Well created and well maintained are two different things. A website can be well created but one-minute mistake and snap there is a devil called ‘Downtime’. If that is the first impression, congratulations on a pile of negative feedback. On an Online store where smooth transactions are to be performed and products are to be viewed, ordered as well as checked out on the snap of a finger; the website must not hang or crash. No one would wait for it to get normal and toggle the categories again for the right product. And don’t even think about what happens when the site crashes while making a transaction.

Regular website monitoring & maintenance for minimum trouble

Website monitoring is as important as developing it. Every time there are issues with the website, the chances of it getting hacked are increased. It takes a lot of time to come up with an idea for creating an online store and even more time to create it. But guess what? It is just a matter of seconds to see it collapse. The concept is similar to working in a BPO. Exactly! Customer service works just like it. It maintains and monitors if there are any issues with the product/services, any positive/negative feedback, how to work on those feedbacks, is the customer experience appreciable, what more can be done and what are the competitors doing? All of this can be worked on with the help of website monitoring and then maintaining it to the desired bar set.

What are the main areas of website maintenance and support?

Security:

It doesn’t matter if it is an online store or grocery shop, you better ensure everything is safe and secure. Every penny counts! Any sort of business whether small or big needs to be secured to avoid any sort of uninvited trouble. In the case of Ecommerce stores, there is always a high risk of hacking, stealing customer data, adding abusive/misleading content on the website. It takes a huge amount of time to maintain the website and just a few seconds to overlook the security areas. Hence, constant monitoring. The plus point to this is that you have the slightest or equal to null chances of a cyberattack.

The security part here also includes another demon known as ‘malware’. Malware can be created on the website or can be added by an outsider to simply destroy your years of hard work and investment. Probably, this is the easiest and unauthorized way of getting into the owners’ system illegally. And then in the blink of an eye, they have access to everything you own, can also execute code!

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL):

SSL is one of the major parts when it comes to website maintenance. It is an encrypted link between the web server and the browser. This link makes sure that whatever information is entered by the server is safe and only goes to the browser. This information can be anything from an email address to credit/debit/bank details.

So how do you identify if the website is safe to enter critical information? If the URL says https and not Http, the website is secured by an SSL certificate. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure, that last S stands for secure of course. When you set a bar for regular website monitoring, do make sure it abides the SSL certifications.

URL redirection and error 404:

URL redirection is one of the basic parts to cover but still has an equal amount of value in website maintenance. You need work on the redirection in such a manner that even a past URL name shall lead to the updated one instead of giving error 404 and leaving negative feedback. For example, your URL at a time used to be https://Blogpost.net but due to some reasons, it is now considered as https://Blogpost.org. Typing either of the above shall lead to https://Blogpost.net which opens the actual website.

Avoiding URL redirection will result in error 404 and ultimately is a huge failure to be considered for website maintenance. For safer side, make sure that you regularly monitor the same and check like a new customer, if it works that way; Voila! You’ve levelled up.

Content updates:

Along with the above aspects, you need to keep a constant check on the latest content that rules the market. Every day there is a new trend or obstacle to tackle to keep up with the business. Therefore, always be active on what is trending and how can that be added to your website. Regular website monitoring will cover it thoroughly. At the same time, research around you. See what the rest with the same motto are up to!

Browser Compatibility:

Would it look good if everything is top-notch and your website acts weird on the phone or an iPad? Exactly not! A successful website is also a website that does not lose its properties, regardless of what browser it is accessed on, or what screen it is used on. Same on desktop, same on a tablet and perfect on your smartphone (that is what we use more, isn’t it?) User-friendly is the least that any server would expect. Just as URL redirection, try to be in the shoes of a server and keep swiping the website on various devices or browsers. It will give you an idea on how compatibility works and what lacks in your case.

Data migration:

As the word suggests, it migrates the data. It also includes transforming or permanently transferring the data from one platform to the other. Generally, this step is taken for the sake of an upgrade. Also, it is a well-known and most considered branch of website maintenance.

Now that you are aware of the maintenance part, note that due to the lack of integrated processes there can be certain serious issues while migrating the data. You know what your website is, do not use unknown tools to transfer the data.

Consistency is the key!

You need to understand that this is an everyday business and is not something that needs high skills. Regular website maintenance shall save you from downtime. There can be several reasons for the same: bulk visits due to any campaign or discount announced or there’s possibly a bug that corrupts the entire site. Why keep your business and reputation both at stake? By acting quickly on any technical issue, you can get the site back in seconds without much damage.

Don’t save on the website maintenance and monitoring, look at it as an investment!

Make sure that you have the best maintenance service or you will have to do it all on your own which demands 365 days a year. No one can manage to provide that sort of undivided attention. All you need to do is sit back and relax or look into other aspects of your business than scrolling through the site. As soon as you get the alert, try to interact with the customers that it is to your notice and you are doing every possible thing to get it back. This way you can turn negative feedback to a positive interaction with the customer. It also means you care for them. And what if this impresses them? Tables turned, isn’t it?

Website monitoring is crucial to ensure high performance for anyone, be it a start-up or a flourishing one. It is just a matter of seconds before a customer switches to another website because yours keep crashing and gives a delayed response. While listing out all the factors for your discussion on business meetings, ensure that regular website monitoring is included in the first five. Ecommerce is a billion-dollar business.

Think of it this way that you are a customer looking to get a perfect dress for a perfect occasion. You found it on a famous website and are about to enter the card details to place the order. Oops, the site crashed. Customer service says there is a technical issue and it might take time to get the site back online. Now be honest. Would you wait over there for the website to come alive or surf in others on the other tab for options? It is a cut-throat competition. If the customer had that sort of time, he/she would have gone to a mall and wait in the queue for billing. Technology has its pros and cons but let’s be real here, it is dumb.

Yes, it only works the way you command. Just like Newton’s first law.

In the end, website support and maintenance show how serious the owner is of his/her business. Don’t let outsiders point at your work or write lengthy feedback because of your lack of maintenance. Nothing is impossible and something as simple as regular website maintenance shall leave no trace of ignorance. There are people out there still struggling to get a good idea for a website. You have it. All you need is sheer maintenance and constant monitoring.

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