A website can cause a lot of headache.
Have you experienced a slow website? A website with bugs that you can’t fix but have you learned to compromise and live with the bugs? And are you sure that your website is resistant to hacking?
A website is often the first point of contact for potential customers, but at its core, a website is software that runs on a remote computer called a server,
And just like any software that is installed on the personal computer, also websites… how to say gently? They do not improve over the years.
Websites, especially old websites sometimes crash, get stuck, and accumulate various anomalies throughout their lifetime.
So how do you keep a website running smoothly?
Why is website maintenance important?
Most websites today expand over time, and we install a design template on it, and plugins such as contact forms, multiple languages, e-commerce, another plugin from the clearing company, etc…
Each such module (plugin, template, system) is an application in itself that connects to the main application which is the site’s content management system (for example WordPress), and they depend on each other.
If the wordpress installation stops working, woocommerce won’t work either, and vice versa. If woocommerce stops working, the site won’t work. And this is also why we say: fewer plugins = more stable site.
But behind the scenes there are more dependencies, such as code libraries (JS, CSS) that are loaded from a third party, the font that is loaded from Google and more.
From time to time the operating system itself is also updated (Linux / PHP or Windows) just like on the personal computer, and even if we make sure not to update our computer so that all the programs continue to work as they did the day we installed them – still some of the dependencies of these programs that are not at all on our computer will be updated , and this will affect their proper operation.
That’s why site updates are an important thing, and especially in systems like WordPress, which releases updates once a quarter on average and maintains its systems very consistently.
Such updates can affect operations in the website infrastructure such as:
- Security: Websites are vulnerable to hacking and cyber attacks, which can lead to data breaches and loss of sensitive information. Regular website maintenance can help identify and fix security breaches, and keep the website and its visitors safe.
- Performance: A slow loading site can be frustrating for visitors and can lead to high bounce rates. Website maintenance can help optimize website performance, and ensure it loads quickly and efficiently.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Sounds unrelated, right? But if Google requires an update to build the meta information on the website, and we do not submit this update in time, our promotion in Google will also be affected. Websites that are regularly maintained and updated can improve their search engine rankings, making them more visible to potential customers.
Website maintenance methods
- Regular updates: software and plugins used on the site must be updated to fix bugs and improve performance. But not immediately. Just like updates we get for the PC, it’s better to give them time to cook a little. Many times an update of the operating system will manifest itself in the fall of peripheral modular systems, or the printer driver will stop working, so as soon as an update is offered, you should wait a bit until the developer community checks it and updates are issued to all the other plugins for maximum compatibility with the latest update that was released.
- Backup and recovery: regular backups of the website must be made to ensure that data is not lost in the event of a technical problem. A recovery plan should also provide an answer to minimize downtime, and backup on an external server is preferable. If the hard disk on our computer stops working, we need the backup of the computer to be on another disk that does work. Backing up the computer on itself will not help us in a situation where the disk has failed. And exactly the same on the server. If there was a technical problem that deleted information from the server, it may also delete information from the backup.
- Security monitoring: Websites should be regularly monitored for security holes and any potential threats. Regular scans and penetration testing can help identify potential problems and take action to prevent cyber attacks.
- Performance Optimization: Regular performance optimization can help ensure that the site loads quickly and efficiently. This can include tasks such as image compression, content caching, and file size reduction.
- Activity monitoring: Regular monitoring of website analytics can help identify any issues with the website and provide insights into how it can be improved.
Summary
Website maintenance is a critical factor in managing a successful website.
Regular updates, backups, security monitoring, performance optimization and analytics monitoring can help ensure that the website is always running smoothly and providing a positive user experience. Neglecting site maintenance can result in site loss, credibility and security risks.
- At EOI we store and maintain websites on an ongoing basis.
- The backups are performed on a Flexible Storage based backup system automatically according to the degree of criticality of the information.
- We perform regular system upgrades according to a fixed schedule for all sites in a manual and controlled manner so that there are no incompatibility failures.
- All our servers have harmful monitoring systems installed that alert us if there has been an attempt to penetrate or inject problematic content into the code of one of the websites we maintain.
