consequences. Hosting is not something a business should be shopping for based on price, you really do get what you pay for, and quality does come with a cost.
If you find yourself lost in the language, confused about hosting practices, or unable to adhere to best practices, Evolve Systems’ website maintenance plans can be customized for your sites needs to keep it safe and secure. At Evolve, we use the most innovative and trusted services to make sure your business is taken care of.
