5 Important Things to Check During Website Maintenance
Website maintenance is crucial to keep it running consistently throughout the month at peak performance. During maintenance, a web developer will check for critical site errors that may be disrupting its performance.
Your web developer will also check for areas of improvement to boost your website’s performance. Ultimately, you shouldn’t skip out on maintenance nor ignore its importance.
During maintenance, you should keep your eye on a few different metrics to identify ways to grow your online presence. With that said, here are five important things you should check for during website maintenance.
1. Bounce Rate
If there is one website maintenance metric you should pay close attention to, it’s bounce rate. Bounce rate is defined as the rate in which a person leaves or “bounces” from your website without clicking on anything.
Clearly, bounce rate is important because you want your website visitors to convert. You understand that not all of them will convert, but if most of them leave your website without even clicking on anything, then there is an issue.
Here is a breakdown of the different bounce rate level and a general barometer of where yours should be:
Keeping your bounce lower than 55% is definitely the goal, and it’s something you should routinely check for during maintenance via a website audit.
2. Conversion Rate
If bounce rate is the most important item on this list, then conversion rate is a close second. Having a high conversion rate is what every marketer strives for. Conversion rate is simply a ratio between the amount of visitors your website receives and the amount of them being converted.
The higher your conversion rate is, the more profitable your website will become. Web maintenance is one of the only ways you can observe your conversion rate and make effective changes to improve it.
3. Technical Issues
Technical issues are difficult to pinpoint with the naked eye. You may think that nothing is wrong with your website until a potential customer clicks on a specific web page and gets a 404 error (broken link).
Not only is this embarrassing, but it disrupts the entire conversion process, especially if the 404 error is on an important web page. 404 errors and other technical issues can be spotted during maintenance.
Once they are fixed, your website will run smoothly and convert new web visitors at a better pace.
4. Design Improvements
Web maintenance is also the perfect time to make improvements to your site’s design. Maybe you’re wondering what your design’s impact is having on your conversion rate. Maybe a simpler design will result in a much lower bounce rate.
These are all possibilities, as a website’s design plays an important role in its success. Making subtle changes to your design can yield bountiful results for your business.
5. Least Visited Web Pages
Another thing you should pay attention to is the least visited pages on your website. If your least visited pages are the about and contact pages, then you may not have anything to worry about.
However, if your blog posts and services pages are barely visited and your home page is getting all of the attention, then something is wrong (unless that is the design intent for your website). Having an abnormally high bounce rate may be indicative of this issue.
By observing your least visited web pages, you can make timely improvements that could benefit your website as a whole.
Get Started with Website Maintenance Today!
As you can see, proper website maintenance is essential to your website’s success. Click here to learn more about our website maintenance services for top performance and safety…not to mention your peace of mind.
Proper website maintenance is essential to your website’s success. Click here to download a free guide to help you establish regular monitoring and maintenance of your website.
Featured image by Matthew Henry from Burst
