Like all tools and machines that consist of many moving parts, your website, as well as your car, needs a consistent and regular maintenance plan. Over time and with consistent usage, your car needs oil changes, tune-ups, bodywork and a reliable expert on everything else to run smoothly and stay reliable.

It’s no surprise that your website needs similar care, otherwise it may one day cease to provide loyal service to you and even put your information at risk. Let’s talk about ways to keep your website going for the long run and staying secure.

Here at thirteen05 creative we often refer to websites as “Marketing Tools”. I honestly believe it’s the most relevant and effective Marketing Tool one can have these days. It’s well worth the investment to not only create this tool for you and your business, but to insure it’s continued success and usefulness.

One may easily assume it’s an aspect that can be created and left alone to work silently in the background as your business continues to grow. This is an assumption that can ultimately result in hacking, business and customer information vulnerability, falling behind the rules that search engines encourage sites to follow, and allowing your competitors to gain a valuable step above. Here is a few website maintenance habits to stay on top of:

ALWAYS have a site backup plan.

Unfortunately, most of us can’t keep a fleet of “backup cars” in our garages in case an accident occurs. Fortunately, it can be done for your website. A site’s files and database must be hosted somewhere to be live. Therefore, a great Hosting Service Provider can not only provide a safe environment for your website, but can also provide easy access to the live files and regularly scheduled backup plans.

Here at thirteen05, we can be that great connection between your site and great hosting, along with a regularly scheduled backup and maintenance plan. When the unexpected occurs for your site, know that your business’s site is taken care of by experts.

Update regularly and monitor functionality.

If you have wisely invested in a website overhaul in the last few years, chances are it’s running WordPress, the most popular and common CMS. With ease-of-use and flexibility, WordPress also allows third-party developers to submit custom applications, or “Plug-Ins”, for free or purchased implementation to your site.

The only downside: WordPress needs to be updated regularly, and so do the plug-ins. More often than not, these updates address potential security vulnerabilities that would give hackers easy access to your site. Additionally, these update might provides new and improved user experiences and neat new features. Though, if there is one reason to make these updates is to keep your site as secure as possible.

Major updates here may result in unforeseen issues on the site, so always make regular backups are successfully completed so you can quickly restore your site to working order. It’s always best to assess an issue with an update with a working website and experts to dedicate time accordingly. In the spirit of creating good habits, check your site thoroughly and often, making sure things are functioning correctly for your business and, most importantly, your users.

Staying competitive, relevant, and above your competition.

So you have a website with regularly handled backups, experts to carefully address updates, and a team to handle unexpected issues with the site. Is it ready to be viewed by today’s common web searching user? It may be ready for a design overhaul if it’s perceived as dated and not user-friendly.

At the very least, your website should be able to easy respond to mobile devices, as more and more users are finding websites by searching on their phone every year. It’s always a great investment to discuss tuning up your website to not only be perceived above the competition in modern design, but to make it easier for users to navigate and find what they’re looking for. thirteen05 is ready for a free consultation on how your website can be taken from unknown to unforgettable.