How Website Maintenance Services Support Your Business Goals

Businesses and technologies are constantly changing. What may have been a cutting-edge website back in 1998 would look like an ancient, virus-infected relic to a modern audience. Thankfully, most long-running websites have kept up with the times to some extent and updated their designs — even though there are still a few sites out there that look like time capsules from an era gone by (we’re looking at you, Ling!).

That website maintenance would be important makes intuitive sense: if every business considered its work done once its initial website build was finished, then all the major companies that were early adopters of the internet would have truly ugly, outdated, unnavigable websites. In short, the internet would be a very different — and much less appealing — place.

That said, maintaining a website isn’t just about maintaining appearances. It’s about keeping your site operating optimally. That means everything from protecting it against up-and-coming security threats and increasing load times to installing needed updates and improving overall site speed.

In the same way that you wouldn’t buy a car and never bring it in for maintenance just because it was brand new when you bought it, you shouldn’t forget about your site just because the initial build is finished. Here are a few of the ways ongoing website maintenance packages support your business goals:

It Improves the User Experience

One of the easiest website maintenance benefits to understand is user experience. When a site is well-maintained, it’s able to take advantage of new design trends, new web and browser features, and faster load speeds.

If you take a look at the design languages of sites from the late 90s or early 2000s compared to modern sites, you’ll notice a huge difference. Even though sites with outdated designs might still maintain basic functionality, it’s unlikely that visitors will want to stay on them for very long — they simply don’t provide an enjoyable UX.

But beyond surface-level aesthetics, outdated sites can be frustrating — and even dangerous. The web is constantly updating with new features that make sites run smoother and stay protected against malicious attacks. If you don’t invest in website maintenance to stay on top of these updates, you could end up with a slow-loading, insecure site that doesn’t meet modern standards.

Take HTTPS, for example. Even though HTTPS has been around since 1994, its adoption was slow. It wasn’t until 2018 that Google Chrome started marking sites that didn’t use HTTPS as “Not Secure.” Visitors to sites that had failed to keep up with these changes would be greeted with a concerning message, which could cause them to lose trust in the site. For ecommerce businesses, this could directly lead to a reduction in sales, if customers turn away out of fear of giving their payment info to a vulnerable website.

Of course, staying up-to-date with the latest and greatest in technology also means that your site will run faster, and that’s a big deal for consumers. Research conducted by Google showed that 53% of visitors will leave a mobile site if it doesn’t load within three seconds. To hit those benchmarks, you’ll need to keep your site well-oiled and maintained.

It Improves SEO Performance

Fast load speeds aren’t just for the user experience — they impact your SEO (search engine optimisation) performance as well.

Starting in 2018, Google started using site load times as a ranking factor for search results. That means that, to get the highest spots on the Google SERPs (or, search engine result pages), sites need to load quickly. More recently, in August 2021, Google completed the rollout of its Page Experience update. Now, on top of pure speed, elements of UX as measured via Web Core Vitals will also influence your site’s rankings in the organic search results.

Since most sites rely on Google search as a primary traffic source, failing to address issues leading to slow load times could cause traffic, on-site conversions, and even revenue to decline.

Ensuring that your site meets modern standards entails keeping a keen eye on updates, optimisation, and more. You’ll need someone who can do work under the hood and get all the moving parts to work together and load quickly.

It Improves Paid Advertising Performance

In addition to SEO, your site’s loading speed and overall UX will also affect how well your paid advertisements perform.

To help advertisers understand how their ads stack up against other companies advertising for the same keywords, Google has created its Quality Score diagnostic tool. Alongside your ad itself, Google factors your site’s landing page experience into your quality ranking.

Of course, the same loading issues discussed earlier apply to paid ads as well. If someone clicks on your ad, but your site loads too slowly, there’s a good chance they’ll navigate away. By properly maintaining your site, you can help your ads perform at their full potential.

It Keeps Your Site Accessible to All

Building an accessible site ensures that all of your visitors can engage appropriately with it. When you think about physical accessibility, you might consider accommodations such as wheelchair ramps, handicapped parking spaces, and elevators. Online, features such as alt-text, screen reader compliance, and closed captions make it possible for visitors with disabilities to access your site.

One in five Australians has a disability. If you don’t ensure your website is using accessibility best practices, you could be losing out on a whopping 20% of your target audience. That can seriously hurt your revenue — after all, if someone can’t use your site, they can’t navigate the checkout process either.

In fact, failing to maintain an accessible site can land you in legal trouble as well. Recently, Domino’s lost a lawsuit filed by a blind man who alleged that the company’s site was inaccessible to him. Domino’s was ordered to cover the man’s attorney fees, pay $4,000, and update their web presences to WCAG 2.0 standards.

But don’t just invest in accessibility because you’re afraid of being penalised. Do so because accessibility standards like WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 create a better on-site experience for visitors. Even if visitors with disabilities are able to access and use your site, making it harder for them to do so by failing to invest in accessibility creates a poor experience that could ultimately have an impact on their engagement and your performance.

It Helps Meet Sustainability and CSR Goals

With climate change making its way deeper into public awareness, sustainability is on the radar more than ever. The 2020 KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting found that 96% of the world’s top 250 companies regularly report on their sustainability performance.

If your organisation has a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, you might be surprised to hear that website maintenance can play a role in helping you meet your sustainability goals. For example, websites that have been properly optimised and maintained consume less energy. This can save you money and reduce your site’s environmental impact.

Going even further, your website maintenance partner may be able to help you identify other sustainability opportunities, such as hosting your site on eco-friendly servers or purchasing carbon offsets for your site.

How Sitback Can Help

The right website maintenance services provider does more than just ensure your site is running smoothly — it also helps you plan for the future, making sure that you get ahead of new updates, guidelines, and regulations so that you don’t falter during the transition period.

Sitback’s support and optimisation service is built not just around website maintenance needs, but on business priorities as well. Reach out today for more information.

An earlier version of this article was published on the Sitback blog: https://blog.sitback.com.au/blog/how-website-maintenance-services-support-your-business-goals