Written by admin on May 15, 2010 | Posted in Business

If you own a website or in fact are responsible for running multiple websites, intranet or extranet you will already be completely be familiar with the concept of website maintenance. Web maintenance is big business today with the explosion of the Internet.

Website Maintenance actually means all the activities needed to guarantee the operational integrity of a site. Indeed, if any of these activities do not happen, the results can be embarrassingly visible to visitors looking at the site. Setting up a website is easy enough, but maintaining it over a length of time can be really difficult if: (A) you loose interest and (B) you are having to keep up to date with too much information.

You will definitely have things like: broken links, missing images, unanswered queries, page titles missing, out of date information, etc.

Inadequate support could be due to real financial difficulties. But most of the time it’s because the interest in the web site has waned. It has become a nightmare to look after it constantly. The real truth is that some company managers consider that once a website is live it will amazingly looks after its own self!

The real difficulty for a web master is to discuss this, when this is not the case. There is a very strong argument to demonstrate why regular maintenance is so necessary. A simple way of doing this is to show how these tasks can lead directly to a higher quality visitor experience.

The success of an online business totally depends on how well customers can interact with a site. Are they able to complete transactions without technical hiccups? There is nothing more off putting than having to put up with a broken links or missing files or slow landing pages. If the customer’s feedback is ignored or neglected then there is a good chance of search engines overlook the site.

Components of Website Maintenance – Web Maintenance has six areas:

• Publishing: content update
• Quality Assurance: Proof reading your web pages, current news, views and images
• Feedback Monitoring: Managing communication with website visitors.
• Performance Monitoring: Measuring activity on a site.
• Infrastructure Navigation: Ensure a sound technical footing.
• Change Control: Managing technical or other changes in a coordinated way.

Website Maintenance Team (WMT) – If you run a slick and savvy operation with many web sites it’s worth getting a team together to carry out all these mundane jobs which make the site look perfect. The team should have a head, namely a Maintenance Coordinator.It is worth noting that for a small site, a Maintenance Team should consist of one person who expedites all jobs, as they need to be done.

Any escalated issues can go to the next level. This usually consists of a Website Management Team (WMT).

A WMT (Website Maintenance Team) is composed of a board of senior managers for whom the site is an important asset. For example, key areas like Marketing & Communications are represented in great strength, as well as large functional areas e.g. product divisions. As the ultimate authority in charge of a site, this team provides the guidance, assessing needs and budget needed to allow web maintenance to occur.

Find out all that you can about website maintenance. Hire the right firm and you will be getting your website up to date.

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