Faulty Web Maintenance Harming Your Business?
I don’t need to tell you faulty web maintenance services hurt your business. When you hire a company to provide web services you expect they’ll do a competent job.
All companies claim to be experts but, how do you know if they’re doing a good job? More importantly, do you understand what services you’re paying for? You should know the answers to both these questions.
Web maintenance falling short?
Whether you’re already working with a company or researching web maintenance services, you may wrongly assume they’re all equally proficient. Well, I hate to rain on your parade but every day I run across websites (using web maintenance services) who fail one or more segments in Lighthouse and/or other tests.
The offending websites often have a responsive design and even LOOK nice but perform terribly. The following areas are vital to performance and a great user experience.
- Loading speed (especially on mobile devices)
- Responsive design to work on all devices
- Quality content that’s updated regularly
- Accessible to those with disabilities
Business owners need to know that just because a website looks good, doesn’t mean it was built with proper coding or the most efficient methods.
Web services are a broad spectrum
Website maintenance can mean a lot of different things to different people. It may cover the basics (simple hosting and content updates) or more complex services, like SEO and ongoing checks with bug fixes for coding errors.
Even within the area of SEO there is a wide range from on-page items (title tags, meta descriptions) to the technical (revising code after updates) to off-page services (building backlinks). Google’s algorithm has hundreds of elements and why web services need to be so expansive.
Address relevant issues
Google’s latest major update added Core Web Vitals (CWVs). With this, several new metrics were added to evaluate a user’s page experience. If you are unfamiliar with this, you can read my post explaining the basics of the new CWV metrics.
The good news is there’s a tool to measure the new metrics called Lighthouse. If your website doesn’t pass, it directly affects how well your website performs in the SERPs as they are one of the major factors in Google’s algorithm.
Result of ineffective services
Failing any metrics that are part of Google’s algorithm results in your website being penalized. When this happens you are not notified, though you may experience a drop in web traffic and/or change in your rankings.
Also, your site can be hit with multiple penalties at one time. Failing several metrics (and there are hundreds of them) increase your chances of them piling up to make a bigger impact.
Who’s to blame?
Whether the company you’re using is doing a respectable job depends on what your plan covers. This is why you need to know the exact services for which you’re paying. If you signed up for a less expensive plan to save money, it’s not the web company’s fault.
Maybe they aren’t keeping up with the latest Google standards and coding methods or they may not be good at their job. Whether it’s intentional, accidental or a mix of both, your business pays the price for faulty web maintenance.
Proactive maintenance should be included
It’s not enough just to fix problems after they occur. Web maintenance should also include proactive services. For example, we know accessibility is fast becoming an issue with websites therefore, we (Sleepy Dog) have added an accessibility audit to our web plans.
Likewise, speed has long been a major factor in ranking and there’s no indication that’s going to change any time soon. Considering that, maintenance should routinely perform speed checks and if necessary, make changes to keep your website loading fast.
Website offers strong foundation
At Sleepy Dog Media, we only do maintenance work on websites we’ve built using the latest methods, efficient hand coding and proper site structure. Why? A properly built website provides a strong foundation for ongoing SEO services.
Web maintenance done on a badly built website is futile since many of Google’s ranking factors are intertwined with the technical elements of a website. It’s like spending money on new siding when you have cracks in our home’s foundation. You’ve got to fix the foundation before it brings down the entire house.
Don’t be afraid to change
If faulty web maintenance is hurting your business, don’t be afraid to make a change. No one like to waste money and there are plenty of options out there.
Contact Sleepy Dog for your free evaluation and to hear our solution to your website problems.
